Mega Empires Heads East...

Mega Empires is an empire-building strategy board game that has it’s origins in the classic Civilization game designed by Francis Tresham and published by Hartland Trefoil Ltd in 1980.

Overhauled into the massive 5-18 player Mega Civilization (by 999 Games) in 2015, that had a playing time of upto 12 hours, the game was subsequently split in to two with 2019’s Mega Empire : The West and Mega Empires : The East published by 999 Games and Ares Games.

The two Mega Empire games, which covered West and East Europe respecitively, could also be combined to make a much larger gaming experience.

Not content with stopping there, Ares Games have just announced that they will be launching a Kickstarter for Mega Empires : The Far East, with two sets spanning North and South East Asia. These new sets will be fully compatible with the previous European based sets and all four can be combined, with The Silk Road Expansion (which will also be available through the Kickstarter), to create the ultimate “Mega” game with up to 30 players at the table, on a huge gameboard spanning across all of Eurasia and North Africa, from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

(From the Kickstarter Preview):

More about The Far East

The Far East - North and The Far East - South are two empire-building strategy board game, each for 3 to 5 players, set in East Asia. In these games, players lead their historic empire as they gain victory points by expanding their population, building cities, trading and developing their knowledge and culture. Notwithstanding its large scope, the game's core mechanics are straightforward and easy to learn. A key element in the game is player interaction as they position themselves on the map board and search for valuable commodities during interactive trading sessions.

Gameplay

Each player starts the game with a single population token on the board. As the game progresses, population will expand, spread over the board, fight some border conflicts and build cities. Cities bring resources and wealth, expressed in trade cards. The more cities players manage to build on the board, the more trade cards they receive. Trade cards are mainly valuable commodities, but sometimes turn out to be disastrous calamities.

Trade

Trading is the heart of the game, a social experience where all players interact with each other to optimize the value of their sets of commodities. In addition to the desired commodities, calamities are secretly traded as well, adding an additional layer to the trading dynamics. Once the trading phase has ended, players that end up with a calamity in their hand will suffer its effects.

Develop Civilization Advances

When the smoke of trading and resolving calamities has settled, players can decide how to spend the wealth gathered through trading. The game includes 45 different advances that can be developed, each of which provides benefits in the game to its holder. For example, Horsemanship enhances movement over land, Urban Planning facilitates city building, and Spiritual Guidance reduces the impact of calamities.

The 45 Civilization advances are divided into the categories Arts, Crafts, Science, Civics and Religion, each of which has specific powers. Each advance acquired by a player provides discounts to other advances that can be purchased later in the game, thereby creating a path of strategic decisions. The ultimate advance in the game, The Pinnacle Temple, is only in reach for players who manage both their trading and purchasing strategy very well.

You can sign up on the Mega Empires: The Far East Kickstarter page to be notfiied when the crowdfunder launches.

Images and text courtesy of the Mega Empires: The Far East Kickstarter.