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Struggle of Empires
Warfrog, 2004
3-7 / 60-180 minutes
Martin Wallace
I found myself dispatched recently to Manchester, England, a city (and country) I have never been to before. I found the people to be almost universally nice, though very inquisitive about US politics. The best group of people I met there, though, were the crew from Warfrog. They generously invited me to play with them one night, saving me from another late night working, and another lonely meal, for which I truly thank them.
More of interest to you though is that I had an opportunity to play their new game, Struggle of Empires [you may have heard this game previously referred to as "Birth of Nations" -- note the name change, please]. What follows is a preview of the game, due out in the October time-frame, based on my one playing. Read this with the knowledge that I've only played the game once, and understand that the final game may be slightly different; the designer did say it was 99% done, though.
The game is, as I believe I said that evening, utterly brilliant. It's been in development for 5 years, and it really shows in how finely balanced many aspects seem to be. I predict that the game will generate much buzz and excitement, more than Age of Steam, which I consider one of my favorite games.
It's a game which will be hard to classify, as it pulls in many ideas and mechanics, and is much more than the sum of its parts. It's an empire-building, conquest game, with an area control aspect, combat (not a primary action, but present), randomness & auctions. Money is tight, and the decisions as to what to do each turn are deliciously hard. It's a gamer's game, no doubt about it (this is Warfrog, after all).
The setting is the 18th Century, and each player represents one of 7 colonial powers from that era (e.g. Britain, Spain, the Netherlands). The goal is to conquer and colonize the known world, though direct confrontation between player's home nations is not allowed (in fact, they play almost no role in the game itself, historical or otherwise). This is nice, as there's no need to defend your homeland, with dire consequences should you fail to do so successfully; this is NOT an elimination game. The battlegrounds consist of 11 neutral areas, 5 in Europe (Germany, the Mediterranean, Central Europe, Baltic & the Ottoman Empire), 3 western Colonies (North America, South America and the Caribbean), plus 3 southern/eastern Colonies (Africa, India and the East Indies).
The game is played over 3 turns (called "Wars") with each War having 5 or 6 Action Rounds, depending on the number of players. At the end of each War, scoring takes place. Control of each neutral country is determined, with European areas giving VPs to first, second and third place finishers, and Colonies only rewarding first and second place. The range is 8/5/3 for Germany down to 3/2 for Africa. SoE differs from many other area control games in how it scores the areas. In cases of a tie, all tied players score the stated amount (instead of splitting it, or scoring the next lower value) and the next scoring tier is still determined normally. This is a really significant, if subtle, difference. If you're tied for first in an area, you gain nothing in terms of raw points by attacking someone else. Sure, you could lower their points by knocking them into the next scoring tier, but you won't better your position any. It's one of the many aspects of the game that I found very well thought out and finely tuned.
Each player has a set of military units (armies, navies & fortresses) and Control Tokens. Control of an area is determined by who has the most Control Tokens in the area, irrespective of the presence of military units (or lack thereof). The military units are used to fight, with the normal reward for winning being a Control Token. Military conquest, though is only one way to gain a Control Token, but more on that later.
There are two main resources in the game: population and gold. Players start off with a population of 5 and 10 gold. Every time you build a military unit you use up a point of population. Also, every time you Colonize, you use up a population (see Actions below). Population remaining at the end of the War is counted as a source of income.
Ah, income. This is a Wallace game, and in my somewhat limited exposure that means that money is a very tight resource. Not everything you do requires an outlay of cash; in fact, most things don't. But those actions that do cost are things you definitely will want to do, so care must be taken how you use this precious resource.
The odd thing about this game, though, is that you have a limitless supply of money, or nearly so -- it comes with a cost, of course. Every time you need to spend money and you don't have enough to spend, you may take 2 money from the bank along with an Unrest marker. Get too many Unrest markers, though, and your empire will devolve into anarchy, as the people revolt against you! You can think of these Unrest markers almost as an anti-resource, as they have to be managed carefully, too. The exact number of Unrest markers you have is kept secret, though you gain them publicly, so it's track-able data. This is generally not one of my favorite mechanics in a game: tracking public data. I found it to only be a minor quibble here, though.
Players start out with 5 Control Tokens on the map. They are placed by randomly drawing 5 Country Counters and placing a Control Token in the country that each counter represents (these Country Counters are then taken out of the game). After that, each player in turn places 1 military unit in any area they choose, repeating until each has had an opportunity to place 5 units.
A typical War (turn) looks like this:
The phases are as follows:
1. Place Country Counters. At the beginning of each War, 10 neutral Country Counters are chosen at random and are placed on the board. These counters will drive a good bit of the round-by-round action. They are placed on the board in their specified neutral country or colony and, once used, are removed from play, so you need to snatch them up quickly! Not every country or colony has the same mix of counters, nor the same count. They come in several flavors:
[Before I go any further, I need to acknowledge that the inclusion of slavery as a game element will make some people very upset. Slavery was an abhorrent fact of the times represented by the game, yes, but does it really need to be exploited in this way? Is it in fact being exploited in this game? Those are personal questions that need to be answered individually. Moral issues aside, the game is a fine one; however, we each must weigh in on what our comfort levels are, and make playing and purchasing decisions with that in mind.]
