Age of Inventors

About this board game

Age of Inventors is a worker-placement and action-selection board game for 1–4 players, with an approximate play time of 80 minutes. Set in the second half of the 19th century, it challenges you to lead a laboratory and help shape a rapidly changing future.

Choose one of four asymmetrical laboratory types: Government, Corporation, University, or Innovator. Each laboratory offers different powers, giving every game a distinct strategic direction. Purchase equipment as it becomes available, balancing its abilities and cost while also influencing your play order for the round.

Funds can also be used to hire legendary inventors such as Tesla, Marie Curie, and Einstein. Each inventor provides unique abilities, while their placement creates opportunities to gather the scientific resources needed for new discoveries.

Use your lab assistants as workers to research physics, chemistry, and engineering resources. Spend Ideas to conceive inventions, then find an available inventor with the appropriate expertise to complete them. Finished inventions provide immediate abilities and advance humanity along the Industrial, Economic, and Academic progress tracks.

• Develop a laboratory with asymmetrical powers and equipment.
• Hire inventors with distinctive abilities.
• Place workers to gather resources and complete inventions.
• Pursue secret victory points, Breakthrough Tokens, and experiments.
• Manage the Ingenuity rank and adapt to Breaking News cards.

Strategic tile placement of inventors and inventions can reveal additional opportunities, while Breaking News cards alter the rules of individual rounds. With changing patterns of inventors and inventions, Age of Inventors offers strong replayability, whether played as a family game or a competitive euro game.