Age of Innovation

I have never quite loved Terra Mystica, which makes my continued interest in its descendants mildly embarrassing. The central idea has always worked on me; it was the original game's particular shape that left me cold at the table. Age of Innovation heads firmly the other way, becoming an even fuller-bodied euro than the handsome Gaia Project.

It retains the core appeal of the family, then surrounds it with far more to notice and put to use. This is not the spare, disciplined game that asks you to learn its logic like office software. It wants a table full of possibilities, useful wrinkles, and the pleasant sense that your little engine has found another gear.

Its asymmetric powers are plentiful and pronounced, and that is where much of the player interaction lives. You are not merely taking the same starting position in a different colour; each player brings distinct advantages into the shared space. They do not feel especially tightly balanced, but the game has a warm momentum as you work out how to fit one more good idea into a plan already busy with them.

It is a proper kitchen-sink game, the sort that can look like a great deal after a Tuesday at work and then turn out to be exactly what you needed. If you want one game from this line without the original's tournament-minded minimalism, Age of Innovation is Terra Mystica with the volume turned up — and, quietly, it is the one for me.