# Innovation Deluxe ## General Info - **Year Published**: 2017 - **BGG Rating**: 8.3 - **BGG Rank**: — - **Players**: 2-4 (Best with: 2) - **Duration**: 45-60 min - **Weight**: 3.09 / 5 - **Designers**: Carl Chudyk - **Artists**: Alanna Cervenak, Cara Judd - **Publishers**: Asmadi Games - **Categories**: Card Game, Civilization - **Mechanics**: Hand Management, Layering, Melding and Splaying, Take That, Team-Based Game, Variable Phase Order ## Verdict If you love building card‑based civilizations and crafting combos, Innovation: Deluxe gives you that with stunning art.Deep, creative combosRefreshed artwork and premium componentsFluid, strategic gameplayModerate learning curveRequires full translationInteraction can be aggressiveRECOMMENDED ## Description Innovation: Deluxe bundles the third edition of Innovation with its four expansions – Echoes of the Past, Figures in the Sand, Cities of Destiny, and Artifacts of History – all presented in refreshed artwork and premium components. Players guide a civilization through ages, not with armies or maps, but via ideas and inventions represented by 105 unique cards. Each card delivers a special effect: some let you draw higher‑age cards, others score victory points, and a few force opponents to surrender their innovations. The core mechanics blend hand management, layering, melding and splaying, plus occasional take‑that actions that spice up player interaction. Turn phases can shift order, demanding flexible planning each game. Suitable for 2‑4 players, a 45‑60 minute playtime and a moderate weight (3.1/5) make it accessible yet strategically deep. The Deluxe edition consolidates everything into one box, eliminating the need to hunt down separate expansions. If you enjoy tableau building, combo planning, and clever competition, Innovation: Deluxe delivers a rich, replayable experience with plenty of room for creativity and friendly rivalry. ## How to Play Game Objective In Innovation Deluxe, players build civilizations through technologies, ideas, and ingenuity. Starting in the Stone Age, you will choose the innovations that will define the destiny of your people throughout history, from the humble beginnings of the Wheel and Clothing, to Gunpowder, Democracy, and Combustion, reaching Satellites and the Internet. Each of these innovations will give your civilization a specific ability. Some will allow you to advance more quickly through the ages, others will help build your infrastructure, and still others will give you the ability to attack your rivals. Victory can be achieved in three ways: by achievements, by score, or by special card effects. Era achievements are the primary way to win, and you can claim them by accumulating points, which some card effects allow. Setup Separate the base set cards into ten supply piles, arranged like a clock. Without looking, draw one base card from each supply pile from ages 1 to 9 and place them in the center as normal Achievements. Place the five base set Special Achievements nearby. Perform the setup steps for each expansion you choose to play. Each player draws two cards from the age 1 supply pile, and all players simultaneously choose one to be the first card on their board. The other card is kept to form each player's starting hand. (Note: If playing with the Echoes of the Past expansion, draw one base card and one Echoes card instead of two base cards for this setup step.) The player who chose the card whose title comes first alphabetically starts the game. The first player (or the first two in a four or more player game) will only perform one action instead of two on their initial turn. Subsequent turns are normal. Game Flow On each turn, you must perform two actions. There are four types of action: Draw, Meld, Dogma, and Achieve. You can perform the same action twice, or perform two different actions. If you receive a free action from an effect or rule, it does not count as one of your two actions per turn. Actions and How to Play Your board consists of all the cards you have played. The visible basic icons will help you share in other players' dogma actions, make demands on opponents, and also defend against their demands. Your most important cards are the top cards of each color, as they can be activated for their effects through the Dogma action. Cards you cover over time are still useful, because some effects will allow you to splay a color in a direction, revealing additional icons from your covered cards. Main Actions Draw Action: A Draw action allows you to draw a card from a supply pile to your hand. You draw from the age that corresponds to your highest value top card. The value of a card is the age number in the upper right corner. If all base set cards in a supply pile run out, that age is considered empty. When an age is empty, you draw from the next available higher value age. If multiple ages are empty, continue skipping as needed. If you have to skip age 10 and try to draw a card from age 11 which does not exist, the game ends immediately. Meld Action: Choose a card from your hand and place it on your board. If you already have cards of that card's color, stack it on top of them. Continue the splay direction of the pile, if your cards are already splayed. Dogma Action: To initiate a Dogma action, you must choose one of your top cards to activate. All effects on the card you choose will be executed, regardless of anything else that happens to it or other cards during the action. Choose a Card: Each dogma effect is preceded by a small copy of the most prevalent icon on the card, indicating that it is the featured icon for the card. Before any effect is executed, each player counts how many of that icon are visible on their board. Any player who has at least as many as you are eligible to share the use of your innovation. Any opponent who has fewer than you is vulnerable to demands from your innovation. Eligibility to share and vulnerability to demands are determined only once during a Dogma action. Execute Effects: You must execute all effects of the chosen card during a Dogma action, in order. Demand Effects (I Demand): These are executed by each player with fewer of the featured icon than you, clockwise. Read the effect aloud to them. Non-demand effects: These are executed by opponents before you, if they have at least as many or more of the featured icon, clockwise. Then, you execute them. Sharing Draw Bonus: If one or more players who were eligible to share your effects did so, then you perform a free Draw action after the Dogma action is completed. This only occurs if the shared effect's use by an opponent caused a change in the game state (one or more cards being revealed, or moved from one location to another). You do not receive a free Draw action due to players