Civolution

Civolution is Mr Stefan’s substantial new work, and it has already divided part of its audience. It is mechanically descended from Burgundy, but its literal and design weight belong to another category: a god/civ simulation which, in practice, becomes an exercise in managing panic and disappointment.

Its principal achievement is that the sandbox mechanisms connect and account for one another. This is not the familiar sort of sandbox that lets you do everything; every choice leaves something behind, and quite often you cannot fit even all the things you want into a round. The interesting decision is which ambition you will turn into panic this time.

The one less elegant joint is the scoring. The first round matters enormously in practical terms, yet that is precisely where your available decisions and possibilities are constrained by the cards you received; x5 seems probably too much, where x4 for the first round and x3 for the last would produce a cleaner curve. It does not damage the system, though it may leave you cold when the totals are counted.

Still, that weakness is small beside the rest. It has already been played twice back-to-back, has every right to contend for Game of the Year, and confirms the old truth: journey before destination, radiant.