Domains
If you have been following Millennia, you know a theme of the design is the idea of player authorship. We are excited by the idea of the “what if?”, of getting to play with history from the perspective of “if I were there, I would have done this.” To support that, you’ll find less of things like predefined Nations with fixed bonuses in Millennia – designs that have you figuring out how to make your “character” work best with history. Instead, we steer more toward systems that give players tools to define their Nation over the course of a game – designs that let you decide how to grow your Nation in response to the direction history takes. Domains are one of those systems. There are six Domains: Government, Exploration, Warfare, Engineering, Diplomacy, and Arts. At the start, in the Age of Stone, the Government Domain is active for all Nations. The remaining Domains become active for a Nation as soon as they encounter them. For example, if you run into some Barbarians and get in a fight, you’ll open up the Warfare Domain. If you built a Lookout Tower, that will enable the Exploration Domain. When you encounter a Tribal Camp, you might find something that provides Engineering. (And so on.) Generally, all Domains are in play by the end of the third Age. Each Domain provides your Nation with related Domain Powers, tools that allow you to take actions involving the Domain. The range involved with each is broad – the Warfare Domain, for example, includes Domain Powers that represent preparedness, stored materials, leadership training, and martial spirit. There are a set of “standard” Domain Powers for every Domain. For example, every Nation gets an Exploration Domain Power that allows them to spawn a Scout. Additional Domain Powers become available over time. Depending on what Ages history moves through, you can end up with different Domain Powers – moving into the Age of Monuments (Variant Age) will grant unique Domain Powers you will not have if you progress into Age of Kings. Certain National Spirits also unlock Domain Powers, so different timelines and different decisions about how to grow a Nation will produce different capabilities.
Domains and National Spirits
To touch on a related element briefly, National Spirits are also associated with specific Domains. Selecting a National Spirit provides some income of their Domain (taking an Engineering Domain National Spirit will provide Engineering XP each turn) and the Ideals of a National Spirit have costs in their Domain. Additionally, any Domain Powers unlocked by Ideals in a National Spirit will have a cost in the same Domain (and any unique Improvements or Capital Buildings from a National Spirit will often provide ways to earn more of that Domain than usual). Overall, this means that there’s competition for the Domain points and a fair amount of space for thinking about how you use these different pieces.
Culture
Culture is a lot of fun…. Mechanically, you can think of Culture as a “super Domain.” But, thematically, Culture is the force behind major events in history, big turning points. As with the other Domains, you gain Culture from your actions in the game – if you construct Capital Buildings like Colosseum, set up Goods lines for Wine, deploy Artists, or control a dominant Religion, you will generate more Culture. Unlike other Domains, there are not Domain Powers with a variety of costs and you cannot use the Powers any time you can afford them. Instead, the Culture you generate fills your Culture Meter and, when you amass enough, you can pick from any of the Culture Powers available to you. Culture Powers are arranged by Domains – when you get your first Warfare XP, it opens up the Warfare Domain for you and also makes Warfare Domain Culture Powers available. As with other Domains, different Culture Powers can become available to you because of the Age the game moves into or because of the National Spirits you adopt. No matter where they come from, all Culture Powers are “big” – founding a religion, changing your government, calling a crusade, raising Armies, and advancing current research are all examples of Culture Powers. A lot of players will have an idea of how they intend to use Culture Powers as they advance through a game, but one of the places where Culture Powers really shine is when those plans go off the rails. Because the Culture Powers are more impactful than other Domain Powers, and because they provide a lot of flexibility, they can serve as powerful wildcards – things that can get you out of a jam you didn’t expect.