Innovation Ultimate

I think of Innovation as "what Carl Chudyk did after Glory to Rome" – both games get 10/10 from me. Like the earlier game, this has some innovative mechanisms with the cards that make up the game. Both also require careful positioning of your cards in front of you around your reference card.

Essentially, the cards represent progress, split into 10 (originally, 11 with the expansion in this edition) Ages. Players start by drawing and playing Age 1 cards and move through the other Ages to 10, where the Internet, AI and Robotics feature, and on to the near-future possibilities of Age 11. Unless someone wins before then, which is more likely in my experience. Once you've got cards played, you can use the actions ('Dogmas') they provide. The aim is to gather points to achieve one of the game's goals and/or a Monument. First to a set number wins.

The complexity of the game is, of course, in the interaction of the cards. Not just one player's cards, but those in front of all the players. I may have been playing this for over ten years, but it's still a voyage of discovery each time.

The "Ultimate" (4th) edition contains the base game, the existing expansions and a new expansion, The Unseen. This last adds "innovations from the shadowy corners of history" without changing the game's mechanics. The game has been re-worked to make it more accessible and adds an 11th Age, which covers the "speculative near future".

For 2-5 players, aged 14+, playing time 30-60 minutes

Innovation Ultimate was designed by Carl Chudyk and is published by Asmadi

Find out more:
    Innovation Ultimate at BoardGameGeek
    You can play Innovation online at Yucata or Board Game Arena