2. Determine Alliances. Next up comes the forming of alliances. When one player is allied with another, it means simply that you cannot attack each other (directly, at least). At times, it will be beneficial to have your chief opponent opposing you in the War, so that you may attack her. Other times, it will be advantageous to have her on your side, to prevent an attack and maintain the status quo. Alliances also determine the turn order (variable turn order, another Wallace staple!), with one player from each side of the alliance alternating with a player from the other side. Clearly, the act of choosing Alliances plays a vital role in the game and, as such, it's through no ordinary mechanism that the sides are determined: they're auctioned off.
The first player starts off by choosing two players, and announcing that they will be on opposite sides in the upcoming War, placing one player's marker in "Box A" and the other player's marker in "Box B" on the board. He also indicates how much money he is willing to spend to make this proposal become fact. Neither of the markers need be his, but they must be currently unallied. The next person going clockwise around the table must either raise the bid or pass. If she raises the bid, she gets to change the proposed outcome if she chooses, selecting the two markers that she would like to see on opposite sides of the upcoming War. Again, the only restriction is that the two players be currently unallied. It might be that when it comes time to bid, you like the opponents as chosen, but prefer their order reversed; it will cost you to make that change! This goes on until everyone passes. At this point, the winner pays up their bid, and places their chosen markers on a spot in the display set aside to show not only who is on what side in the upcoming War, but also the turn order. This process is repeated until all players have been assigned to one alliance or the other. In the case of an odd number of players will the last round of bidding only involve one player's marker.
In the Action Rounds that follow, turn order is determined by this bidding process. The two players that were chosen in the first alliance auction will go before all other players, with the player whose token was in Box A going before the player whose token was in Box B. Similarly, the players involved in the second round of bidding will go before players in subsequent auctions, with A before B again, and so on.
3. Player Action Rounds. With the alliances set, it's now time to take some action! There are 5 or 6 rounds, depending on the number of players (6 rounds with 3-4 players, 5 otherwise). The order of play is taken from the Alliance display, and in each round each player may take 2 of the following actions:
A. Buying (and using) tiles are another major aspect of the game. Most tiles have a cost (gold, Unrest or population), and are retained for the rest of the game. A few types only have a single tile available; for most of them, though, there are multiple available (from 2-10). They confer many benefits both great and small, with the better ones costing more and having fewer tiles available. Most can be used once per War; a couple are continuously in effect, and a handful are single-use only. Some examples:
For tiles that provide a "free action", the owner simply rotates the tile to indicate that it's been used this War, and takes the free action the tile provides. In this way, a player can get 3 (or more) actions in a single round.
There are also single-use tiles which can have a deterrent effect (Surprise Attack and Fighting Withdrawal) as well as tiles that let you harm an opponent, even an ally (Pirates and Colonial Uprising). In all, there are around 20 different tiles plus the Company and Alliance tiles to choose from -- quite a dizzying array of choices. Frustratingly, you're only allowed to buy one tile per round, and of course you'd like to buy 6 or 8 of them; it's one of the many delicious decision points in the game!
B. Building units is a matter of choosing an available unit (you only have 2 forts, but plenty of armies & navies), reducing your population by 1, and placing it in your home country. You immediately get a free move of this piece, subject to the movement rules described next. This is the only time a fort may be moved.
C. Moving units in Europe is relatively straightforward and safe. When moving as an action in and of itself, you may move up to two units; they neither need to start nor end in the same area. You need to have a control token in the destination area or next to the destination area. Additionally, you can move into the Baltic area if you have a navy in the Baltic Sea, or into the Mediterranean or Ottoman Empire areas with a navy in the Mediterranean Ocean.
Moving units to and from the Colonies is a bit more risky. In order to move to any Colony you must have a naval unit at the destination. In addition, a Sea movement die roll is required if moving between Europe and a Colony, or between Colonies (unless both are in the Americas, e.g. India to Africa, Mediterranean to Caribbean but not Caribbean to North America). On a roll of 2-6 you're safe; on a roll of 1, however, there's a chance for catastrophe, and you need to make another roll. On a 1-2 the unit is lost (and the player gains 1 Unrest marker), 3-4 it returns to it's starting location, and 5-6 means it's safe (n.b. when moving as part of the Build action, your starting location is somewhere next to your home country in Europe, and this is the only time your home country means anything in this game).
D. Attacks are the next option, and they happen less frequently then you might think (at least in the 5-player game; I imagine they're more frequent in the 7-player game, and even less frequent in the 3-player game). First off, you can never attack an ally. Secondly, attacks cost 2 gold, which is why they don't happen too often since money is in such short supply. Players can attack each other or neutral armies. If successful, the attacker places one Control Token in the area in question (and the defender loses a Control Token, if it was a player). While you can attack a player with units but no Control Token, you will not gain a Control Token as a reward, as the number of Control Tokens available per area is fixed by the Country Counter mix. Conversely, attacking a player with a Control Token but no units is a sweet thing, as their chances of winning are greatly reduced.
