Civilization: A New Dawn – Terra Incognita

Fantasy Flight Games, 2K Games, Inc., ADC Blackfire Entertainment · Board game · 2020
2–5 · best 3 120 min Weight 3.7/5
9.1 rating Ludopedia
8.2 rating BGG
STEP BY STEP

Game Objective

In Civilization: A New Dawn – Terra Incognita, you lead your people on a journey of discovery. The world around you is an unknown place, and your goal is to send merchants and warriors to explore the terra incognita, tame the discovered lands, and expand your civilization.

To win, a player must complete the agenda of four of the five victory cards displayed next to the map. The victory check occurs at the end of each round, before the resolution of the event dial.

Setup

To set up the game integrating the expansion with the base game, follow these steps:

1. Components and Leaders

  • Each player receives a random leader sheet and the corresponding exclusive focus card (with the leader's portrait on the back).
  • Choose a color and take the pieces (cities, armies, caravans, district tokens, and control tokens), the cards (focus and diplomacy), and the tech dial.
  • Each player receives a district reference sheet and one of each of the six types of government tokens.
  • The tech dial pointer must be turned to "0".

2. Focus Line

  • Place the focus bar below the leader sheet.
  • Position the six level "I" focus cards in the slots, with the Irrigation card in slot "1" (far left).
  • If the leader has a level "I" exclusive focus card, it replaces the card of the same type in the line.
  • Place an army on the military focus card and a caravan on the economy focus card.

3. Map Setup

  • Distribute one capital piece (star) and one fort token to each player.
  • Determine the first player, who will hold the event dial.
  • Draw four pieces to be the main tiles (two if there are 2-3 players) and determine the side (A or B) via die roll.
  • Players, in clockwise order, place their fort tokens and then their capitals. The capital must touch at least four spaces on the central tiles or forts.
  • Fill the map icons with their respective tokens: barbarian tokens, city-state tokens, resource tokens, natural wonders, and water tokens.
  • Place the city-state diplomacy cards next to the map.
  • The first player positions the barbarian direction token on the edge of the map and sets the event dial pointer to the helmet with the star.

4. Wonders and Victory

  • Separate the wonder cards by type and era. Randomly remove one card from the ancient and medieval eras from each pile.
  • Assemble the wonder decks by placing the modern era at the bottom, medieval in the middle, and ancient on top. Reveal the top card.
  • Place the world wonder tokens next to their respective decks.
  • Select five victory cards: the two fort cards (Fortified and Expeditionary) and three random ones from the others.

Game Flow

The game progresses through turns and rounds. The event dial dictates the progression and activates global events:

  • District Icon: When the pointer reaches this icon, players resolve their district abilities in clockwise order, starting with the first player.
  • Government Icon: When the pointer reaches this icon, each player has the opportunity to change their government.
  • Wonder Events: When the dial reaches wonder icons (except during setup), a trade token is placed on each face-up wonder card.

Actions and How to Play

Exploration

If a caravan or army is on the edge of the map (and not in a capital space), they may spend 1 movement to explore:

  1. Draw the bottom tile from the map stack.
  2. Position it touching four existing spaces, including the space from which the exploration started.
  3. Fill the new tile with the indicated tokens (barbarians, resources, etc.).
  4. If a closed hole is formed, fill it with water tokens.

Armies and Combat

Armies are moved via military focus cards. Upon entering a space with a barbarian, city-state, or rival piece, the movement ends and an attack begins.

  • Attack: The attacker rolls the die and adds the number of the military card slot and bonuses from sheets/cards. The defender rolls the die and adds terrain bonuses and defenses (e.g., uncontrolled fort adds +6; city-state adds +8).
  • Trade Tokens: During combat, these can be spent to reroll the die or add +1 to the combat value.
  • Result: If the attacker wins, they occupy the space. If the target is a district, it is replaced by a common control token. If it is an uncontrolled fort, the winner places a city there and takes control of the fort.

Districts and Growth

Using Growth focus cards (such as Irrigation), the player can place districts in spaces adjacent to friendly cities. Examples of districts:

  • Commercial Center: Generates trade tokens based on mature cities or adjacent deserts.
  • Encampment: Allows defeating nearby barbarians/rivals or reinforcing control tokens.
  • Industrial Zone: Generates trade tokens via forests or allows building cities by spending trade tokens.
  • Theater Square: Places control tokens in nearby spaces.
  • Campus: Generates trade tokens via mountains or natural wonders.

Governments

When changing government, the player places the government token on one of their focus cards in slot "1". This causes the card to be resolved as if it were several slots further to the right (according to the token's arrows).

End Game and Scoring

The game ends when a player completes the agenda of four of the five victory cards. The check is performed at the end of each round.

  • Fort Victory Cards: Require continuous control of forts (Fortified: 1 or more; Expeditionary: 2 or more). If control of the fort is lost, the victory token is removed.
  • Other Agendas: Examples include Defensive (15 reinforced control tokens), Diplomatic (diplomacy cards from 4 different players/city-states), and Technophile (3 level IV focus cards).
  • Tie-breaker: If two or more players win simultaneously, the winner is the one with control tokens on more victory cards. If the tie persists, base game criteria are used.

Tips for Winning

  • Use Military Mobility: Take advantage of the ability of armies that, upon winning an attack against a control token, can discard it to move and attack a second time in the same turn.
  • Optimize Technology: Use the Irrigation card to reinforce your control tokens, increasing the defense of your spaces and adjacencies.
  • Fort Strategy: Focus on capturing forts to secure the Fortified and Expeditionary victory cards, transforming them into normal cities.
Rules videos

In English

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