Annunaki: Dawn of the Gods Board Game Review

Annunaki: Dawn of the Gods is a 4x board game that can be played in under two hours. While I was skeptical that this was really the case, I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that was very true. While it might not have the same meatiness of other 4x board games, I think what you get here is fantastic, and the time you spend playing for what you get in the experience is fantastic. Let’s take a more detailed look at Annunaki: Dawn of the Gods!

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If you want to see an overview of all the components, check out our article here !

In Annunaki, players will be taking actions, collecting gems, placing units, obtaining gods, and so much more as they battle it out on the world maps. While all out war isn’t necessarily the way you are going to win, it is a key part of the game and what most of what you do will be building towards.

Turn structures are very simplistic, while offering a lot of depth, Players will take one main board action, and optional mana objective, check to see if they have completed any tiles or can put out any gods, and then play passes to the next player.

What I love about the game is the variability in the action board each player has. While the actions of each game are always the same – move troops, collect resources, obtain tiles, etc. – the placement of those actions on your board are different.

The placement is key to how you play, because if you choose to follow the printed paths on the board you will collect gems and place little cubes. These placements are pretty important because it is how you get minor gods, and your major god, out onto the board.

So while you can always move your action pawn to ANY action on your board, following the various paths will ensure you are getting the most out of your civilization. Again, however, because of the randomness of where these actions end up on your board, there will be a different required strategy each game.

As we noted before, the core concepts in Annunaki are relatively easy to understand. It’s the decisions that need to be made that really give this game some depth. What actions you choose to take are vital to your success. When should you gather resources? When should you move troops? When should you collect a tile for later? These are things you need to decide, and a few missteps can sink you, which might be unfortunate for some.

As you play you will collect crystals which can be used to take optional mana objectives. We found that if you are not taking at least one mana action each turn, you probably aren’t doing well – that also means you need to make sure you are constantly obtaining crystals, as all mana objectives require them.

These actions range from adding advanced weapons cards to your hand to building settlements on the board. Both of these mana actions are important to anyone’s game, which is why these optional actions are so important.

I like how each system works on its own, but also how they work together. Everything might feel a bit silo’d, but the longer you play the more you realize they are all interconnected. Ultimately, everything you do needs to move you up on the game’s various tracks.

Moving up these tracks will earn you multipliers for your units, controlled hexes, built settlements, and more. Fighting opponents and winning will earn you points on the military track based on the weapons card you choose to use. Upgrading your action tiles and other game events will earn you points on the other tracks – balancing all these tracks can be tricky, but is very rewarding.

We are deep into this review and we haven’t talked about troop movement, fighting, resource collecting and more. This game has it all, and while we won’t go in depth regarding everything. What we will say is that Annunaki: Dawn of the Gods boasts that it provides a 4x game experience in under two hours, and it definitely delivers that.

We have other 4x games that rarely get played because of how much time is required. With everyone in our game group having young kids, free time isn’t as plentiful as we might like. This is a game we can easily complete on a game night that begins after 8:30 PM, so it is one that will stay in our collection for the time being.

If you are looking for an epic experience that plays pretty quickly, then Annunaki: Dawn of the Gods is one you want to look at!

You Will Like This If?

• You want a 4x experience but don’t have the time for 4+ hour experiences
• You enjoy civilization games with area control and battling
• You enjoy moving up various tracks
• You like that every decision matters and there is little room for error

You Won’t Like This If?

• You like your games to be short and sweet
• You like some forgiveness / catch up mechanics in case you fall behind
• You don’t like “troops on a board” games with battles and a bit of “take that”