"Innovation" is a board game that combines creativity and strategy, where players compete to lead companies driving industrial innovation. Each player develops their own technologies and acquires historic inventions to overwhelm their opponents. It's a game that determines who can deploy the most efficient strategies and lead the market.

Innovation

2-4 People | 45-60 minutes | Store 1: P2, Store 2: Not Available

CONTENTS

• 4 Gameboards/Rules summaries

• 105 Innovation cards (21 per color)

• 5 Influence Domain cards

• 1 Rulebook

GAME MECHANISMS

Innovation is a tactical management game in which you lead a civilization. Develop your civilization by acquiring Innovations which represent fundamental discoveries related to the ten great periods in history.

Innovation cards are grouped in five colors; they enable you to increase your options and provide you with icons to increase your strength and resistance.

During the game, you accumulate these cards in your Zone in piles, one pile per color, so as to make up a maximum of five piles.

Each card has one or more Dogmas. They represent the ideology of your civilization at a given time. There are two kinds of Dogmas: The Cooperative Dogmas, which also benefit players who provide at least as many of the required Icons as you; and Supremacy Dogmas that serve to force your demands on weaker civilizations (those that have fewer icons). Activate these Dogmas to progress your civilization more quickly than your opponents'.

Although no more than five of your cards can be Active at the same time, cards underneath can be splayed by these Dogmas in order to increase the number of icons you have. Icons enhance the power and resilience of your civilization. They make it possible for you to benefit from your opponents' Innovations, to boost your attacks and to protect yourself from those of your opponents.

Finally, certain Dogmas enable you to gain Influence points in order to Dominate Periods. This is important, because there are three ways of winning the game: one is being the first to dominate a specific number of Periods and/or Domains; another is having the most Influence points at the end of the game; and last is meeting the Dogma conditions of certain cards.

Set Up

Shuffle the cards by Period and make 10 draw piles that you place as illustrated. Draw the first card from each of Periods 1 through 9 without looking at them and place them in the middle to represent the Periods to be dominated. Place the Domains to the side. Each player then takes a gameboard, draws 2 cards from Period 1, chooses one to put into play face-up, and keeps the other in hand without revealing it.

The first player is the one whose Innovation in play is the first in alphabetical order. The first player (or the first two in a four-player game) gets only one action on the first turn.

GAME MECHANICS

Prepare the game as illustrated.

On your turn, you must carry out two Actions, whether different of identical, from the following choices:

☐ Draw ☐ Activate ☐ Play ☐ Dominate

Play then proceeds clockwise.

Note: Always let the other players know how many cards you have in Hand and from which Periods they are.

ACTIVE CARD

The topmost, fully visible card on any given color pile is called an Active card.

ACTIONS

■ DRAW: (Research an Innovation)

Draw a card from the same period as the value of your highest Active card.

Note: There is no limit to the number of cards you may have in Hand.

If you have no cards in play, draw your cards from Period 1.

If the Period from which you must draw is empty, draw from the next-higher non-empty Period (See End of the Game).

Example: Your highest Innovation is a 4 and Periods 4, 5, and 6 are empty. You must draw your card from Period 7.

When you use the Draw action, you cannot draw from a Period lower than your highest Active card.

■ PLAY: (Discover an Innovation)

Choose a card from your Hand and put it in play in your Zone on top of the pile of the same color.

If that color is not in play, start a new pile.

If the pile is already splayed, place the card so as to continue splaying.

You can put a card of any value into play.

Example: You can give up Genetics (9) by covering it with Pottery (1).

■ ACTIVATE: Activate the Dogmas on one of your Active cards. These are the core mechanisms of the game: Dogmas represent your civilization's current beliefs. When you Activate a Dogma, follow these steps:

1- Choose one of your Active cards.
2- Identify affected players.

Each Dogma is tagged with an icon that indicates its type() and the required Icon ().

Each player totals his Icons of the same type as the required one to determine who will benefit from or be subject to the effects of a Dogma, depending on its type.

3 - Resolve Dogmas, in the order on the card. If a card has several Dogmas, every player affected by the first Dogma undergoes its effects before moving on to the next.

Note: You can use your two Actions to activate the same card twice.

■ DOMINATE: This is one way to win! To dominate a Period, you must meet two conditions:

1 - Your Influence point total must be at least five times the value of the Period you wish to dominate,

2 - The Period of one of your Active cards must be equal to or higher than the Period you wish to dominate.

Example: To dominate Period 3, you must have 3 x 5 = 15 Influence points and an Active card from Period 3 or higher.

