The Path of Civilization game will give you a hard time building your civilization

What is a board game? Path of Civilization ?

Since the first days of your emerging civilization, you have moved forward in time to establish your reign and leave your mark in History. Face challenges, develop culture, science, spirituality and industry, assert your military power, and build great wonders.

Accessible from 14 years old, for 1 to 5 players, and games lasting around 120 minutes, it is a game of civilization, reserved for experienced players. Not particularly because of its rules, but above all for its many possibilities.

Published by Captain Games, Path of Civilization is a game by Fabien Gridel, marketed at the price of €76.95 at Philibert.

How do you play it?

Set up

Path of Civilization is reserved for seasoned players accustomed to this type of game. The setup will therefore not scare them.

Even if everything is well explained, the material is abundant, there is everywhere (cards, tiles, tokens, pawns, etc.). The first installation is necessarily long, the time to clearly identify all the elements. The following ones go much faster.

Remember that each player has their own civilization board, tokens in their color, and a scale to measure their development (cultural, scientific, etc.). In the center of the table, we find the usual technological tree, a philosophical progression board, and the challenges and battles which punctuate the turns.

Progress of a game

At the start of the game, players have five rudimentary technologies: hunting, fire, tools, etc.

Each turn, they use two to send their people into different activities (warfare, building, philosophizing, etc.), two more to do research, and the last one is discarded.

Philosophers increase your philosophy level, with bonuses at each stage, and victory points at the end of the game. Builders build marvels (Stonehenge, the Pentagon, etc.), more and more expensive, but also more and more impactful. Ambassadors recruit leaders (Euclide, Joan of Arc, etc.), who, depending on their area of ​​expertise, help you in different ways.

Sages and soldiers work a little differently. Each of the nine turns of the game is punctuated either by a challenge (the code of laws, the end of obscurantism, etc.) or by a battle (Alésia, Stalingrad, etc.). To face it, you are helped by your wise men and soldiers, with bonuses and victory points at stake.

Finally, depending on your areas of research (science, culture, military, etc.), you must acquire a new technology card, which replaces the one discarded at the start of the turn. This is obviously becoming stronger and stronger in the area concerned. In science, for example, we start with writing, then mathematics, electricity and finally the Internet. This is how you evolve your civilization, according to the paths you favor.

At the end of the nine rounds, everyone counts their victory points, according to the accomplishments achieved, and the highest score wins.

Why play Path of Civilization?

Path of Civilization provoked heated debates within the community. Not for its theme, its mechanics, its playful qualities or flaws. But for his illustrations. Indeed, the latter are all the result of an AI, no illustrator having participated in the project.

Even if we understand the controversy that this can create, we prefer to let everyone judge their own opinion. We must nevertheless salute the honesty of the publisher: the game and its sales necessarily suffer from this decision.

We prefer to focus on its playful interest, which is ultimately the heart of the subject. And from this point of view, we fell under the spell of Path of Civilization.

Obviously, the game is not for everyone. Newbies in this area, choose another title to get started. However, once you understand the rules, you realize that they are not so complicated after all. Each individual board recalls the different stages of a round, and you just have to follow them one by one. Some cards have a somewhat obscure iconography the first time you come across them. But the publisher had the good idea of ​​adding a compendium which explains them one by one.

All the difficulty of the game, but also all its salt, all its interest, lies in the multiplicity of choices offered. How to use your technologies at the start of the turn, which one to discard? In which areas of research should you launch your civilization? Should we rather recruit philosophers and warriors, or wise men and builders? We want to do everything, we want to do everything, but we can’t. You have to specialize, but not too much. Do a little of everything, but without spreading yourself too thin either.

The game is punctuated by challenges and battles which, turn after turn, impose a direction on us. We know them in advance, from the beginning. But not everyone can do the same thing. There is only one Great Wall, only one Martin Luther. Once built or recruited by an opponent, what to fall back on? However, the game does not suffer from downtime, since almost all phases of a round are done simultaneously.

Despite some slight flaws (a gray area concerning the order in the choice of leaders and wonders, or a slight frustration of not being able to do anything with one’s resources after the last round), the game is particularly pleasant to play. We take pleasure in seeing our civilization evolve and progress. The game can generate frustration, but good frustration. The one that makes you want to play again, to do better, differently. Fortunately, the lifespan is substantial, and the large number of different cards ensures games that are always renewed.

On a purely playful level, and provided you like big games, Path of Civilizationis a success. We simply hope that the controversy surrounding AI-generated images does not harm it. It will be a shame, because even if it’s probably not a very great game that will go down in history, it’s a very nice game, interesting, intelligent, which makes you want to come back to it, to consider playing other ways to develop its civilization. And, casually, it’s even a beautiful game…

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