affected by demands. Achieve Action: You can only perform an Achieve action if you are eligible to claim one of the available achievements. To be eligible for an achievement, you must satisfy two conditions: Your score must be at least five times the age number of the achievement. Your score is the total value of all cards in your score pile. You must have a top card on your board of value equal to or greater than the age number of the achievement. When you perform the Achieve action and claim an achievement for which you are eligible, place it under the right side of your reference card. Your score pile only indicates whether you are eligible or not; you do not spend cards from it when performing an Achieve action. You can only be eligible to claim an achievement if it is available in the center of the table. Once another player has an achievement, it cannot be claimed by anyone else. Special Achievements Special Achievements can be claimed at any time, even in the middle of an effect, or during another player's turn. If you meet the conditions for one of them, take it immediately. Just like normal achievements, once a special achievement is claimed by a player, it is no longer available for others to claim. In rare cases of a tie, the current player wins. MONUMENT: Claim this special achievement immediately if you tuck six or score six cards during a single turn. EMPIRE: Claim this special achievement immediately if you have three or more icons of all six types. WORLD: Claim this special achievement immediately if you have twelve or more icons on your board. WONDER: Claim this special achievement immediately if you have five colors on your board, and each is splayed up or right. UNIVERSE: Claim this special achievement immediately if you have five top cards, and each is of value 8 or higher. Important Terms and Concepts Splay: Many dogma effects will instruct you to splay a color in a direction. At any time, a color is unsplayed, splayed left, splayed right, or splayed up. To splay a color, take the top card and slide it in the indicated direction, revealing one icon if splaying left, two icons if splaying right, and three icons if splaying up. If there are more than two cards, repeat the process so that all cards of the color are splayed. If the color was already splayed, unsplay it before splaying it in the new direction. If a color contains zero or one card, it is always considered unsplayed. Tuck: To tuck a card, place it at the bottom of the corresponding color pile, continuing a splay if possible. If no cards of its color are on your board, it forms a new pile. Return: A returned card is placed at the bottom of its supply pile, face down. If multiple cards are returned at once, choose the order. If you return a base card from an empty age, it will no longer be empty. Score: To score a card, place it in your score pile, face down. Your score is the total value of all cards in your score pile. Transfer: Moving a card from one area in play to another. Transferring a card does not count as melding, achieving, scoring, etc. Value: The value of a card is its age number. If a card refers to the value of something you don't have, such as your purple top card if you have none, treat the value as 0. Visible: A card is visible if it is a top card, or if it is in a splayed pile and you can see any part of it. An icon or echo/inspire effect is visible if it is on a top card or can be fully seen due to a splay. Expansion Actions (if applicable) Innovation expansions introduce several new types of special action: Endorse, Decree, and Inspire. These new actions can be performed as one of your two actions per turn, just like Draw, Meld, Dogma, and Achieve. Each special action can only be used once per turn, but you can use two different special actions as your two per turn. A special action can only be used if its corresponding expansion is in use. Endorse Action: The Endorse action allows you to perform a doubled Dogma action. To perform an Endorse action: Choose the top card on your board that you wish to Endorse and note its featured icon. Choose a top city on your board. It must have the featured icon on it. Pay for the Endorse action by tucking a card from your hand of value equal to or less than the city you chose. Execute the effects of the card you chose in step 1 as if it were a Dogma action: Determine eligibility for sharing, vulnerability to demands, and which echo effects are visible normally. When you execute a non-demand effect, do so twice. When you make a demand, affect all opponents twice (go around the table clockwise and then a second time). When another player shares a non-demand effect, they execute it only once. Draw for sharing, if applicable. End of Game and Scoring There are three ways to win a game of Innovation: by achievements, score, or special card effect. Victory by Achievements To win by achievements, you need to claim a number of achievements that depends on the number of players in the game and the number of expansions being used. For a two-player game with only the base set, 6 achievements are needed. For each extra player, subtract one. For each expansion included, add one. A minimum of 4 achievements are needed, regardless of the number of players. Table of Achievements Needed to Win: Number of Players: 2 0 Expansions: 6 1 Expansion: 7 2 Expansions: 8 3 Expansions: 9 4 Expansions: 10 Number of Players: 3 0 Expansions: 5 1 Expansion: 6 2 Expansions: 7 3 Expansions: 8 4 Expansions: 9 Number of Players: 4 0 Expansions: 4 1 Expansion: 5 2 Expansions: 6 3 Expansions: 7 4 Expansions: 8 Victory by Score To win by score, the game must end due to a player attempting to draw a ## FAQ ### How many players can play? 2 to 4 players. ### How long does a game take? Typically 45–60 minutes, depending on player experience. ### What is the complexity level? Weight 3.1/5 – moderate strategy, easy to learn, with deep combo potential. ### What’s included in the box? Innovation 3rd edition base, all four expansions, 105 cards, reference board, point markers, and full rules. ### Do I need prior knowledge of Innovation? Playing the base first helps, but the Deluxe rules contain a tutorial for newcomers. ### Is there a Portuguese translation? Yes, the Deluxe edition provides a complete Portuguese translation, though some technical terms remain in English. ## Price Comparison ### Best International Offers - **BoardGamePrices.com**: $ 47.09 (https://boardgameprices.com/item/go?source=A&storeitemid=3436334&utm_source=boardgamesbot.com) - **BoardGamePrices.com**: $ 59.47 (https://boardgameprices.com/item/go?source=A&storeitemid=6703705&utm_source=boardgamesbot.com) - See all on BoardGamePrices: https://boardgameprices.com/item/show/22001/innovation-deluxe?utm_source=boardgamesbot.com