If you meet these two conditions, use this action to take the corresponding Period card from the middle of the circle and archive it under Dominations to the right of your Gameboard, without looking at it.

You do not spend any Influence points. Dominated Periods can never be stolen or lost.

Note: Never look at the Innovations on the face of Periods to be dominated, even after dominating them.

Domains are dominated without using Actions.

TYPES OF DOGMAS

There are two types of Dogmas:

Supremacy and Cooperative. Each is identified by a symbol at the start of the Dogma. The symbol also contains the icon required to be affected by it.

SUPREMACY DOGMAS

These Dogmas are preceded by this symbol() and begin with I demand...

These are aggressive Dogmas from which only you will benefit.

Affected players: Players who have fewer of the required icons than you do.

Effect: Read the Dogma aloud. Affected players must comply, clockwise, starting with the player to your left.

COOPERATIVE DOGMAS

These Dogmas are preceded by this symbol () and benefits can be shared with other players.

Affected players: Players who have as least as many of the required icons as you do.

Effect: Affected players carry out the Dogma clockwise, starting with the player to your left and ending with you.

Cooperation Bonus: If at least one other player benefits from your Cooperative Dogmas, you gain a free Draw action at the end of the card's resolution (and only one, no matter the number of players).

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON DOGMAS

- All Dogma effects must be fully carried out by every affected player, even if the card becomes covered or lost during execution.

- An affected player must carry out a Dogma unless the beginning of the text specifies "you may”, even if it is a Cooperative Dogma!

- To gain the Cooperation Bonus, a player is considered to benefit from a Cooperative Dogma if the effect causes a modification in the game.

Example: If a Cooperative Dogma requests that a card be put in play and the player has none, then nothing happens. The player is not considered as having benefited from the Dogma effect, so you do not gain the bonus.

■ DOMAINS

In addition to the Periods to be dominated, which are displayed at the middle of the circle, you can also dominate five Domains.

Your civilization can dominate these Domains separately from your Influence points and without using actions.

These dominations are automatic and immediate as soon as a player meets the requirements given on the card.

The dominated Domains are archived under Dominations to the right of the game board and count as Dominations toward victory. Similarly to Periods, Domains can never be stolen or lost.

Domains can also be dominated earlier in the game by activating the Dogma of its specific Innovation card. This card is indicated on each Domain.

Caution: This Dogma will always be a Cooperative one and you will be last to act, so make sure another player will not collect the Domain by benefiting from the Dogma before you.

If two players meet the requirement simultaneously (for instance by exchanging cards), the Active player gets the Domain, or else the closest player to his left.

You can dominate the Military Domain as soon as you provide 3 Icons of each

OR

by activating the Construction Innovation.

■ END OF THE GAME

■ VICTORY THROUGH DOMINATION:

The game immediately ends when a player dominates a specific number of Periods and/or Domains, depending on the number of players, and thus wins:

2-player game: 6 Dominations

3-player game: 5 Dominations

4-player game: 4 Dominations

The game can also end under two other circumstances:

■ VICTORY THROUGH INFLUENCE:

The game immediately ends when a player must draw a card from a Period higher than 10 (which may occur for example when a player must draw a 10 and there aren't any) or when a Dogma effect says "the game ends".

The winner is the player with the most Influence points. In case of a tie, the tied player with the most Dominations wins. If there is still a tie, the victory is shared.

■ VICTORY THROUGH DOGMA:

The game immediately ends when a player activates a Dogma effect that declares a winner under certain conditions.

The corresponding Innovations are in Periods 8, 9, and 10.

■ LEXICON

• Play/Put in play: Put a card on top of your pile of the same color, also splaying it if the pile is already splayed, or create a new pile if the color is not yet represented in your Zone.

• Active: The Active card is the one face-up on top of a color pile; a card splayed underneath the top card is not an Active card.

• Bottom: The bottom card is the card that is at the very bottom of a pile, whether the pile is splayed or not. If a pile has only a single card, the bottom card is also considered the Active card.

• Higher/Lower: Compared to the Period number. All the highest / All the lowest cards means all the cards of the highest/lowest value.

Example: If you have two 7 and three 5 in Hand, "Transfer all your highest cards from Hand” means you have to transfer your two 7; while "Transfer the three highest cards” means you have to transfer your two 7 and one 5.

• Value: A card's value is equal to its Period. It is printed on both sides of the card. If a card refers to a value that do not have (for example, the highest card in your Hand although you have no more cards, or the Active card of a color you do not have), consider the value as equal to O. Higher/Lower refers to this value.

