Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Quality of Components/Presentation:
This game has a boring and bland mapboard of the World. I mean hideous and ugly. The pieces are the basic wooden squares and discs which are poorly cut and painted. The Americas and Asia are depicted in two bubbles at the bottom that seem very confusing. In contrast there is a sideboard in which tiles are layed out with graphics that are almost cartoonish in nature. It's almost as if they came from a completely different game.The components are all well made and sturdy, but the overall presentation is one of the worse I have ever seen.
Theme and Object of play:
While this has a civilization building theme to it, it is extremely abstract in that regard. In fact the game itself plays out in 3 "Eras" but if you divide human history into three parts, it hard to relate it to this game except in extremely vague terms. There is also a tongue in cheek nature to technology. In the last era you progress if your Civilization plays Association Football (Soccer) or if it has television.
The object of the game is to gain the most Victory Points, and you earn these from various mechanisms: City building, Trading, and Control of the regions of the world. Four things are needed in your development: Gold,Resources and Colonists and food to maintain them.
The World Map, expands during each of three"Eras." It grows outward and toward the New World and Far East from there in the 2nd and 3rd eras.
The mechanisms (The Tiles you can Buy), also get larger with each era:
* Cities require more resources,but have a bigger payout in terms of Victory Points.
* Trading by swapping resources for gold and Victory Points also increase.)
* Technology, which rewards you or gives you some temporary or permanent ability in the game.
Gameplay:
Each era has an "A" and a "B" part, so the game takes 6 turns, two per era.
In the A turn you place a disc to perform a certain action:
* City Building.
* Get a Technology
* Trading
* Gain a type of territory
* Expand your Empire on the board.
Depending on what action (Tile you take) you end up gaining either resources, gold, food or colonists.
In the "B" part of your turn you get an action by taking a disc away. Therefore, you need to realize that what you play in the "A" phase is the options you will have in the "B" phase.
It is here that the game seperates itself as a game rather than a simulation like Britannica or other civ games that try to base themselves on recreating history. This also gives it more of an abstract feel.
My Impressions on the Game as a Whole:
You may feel after this short explanation that I despise this thing, believe it or not I think it is one of the best games on the market. Every game I have played of this has been close, tense and exciting. The genius of Martin Wallace overcomes the presentation and abstract nature of this game to make it one of the best products I own in the hobby.
It can be long with more than three players, the decisions you make can lead to a brain burning experience unless you realize that you can't control what others do, so you must plan for yourself. This is the prime example that the whole of a game does not equal its parts.
This, in my opinion is a must have and must play game.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Rise of Empires
Don't just make history-guide it! Take the reins of a developing civilization, choosing the resources and development paths that will lead to the fastest expansion, as you claim and defend territory on a map forging an empire that eventually encompasses whole continents.Rise of Empires play is divided into three eras. Choices made early in the era are repeated late, so your decisions must have both short-term and long-term benefits to be successful. This process requires tough decision-making and promotes an atmosphere with nail-biting suspense. Victory points are rewarded for building cities, having an empire, for progress in science, and for trading goods.Rise of Empires breathes new life into the civilization games genre! Balance gold and food, war and agriculture, territory and technology to forge an empire that is destined to rise above all other nations!Each copy of Rise of Empires contains:. 1 large game board. 1 tiles display. 40 resource discs. 150 player cubes in 5 colors. 45 action discs in 5 colors. 8 empire tiles. 40 territory tiles. 48 progress tiles. 36 city tiles. 104 gold markers. 5 alliance pieces. 5 player aid cards. 1 rules booklet with illustrated example of play.
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