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IMPERIAL GLORY
RULE AN ANCIENT EMPIRE

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Introduction News Design Notes Game Includes What Players Say Links Reading

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Introduction VISIT SHOP PAGE
The Imperial Glory period from 50-220 CE was entirely new for Eurasia. For the first time, most of the civilized world was or would shortly be dominated by one of four massive empires that bestrode the earth.

• Far to the east, the Han Dynasty had dominated since 206 BCE, then fallen, but since 23 CE had resurrected itself and was now extending its powerful grasp far to the north and west.
• In the far west the Roman Republic had fallen and after multiple civil wars Caesar Augustus had consolidated a stable empire, over which his descendant Claudius now presided.
• To their east, following Roman defeat of the Seleucids, the horse riding Parthians had conquered an empire, stretching from the Fertile Crescent in the west to Central Asia in the east.
• ln Central Asia, a group calling themselves the Kushans, part of the Yuezhi confederation, had consolidated power and were set to drive south to build their empire.

The Base Game
This first solo offering portrays the Kushan Empire. Future expansions will add to the map, on the west, Rome and Parthia, and on the east, Han Dynasty China.

The Kushans begin as the smallest empire and have the most to gain territorially, as well as the strong commanders needed to accomplish it.

But it's not simple. To the east, the desert outposts of China form a difficult obstacle for your mounted army. To the south, the forest and large populations of the subcontinent are also challenging. And while you pursue these there are persistent threats from northern mounted barbarians.

News
May 2023: Now available! The first expansion kit, Imperial Glory: Han Dynasty China, adds a second seat at the table, a new empire to try solo, new rules such as Corruption, Authoritative Emperor and many more Ares, Fate and Science cards.

Design Notes
Deckbuilding. Each emperor has seven statures. These numbers determine the number of each type of advisor card the player has: generals, governors, diplomats, architects, arists, philosophers and secret agents. Each type offers a different set of actions. A percentage of them also offer special abilities.

Push-your-luck. But suppose you don't like the advisor you drew. The emperor is Nero and loves art so there are plenty of artists in his deck. But what you really need to do right now is pacify a rebellious province before you lose it altogether (oh why did you overtax it earlier?). Well, you can try spending some of your precious influence. Draw another card. Did you get what you want? No? Well, you can keep drawing, until you find what you want, or reach five cards, whichever comes first. But you had better succeed in your choice. Otherwise you lose the influence you spent.

Diceless combat. Most endeavors factor in the ability of the advisor, difficulty of the endeavor, possibly a couple other factors and a chit draw. But with combat, players place their armies on the Battle Board and take turns navigating its geography to strike at one another. As the losses pile up, they either retreat or see via chit draw which side breaks first.

Solitaire with multi-player expansion. The Kushan Empire solitaire scenario has considerable scope for conquest since it starts with only a single territory and faces an empty map. But each neutral province has challenging defending forces that fight according to simple nonplayer rules. But all empires must face the often challenging Fate cards that can kill the emperor, disrupt provinces, trigger rebellions, civil wars, heresies, earthquakes, floods, coups, and more. Most devastating of all is the pandemic that probably brought the Four Empires era to an end.

Trade and Pandemic. Each empire is a source of trade, which triggers via the appearance of the empire's trade card from its main deck. The player then passes this card to the discard pile of the next empire in the direction of trade. The map shows, for each province on a trade route, the amount of income trade provides if the player holds it. Critical junctures such as Egypt and Sind are worth considerably more than other provinces. When a trade card reaches the other end of the board, it returns to its point of origin and the cycle begins anew. The pandemic – the Antonine Plague – and immunity to it, work in similar ways.

Historical emperors. Each emperor has an illustration from one of their coins, seven ratings on a 1-8 Fibonacci scale and a short description of their reign. When one dies, the player compares the old emperor to the new one. For each stature in which the two emperors differ, they either add or substract the corresponding advisors, depending on whether the new emperor's rating is more or less, respectively.

More at Designer Diary.

Game Includes

• An unmounted map depicting India and Central Asia with background information on the reverse
• An unmounted Battle Board with historical information on the reverse
• Decks of Advisor, Province, Ares, Fate, Arts, Science and large-sized Emperor cards
• Counters depicting armies, popularity and results
• Cubes and sticks to represent constructions and mark province statuses
• A box large enough to hold all future expansions.
• Jumbo rules booklet, including extensive background notes

What Players Say

• "There's a very interesting gameplay element to this that I think is very appealing." – calandale
• "Rick Heli has some interesting ideas in terms of coming up with innovative designs and if you think about Founding Fathers, the election design, how you kind of manipulate the election, in a sense the battle board is kind of the equivalent to that." – calandale

Links

Videos

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Roman games

Reading

• Benjamin, Craig,
  • Empires of ancient Eurasia: the first Silk Roads era, 100 BCE-250 CE
  • The Yuezhi. Origin, Migration and the Conquest of Northern Bactria
• Fagan, Garrett G., Great Battles of the Ancient World
• Keegan, John, The Book of War
• Kumar, Baldev, The early Kusanas: A history of the rise and progress of the Kusana power under the early Kusana rulers – from Kujula Kadphises to Vasudeva
• McLaughlin, Raoul,
  • The Roman Empire and the Indian Ocean: Rome's Dealings with the Ancient Kingdoms of India, Africa and Arabia
  • The Roman Empire and the Silk Routes: The Ancient World Economy and the Empires of Parthia, Central Asia and Han China
• Tarn, William Woodthorpe, The Greeks in Bactria and India
• History of the Civilizations of Central Asia, Volume I: The development of sedentary and nomadic civilizations: 700 B.C to A.D. 250

Published March 2021.

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Created: Wed Mar 17 05:28:42 UTC 2021

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