Deus

About this board game

Deus is a civilization-building board game for 2–4 players, with games lasting around 90 minutes. Players develop their own civilizations in a shared environment by constructing buildings, activating tableau powers, and seeking help from the gods.

Each player begins with five building cards. On a turn, choose whether to use a card to construct a building or discard one or more cards to make an offering. Building cards come in six colors, each representing a different area of civilization development:

• Red: military
• Green: resource production
• Blue: trade
• Brown: scoring
• Purple: temples
• Yellow: a variety of effects

When you construct a building, place it in the appropriate location on the modular game board, which is sized according to the number of players. Then add the card to the matching colored stack in your personal tableau. Its power activates along with all the cards already in that stack, beginning with the card at the bottom.

Alternatively, discard cards to make an offering to a god associated with one of them. The number of discarded cards determines the strength of the associated action, after which you refill your hand to five cards. This creates a choice between expanding your tableau and using cards to gain divine assistance.

The game ends when all barbarian villages have been surrounded and attacked or when all temples have been constructed. Whoever has the most points wins. Released in 2014, Deus combines modular-board development, card-driven powers, and competing paths to civilization growth.