• Influence: Your Influence is the total value of all your cards in your Influence to the left of your gameboard.

■ DOGMA EFFECTS

• Archive: Archiving a card is putting it at the bottom of the pile of same color, also splaying it if the pile is already splayed.

If there is no pile of the card's color, it starts a new one.

• Discard: Remove from the game.

Example: If the first Dogma effect of the Fission Innovation succeeds, it forces everyone to discard every card in Hand, Zone, and Influence, which means remo- ving them from the game and putting them back in the box. Dominations stay, and the players have to manage with what few cards are left to draw.

• Draw and...: Usually, this means draw the Dogma tells you to do something one card and put it in your Hand, unless else with the card.

When a Dogma tells you to "draw and play", "to draw and archive", or "to draw and score", in every case the card to be played, scored, or archived is the one you just drew. You cannot use a card from your Hand instead.

Keep in mind that when you are supposed to draw from an empty Period, you draw instead from the next-highest non-empty Period.

• Exchange: Give one card and receive one. The exchange can take place even if one of the players has nothing to exchange.

• Recycle: A recycled card is placed face-down beneath the corresponding Period pile. If you must recycle several cards at once, choose the order.

• Score: Slip a card under your game- board, on the left side, in your Influence.

• Splay: To splay a pile, slide your cards in the specified splay direction, to reveal the icons on all the cards beneath the Active card.

In the play example on the next page, yellow is splayed up, purple is splayed right, and red is splayed left. Blue and green are not splayed.

A pile can only be splayed in a single direction at a time. When you must change direction, straighten the pile then splay the cards in the new direction. When a pile is splayed, all the cards in it must be splayed. When you archive a card on bottom or put a card in play on top, splay the new card, too.

When a pile is down to one card or zero, splaying is automatically cancelled.

• Transfer: When several cards must be transferred and you do not have enough, you must transfer as many as you can. When a transfer indicates the specific value of the card to be transferred and you do not have any of that value, there is no transfer.

Example: When a Dogma requests that a 5 be transferred from a player's Influence, if he has none, a 6 will not be transferred instead.

LEGEND

Cooperative Dogma

Supremacy Dogma

: Icons

: Card from Period X; for example, a 10 is a card from Period 10

A card transferred to a player's Zone is put on top of the pile of same color, unless the Dogma says otherwise.

• Victory Dogma: Some cards state that "the player with... wins immediately". If no player meets the requirements (for example, the requirement for Artificial Intelligence fails if several players have 0 points), the Dogma is ignored and the game goes on.

• Without sharing: This means the other players cannot benefit from the Dogma. However, they can still be targeted by it.

EXAMPLE OF A PLAYER'S PLAY AREA

You can always look at your covered cards, but never at your opponents!

ZONE

The blue and green piles are not splayed

Yellow pile splayed up

Purple pile splayed right

Red pile splayed left

INFLUENCE

Slip scored cards here to increase your Influence by leaving their value visible.

You can always look at the Innovations of your Influence cards.

    ⬇                      GAMEBOARD

DOMINATIONS                                          ⬆

Slip dominated Periods and Domains here.

You can never look at the Innovation of a dominated Period.

EXAMPLE OF A PLAYER'S TURN

This is a 4-player game and and it is Andre's turn. He has 2 piles in his Zone:

His cards provide him 3, 2, 1, 1.

For his 1st Action, he decides to Activate Banking.

The required icon is.

- The first Dogma is a Supremacy Dogma.

Because only Bill has fewerthan Andre, he is the only player affected and must transfer one of his Active non-green cards that providesto Andre's Zone. He decides to transfer Chemistry, which ends up covering Evolution, splayed:

Then, because Bill transferred a card, Bill draws a 5 and scores it.

- The second Dogma is a Cooperative Dogma that says "You may", Charles has as manyas Andre, and Dominic has more. They both can benefit from Dogma. Charles, the first player to Andre's left, decides to splay his green cards right. Then it is Dominic's turn. He has no green cards, and thus cannot benefit to splay his green cards right:

At the end of the card's resolution, because at least one player (in this case Charles) benefited from his Cooperative Dogma. Andre draws a free card of the same value as his highest Active card, a 5.

Andre has  3, 3, 3, 1.

For his 2nd Action, he decides to Draw one Innovation and must therefore draw a 5.

But the draw pile for 5 is empty so h draws from the next-higher non-empty Period, a 6.