Combat uses dice, but there's less luck than that might at first suggest. The way it works is: each player rolls 2d6 and adds the difference of their rolls to the number of armies they have (forts count for defense only, and they count as two); whoever has the higher total wins. The loser loses a unit, which earns them 1 Unrest marker. Ties results in a loss of a unit on both sides (with accompanying Unrest markers). Finally, the dice are added together and if the sum is '7' (the highest probability roll, if you remember from your craps-playing days), then the rolling player loses a unit whether or not they won or lost the battle, which again gains them an Unrest marker. So not only is combat costly in terms of money, there's also an Unrest cost to be factored in.
Doing the math, it's risky to attack unless you have a clear majority, as almost half of all dice rolls will result in a 0 or 1 differential, with another 1/6 chance of losing a unit regardless of the outcome. There are several modifiers to combat, though, as well as some mitigating factors:
Quite a lot of thought went into the combat rules, and I found them to be quite well balanced. Expensive in terms of actions to move units, cost of the attack, and potential gain of Unrest markers, they don't happen on a whim. They happen nonetheless, though, and it makes for a lot of fun to watch the build-up of forces, and the inevitable shedding of blood. Assuming it's not your blood, of course.
E. Colonization/Slavery, as described briefly earlier, lets you exchange the Country Counter for a Control Token. The cost is 1 Population for Colonization, and nothing for slavery (though you must have a navy off the coast of Africa to do the latter). You may only do one of these actions each round, and the Country Counter is removed from play when used.
F. Pass. No one in our game took this action, and I really can't see this happening much except very late in the game, in a 6- or 7-player game. There's just too much to do to ever want to squander an opportunity.
4. Income & Maintenance. Once the action rounds are complete, players determine their income and pay their costs. Each player receives 1 gold for each Population they have left, plus 1 for each Control Token they have on the board. They then pay 1 gold for each army, navy and fort in play. Any excess gold is theirs for the next War; any shortfalls are made up with Unrest markers. Players cannot choose to not maintain a unit, thus reducing their costs. After this is done, each player's Population increases by 5 points (to a maximum of 9) for use in the next War.
5. Victory Points. Each of the 11 contested areas is looked at in turn and scored. Only Control Tokens are looked at; military units are ignored. Whoever has the most Control Tokens in the area scores the top points. Whoever has the next-most number of Control Tokens scores the next amount, and so one. In cases where players are tied, all tied players score the stated amount, and the next-lower scoring is unaffected (which is much different from most other area-control scoring games).
6. Turn End. Move and reset the turn and round markers, reset any rotated tiles, and return any Alliance tiles. Player tokens are removed from the Alliance display, and the next War begins.
After 3 Wars, the game is over. Players reveal their Unrest markers, and count them up. Any player with 20 or more Unrest points has a score of 0, as their empire has collapsed into anarchy around them! Of the remaining players, whoever has the most Unrest points loses 7 VPs, and whoever has the second most Unrest points loses 4 VPs. As with everything else in the game, players tied for the most all lose 7 VPs, and having that occur does not in any way affect the penalty for the second-most tier. Whoever has the most VPs wins.
As you can see, there is a tremendous amount of 'stuff' going on here. There are several, disparate mechanisms which while familiar, all have a unique twist to them, and certainly add up to much more than the sum of their parts. Some games have multiple, central mechanics which when combined, all fall apart. This is NOT that kind of game; here, they all hang comfortably together as if they were meant for one another.
There are many tough decisions to make, which is something I love in a good, heavy-weight game. In the Alliance phase, who do you want to be allied with? Which players do you want opposing each other? What place in the turn order are you willing to accept? How much are you willing to pay for any of these things?
During the Action Rounds, the decisions are much more agonizing. Which tile do you take? Some are very powerful, but come with a high cost. Some are more important in the middle or end game. Some are important only to deny them to others. The fact that most tiles can be used each War means that your strategy will be heavily influenced by the tiles you take (or conversely, the tiles you want will be heavily influenced by your strategy).
When do you use a tile? Use it too soon and you will not have it later when you "really" need it. Fail to use it, and you may have wasted an opportunity. Some tiles, though, work best as a threat. Some tiles were taken merely to keep an opponent from getting them (especially Government Reform, near the end of the game). The possibilities and combinations of possibilities are nearly limitless.
Diplomacy can be a critical factor, either spoken or unspoken. If you need to be safe from a player, you need to maneuver yourself to be on the same side as they are in the War. If you want two players attacking each other (thus hopefully leaving you alone), you try to make sure that they are on opposite sides in the upcoming War. Calling for allies during a battle may lead to some deal-making, though no deals are binding.
(As an aside, I've seen & heard some mention of comparisons to Civilization and Diplomacy, both from Avalon Hill. I've not played either, so I can't help out in comparing and contrasting the games.)
I think that there will be some people or groups that may find themselves in heavy Analysis/Paralysis mode with this one, mostly in the last couple of rounds of the final War. That's something that individual groups will need to assess and deal with however it is usually dealt with (either with patience or derision). There is also the potential for a king-making scenario to occur. Neither of these seemed to be any more troublesome than in, say, El Grande, so I don't think that they should present huge concerns.
Live Free, that's the message!
