The focus bar is a set of five (six in Terra Incognita) slots in a row, each with a numerical value and corresponding terrain type.

The board is setup for 4 players on a pregenerated world found in the rulebook. To play with three players, delete tiles 8, 11, and 12. To play with two players, delete tiles 1, 8, 11, 12, 13, 16. Rule the world and build an empire to withstand the test of time in Sid Meier’s Civilization: A New Dawn! This new tabletop game based on the groundbreaking video game series lets players become some of history’s greatest leaders as they try to advance their people through the ages, from ancient history to the modern era. Trade, battle, build, and pursue your agendas to become the premier world power! Fantasy Flight Games is certainly no stranger to this and often they’re a company that takes smaller risks. However, with their new release of Sid Meier’s Civilization: A New Dawn (Civ: A New Dawn), they’re bringing more Euro-centric game design to a tried and true brand. This title is a civilization game where players will build cities and develop technology, but on a speed and scale rarely encountered in civilization games.

At this time, A New Dawn sits nicely in the middle, but with the right investment in future developments, it could really flourish. The main mechanism that diverts Civ: A New Dawn from its forebears is the Focus Row. Five action cards occupy five numbered slots (1-5) in front of each player. On their turn, a player will select a card to activate with the card’s action modified either by the number of the slot or by the terrain type associated with the slot. For example, activating a Science card yields 1 to 5 points of advances in technology. Activating an Economy card allows a player to move a trade caravan as long as they are of certain terrain types that match the action card’s slot or lower. The action card “Focus Row” shows a single card for each action. The power level of the action is indicated by the slot from the bar above the cards. Economy – move your caravan the number of spaces shown on your card. If you reach a city-state or rival city, you get trade tokens, which can be placed on your focus cards to boost their effects. You may not move your caravan into terrain that is in a higher focus slot than the card. Move each of your caravans up to 6 spaces. They can move into spaces matching this slot's terrain or lower, as well as water.

Final Score: 4.5 Stars – An amazing game that can only get better with expansions. Unfortunately, these are also desperately needed to give life to long-term playability. Multiple Production and Research! Players will be able to, if they have excess resources, produce or research multiple buildings, units or technologies each turn. Expand your research and production capabilities to new heights! Your Capital city will never again waste turns constructing one missile each turn, now it could churn out five, ten, or hundreds, all depending on your production capabilities. The focus bar mechanic is a real stand-out feature for me. This requires players to think long-term about their actions and plan several turns in advance. Each time you don’t play a card is an investment in its future strength, but how long can you hold on? Similarly, it’s great fun mapping out what cards you need at what point along the focus row, as grueling as it can sometimes be. Cons: After each side has determined combat values, they may call for aid. Trade tokens can be placed on your focus cards by your caravans, and by spending any trade tokens from your military focus card, you can increase your combat value. From here, the end is simple. The battle commences and the leader with the higher combat value wins. If the defender earns a definitive victory or manages to draw a stalemate, nothing happens. Their territory stands and their fallen foes must retreat to live another day.Note, too, that each slot on the focus row has a terrain type attached to it. The tougher/more valuable terrains are further up the focus row and will affect the actions you can take. Taking Turns My final niggle with A New Dawn is the end game conditions. The designer has tried to move away from a traditional ‘end game point scoring system’, but this game could have really benefited from that in my opinion. You can end a game feeling like you were only just starting to build something special when the objectives are suddenly met by another player and they’ve automatically won. Whether you’ve built countless civilizations from the ground up, or this is your first time guiding your people through the ages, the Terra Incognita expansion is something that you won’t want to miss. With new leaders and map tiles alongside the addition of districts, governments, exploration, and so much more, this is an expansion that’s unlike any other. There are some plastic miniatures included representing the various cities that will crop up throughout the game, which is a nice touch, bringing a 3D element to the board. I suppose they could have made them individual from one another but considering they don’t really bother to do so in the digital version it was not to be expected. You’ll also find some plastic caravans. This approach works in the video game because most (sorry, culture) victory paths are designed to showcase one of Civ’s many complimentary systems that control the ebb and flow of the world. A military victory comes at the end of an exhaustive strategic campaign, for example, and it’s a detailed and complex way to win the game in its own right.