Hi! I go by JoeThePirate on isotropic. I wrote a guide for new players who haven't read the rules.
You can find the rules here:
http://asmadigames.com/innovation/InnovationRulesWeb.pdfbut they're not necessary to understand this tutorial.
Let's get started!
Everyone draws two cards, and picks one of them to play first. For now, just pick one of them at random.
Both I and my fearsome foe, Captain Underpants, have picked our starting cards.
Now, on each turn, you take TWO actions. They can be any combination of the following:
-draw a card
-“meld” a card – that is, play a card from your hand to your in-play area
-“dogma” – that is, activate the ability of a card that is already in your in-play area
-score an achievement – don’t worry about this one yet.
For my first action, I will click on Sailing. Sailing is in my play area, so by clicking on it I activate its “dogma”.
(At this point, I had to close out the game and finish the tutoral in a solo game. The rest of the pictures are from a completely different game)
To draw, click the "draw" button on the far left, near the bottom:
(By the way - if it ever looks like the right side of the picture is getting cut off, try maximizing your browser, or look for a horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of my post)
Now, for example sake, I’m going to click “Draw” again.
Q: How do I win?
Answer: the first player to reach the necessary number of achievements (6, in a 2-player game), wins the game.
(there are a few other, rarer ways to win – you can look those up in the rulebook. Check the top of the page for a PDF)
Q: Okay, how do I get achievements!
A: If you score 5 points, you can claim the “1” achievement. 10 points for the 2 achievement. Then it’s 15, 20, 25…
(To make things easier, when you mouse over a card on your board, "!" will appear if you have equal or less icons than your opponent.
credit: teasel for pointing this one out)
How can you increase your icons? You can “Splay” your cards.
Some cards may say “Splay your green cards left”.
Imagine a pile of cards. You lightly nudge each card to the left. This would expose the rightmost part of each card. If you “splay left”, then the icons on the RIGHT light up and count towards your total.
…aaaaand, that wraps up the tutorial! I hope you found it helpful.
Other miscellaneous rules: (feel free to play a practice game before coming back and reading these)
-Points can be stolen, but achievements are forever.
-In order to claim achievement number n, one of your top cards also have to be at least n. (e.g. to claim achievement 5, you need 45 points and a "5" or higher on top on your board).
credit: florrat-When you choose your very first card at the beginning, whoever chose the card with the lowest alphabetical value goes first. That person only takes 1 action that turn.
-Some high-tech cards can win the game instantly for you (or your foe). If you’re way behind on achievements, you may be able to race to the top and win that way.
-If you try to draw a card of 11 or higher (for any reason), then the game instantly ends, and the player with the most *points* wins (regardless of achievements)
-If you share an action with your opponent (because he has the same or more of the relevant icon), then he MUST follow the action, unless the card says "you may". If you're clever, you can sometimes use this to your advantage, or at the least, use it to nab a free draw action.
-If you share an action, BUT this doesn't do anything for any opponent, then you don't get the free draw.
credit: florrat-"Tuck a card" basically means you meld a card, but place it at the bottom of the pile, instead of the top. If there are no cards of that color, you start a new pile as normal (so it's the same as melding in that case).
-"Return a card" places it back in the supply of cards, at the bottom of the appropriate pile.
I THINK that’s just about all the rules. If I missed anything, let me know.
The
official rules also have rules clarifications on specific cards - they are mostly self-explanatory and are not included here.
3 seconds of strategy:1) Try to get the first few achievements. It’s *probably* priority #1. Even if you plan to win by other means, it will stop your opponent from getting an early victory.
2) If you’re way behind, race for the top tech.
3) Some cards allow you to jump up tech levels. If you’re racing tech, look for those.
4) grey “castle” icons are strong early game, but can be a liability in the mid-game. (You’ll see what I mean).
5) Red industrial icons don’t appear until the midgame, and are powerful during that stage.
Last edited: 3/8/2013 - I realized I was missing an image, and clarified some text
