Civilization and Empire Building - The Brooklyn Strategist - Game Center, Cafe, Social Club - New York

Based largely on the modern “tile-based” games, this module is for serious game strategists who can attend to game-based cultural, economic, and political factors while simultaneously outperforming their opponents. We conclude this module with one of the top-rated new games (Dominant Species) that turns “tile-based” strategy games on their heads.

Power Grid:

power grid

The object of Power Grid is to supply the most cities with power when someone's network gains a predetermined size. In this new edition, players mark pre-existing routes between cities for connection, and then bid against each other to purchase the power plants that they use to power their cities.
However, as plants are purchased, newer, more efficient plants become available, so by merely purchasing, you're potentially allowing others access to superior equipment.
Additionally, players must acquire the raw materials (coal, oil, garbage, and uranium) needed to power said plants (except for the 'renewable' windfarm/ solar plants, which require no fuel), making it a constant struggle to upgrade your plants for maximum efficiency while still retaining enough wealth to quickly expand your network to get the cheapest routes.

Railroad Tycoon

Revisit the early days of the Age of Steam as you begin with a locomotive (the venerable John Bull, the first locomotive to run in North America) and a vision (your Tycoon "mission" card). From there, build your budding railroad network into a vast empire. Connect New York to Chicago, earn the most money, develop bigger and faster locomotives and maybe even span North America and build the Transcontinental Railway!

Settlers of Catan

In Settlers of Catan, players try to be the dominant force on the island of Catan by building settlements, cities, and roads. On each turn dice are rolled to determine what resources the island produces. Players collect these resources to build up their civilizations to get to 10 victory points and win the game. Multi-award-winning and one of the most popular games in recent history due to its amazing ability to appeal to non-gamers and gamers alike.

Inca Empire

In INCA EMPIRE the players are "Apus" (leader of one of the four regions/suyus). Your job as an Apu is to increase your status in the eyes of the divine emperor ("Sapa Inca") by doing the best job of expanding and improving the empire. Each Apu begins with the manpower of their region of the original empire. They build roads and conquer neighboring regions, increasing the manpower and resources available to them. Apus are awarded for each new region they add to the empire and for improvements such as terraces, garrisons, cities and temples. The player who has the most victory points (VP) at the moment Pizarro arrives in the Inca capital at Cuzco wins the game.

Civilization

A game of skill for 2 to 7 players. It covers the development of ancient civilizations from the invention of agriculture c. 8000 B.C. to the emergence of Rome around the middle of the third century B.C. Each player leads a nation of peoples over a mapboard of the Eastern Mediterranean and Near East as they attempt to carve a niche for themselves and their culture.

Although battles and territorial strategy are important, this is not a war game because it is not won by battle or conquest. Instead, the object of play is to gain a level of overall advancement involving cultural, economic, and political factors so that such conflicts that do arise are a result of rivalry and land shortage rather than a desire to eliminate other players. Nomad and farmer, warrior and merchant, artisan and citizen all have an essential part to play in the development of civilization. It is the player who most effectively changes emphasis between these various outlooks who will achieve the best balance and win.

This game has a huge following and is widely regarded as one of the best games about ancient civilizations. Each player takes on the role of leader of an ancient civilization, such as the Illyrians or Babylonians. Your task is to guide your people through the ages by expanding your empire and using its proceeds to finance new technological advances, such as Literacy, Metalworking, or Law. The advancements help your civilization better cope with its problems as well as help bring new advancements.

Dominant Species

90,000 B.C. -- A great ice age is fast approaching. Another titanic struggle for global supremacy has unwittingly commenced between the varying animal species. Dominant Species is a game that abstractly recreates a tiny portion of ancient history: the ponderous encroachment of an ice age and what that entails for the living creatures trying to adapt to the slowly-changing earth. Each player will assume the role of one of six major animal classes -- mammal, reptile, bird, amphibian, arachnid or insect. Each begins the game more or less in a state of natural balance in relation to one another. But that won't last: It is indeed "survival of the fittest." Through wily action pawn placement, players will strive to become dominant on as many different terrain tiles as possible in order to claim powerful card effects. Players will also want to propagate their individual species in order to earn victory points for their particular animal. Players will be aided in these endeavors via speciation, migration and adaptation actions, among others. All of this eventually leads to the end game -- the final ascent of the ice age -- where the player having accumulated the most victory points will have his animal crowned the Dominant Species. But somebody better become dominant quickly, because it's getting mighty cold....