As I suspected, the game will debut at the FIJ game fair in Cannes at the end of February 2018, with Ludonaute's Bruno Chevalier noting that the game should be available in the UK, France, Belgium, Denmark (and all Scandinavia), Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Germany, Hungary, Greece, Romania, Japan, China Korea, Australia, and Thailand immediately afterward. A release in Poland, Russia, and Brazil will follow, with the game reaching North America in May or June 2018. As for what the game is, an overview:
CIV includes six fields of competition: Army, Religion, Economics, Science, Culture, and Utopia. The 104 cards in the game are split in three ages, which represent the natural evolution of global civilization through the timeline, but the cards of each field aren't split equally. Once the second age has finished, for example, if you haven't yet reached supremacy of Religion, it's time to think about another strategy.
Each field gives powers to the player who succeeds in reaching the limit of cards in their play area (depending on the number of players). There are different kinds of powers, two levels of permanent effects, and one sacrifice effect for each field. Using these powers in combination will be necessary to be the first to reach supremacy — but using these powers is also a way to keep competitors from reaching victory.
You will need all your diplomacy skills to get help from others and prevent the leading player from winning, yet today's friend could be tomorrow's enemy, so pay attention to all and think about which combination of powers might lead to a surprise victory! Be the first to use it!
The game includes rules for 1v1 play, 2v2 team play, and 3-4 player games.
• In a recent post, I mentioned that Cryptozoic Entertainment would release the party game Wallet in 2018. Other titles coming from Cryptozoic in 2018 include Rick and Morty: The Ricks Must Be Crazy Multiverse Game, the publisher's fifth translation of an episode of "Rick and Morty" into a game. Here's an overview of this 2-4 player game due out in April 2018:
During your turn, you spend your actions to build power supplies and contraptions, and you possibly move to a new 'verse to take advantage of some excess power there. At the end of each round, the power generates from the bottom 'verse up, and players can use that power as it travels from 'verse to 'verse to play one-shot abilities, use character abilities, and power-up their contraptions. Player order matters in each 'verse, so hopefully your opponents left you some power to use!
DC Spyfall includes a few twists on the Spyfall formula. Since Harley Quinn usually follows wherever the Joker goes, each round, one player may receive a location card with a Harley image; if they do, they try to feed the Joker player information about the location, even if they don't know that player’s identity! If the Joker player guesses the location, the two collaborators each score points — unless the superheroes can turn the tables on them and determine who Harley is.
The game includes two multiverse decks that contain eight different locations instead of only one, so players will be confused with some of the questions and answers. Keep in mind that no one at the table knows whether or not they are playing with a multiverse deck. An all-Joker deck gives each player a Joker card, which means that all questions and answers will be based on nothing more than whatever players collectively believe. As with the multiverse decks, you won't know you're playing with this deck until someone figures it out.
Super power cards can give a player an ability for a round, such as being able to dodge a question, or require a player to modify their behavior; for example, Super Speed forces a player to answer a question in three words or less.
• Due out that same quarter is Martin Wallace's The Arrival, this being a slightly revamped version of the design released by Game's Up at SPIEL '16, with The Arrival itself being a reworked version of Wallace's 1999 title Mordred.
• 2018 will also see the release of DC Comics Deck-Building Game: Crossover Pack 7 – New Gods, which includes six new playable characters — Orion, Mister Miracle, Big Barda, Kalibak, Granny Goodness, and Darkseid — who are part of the never-ending conflict between New Genesis and Apokolips. Instead of the usual super-villain stack, you use two stacks of Homeworld cards, with each card having a power that can be used by any player. If you are Darkseid, you seek to conquer New Genesis...but so do your fellow super-villain players. The superheroes, conversely, compete to conquer Apokolips. When either Level 3 Homeworld is conquered, that ends the game and the player with the most VPs wins!
All of the hero and villain cards in this set feature a new keyword: Protector. By simply revealing a Protector from your hand, you may be able to thwart an invasion of your Homeworld.