Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea

Wednesday, 18 September 2019

Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea

My first thoughts were: "Hmmm, a bit light on". Where is the geographic features, where are the trade goods, where is Gaul, Brittania, The Black Sea or Persia, where are the phalanxes, legions or triremes? You are presented with a map of the Mediterranean, lots of little discs (50 each) and some intriguing playing cards.

The game is played in Epochs: Bronze Age, Iron Age, Age of Empires and Fall of Empires, and each Epoch lasts 2-4 turns. Definitely finishable on a Boyz Weekend. There are ten possible starting cultures, each with their own benefits. These benefits means that each player will play their own style of game.

The game is played for victory points which are awarded for a combination of culture, wealth, victory and luck of the card draw. At first glace, it appears to be a reboot of Civilization: there are wonders, cards, and cities are build by stacking armies, and who ever goes first gets clobbered. Also NO DICE!

However, the cards are used in a Yugioh (Dueling Monsters) style where they influence each other and provide a interesting variety of effects. However, they can also be used to aid in combat, so you can surprise by saving them for the big battle.

I have set up a solitaire scenario - divided Rome facing Visigoths and Persians. The invaders are controlled by the AI - a sheet of 50 odd priorities, miost of which do not apply, so it is pretty easy to use. And surprisingly hard to predict. The Visigoths didn't go to Rome first - they when to Iberia to get that gold, bypassing my Limitaini!

In the East, things got hairy with a huge barbarian invasion of a cusp in my empire making the Persians hard to get at.

While I cleaned up most of the Visigoth invasion, I forgot about the sea. Next turn, they were in Rome and with a lucky card draw, the eternal city fell.