Path of Civilization

I have the bad habit of buying anything with civ in the title, though my own heart remains with trains. Path of Civilization gave me ample reason to be suspicious: an unfamiliar publisher, a nearly unfamiliar designer, old-school artwork, plenty of cubes, and the ambitious claim that five people could play at once. The production is only middling, and the iconography does not always carry its share of the load; the rules, however, are very well written, with a substantial reference book doing useful work for the information design.

Each player takes a civilisation that differs only slightly from the others, but significantly so, then spends each round improving its position through technologies. From there come the contests over monuments, leaders, and wars. The flow is quite straightforward once properly understood: its technology acquisition has something of Dominations about it, in different working clothes; the interesting decision is which direction to strengthen while everyone else is competing for the same opportunities.

Simultaneous play is not a line on the box but the central reason the design works. With five players, rounds keep moving instead of turning a civilisation game into a rota of waiting. There is a clear price, though: openings are rather scripted, and the random card reveal can punish you badly when no leader appears to support the technologies you have already chosen.

Thankfully, the game moves so comfortably and quickly that a poor opening does not have time to become a sentence. It is not the prettiest or the most exacting civilisation design on the shelf, but it delivers its promise: a brisk, engaging civ game that genuinely accommodates five players.