How to play Western Empires - 999 Games

Flo de Haan, one of the authors of Western Empires would love to show you how to get started with the game. In half an hour he tells you how the game mechanics work and shows some great examples of conflicts that can happen during a game.
Western Empires is a board game for 5 to 9 players that covers the development of ancient civilizations over 8000 years of history. This is not just a regular game. Western Empires can take up to 12 hours to complete. And still yet, it has a simple mechanism and is easy to learn. The players lead their civilizations, as they expand and collapse, from the stone age, through the bronze age to the end of the iron age. Western Empires provides a full day of fun for larger groups. When combined with the future release Eastern Empires this can be expanded to a full game of 18 players: Mega Empires.
Culture
Western Empires is a not a wargame, as it may seem at first glance. Yes, war may be involved, but rather it is a game about history, culture, trade, development, and... calamities. Players develop their own unique civilization in arts, crafts, science, civics and religion. Each player starts his civilization with a single population token, 8000 BC, but grows and grows over time, and eventually cities can be built. Cities of course bring wealth and fortune, but also… problems like Epidemic, Famine, Earthquakes, Pirate attacks and Civil disorder.
Trading
This wealth is expressed in trade cards. The more cities, the more cards a player gets. These cards provide both trading commodities, and calamities. Trading is the heart of the game. A real social experience, where all players simultaneously trade with each other during a limited time. As soon as trading has ended, the players that end up with calamities will suffer them.
Develop advances
And then, of course, it’s time to do something about it. Build walls, give your citizens music and architecture. Develop religion, democracy, improve science… 51 different advances can be developed in five different categories.
Maybe a player can even construct a wonder of the world, or scatter their people all over the map, gain cultural ascendancy. The player that knows best how to work together, trade or battle for territory, defend his people against nature or enemies like barbarian hordes, and stand the test of times, eventually will win the game. After up to 12 hours of playing that is.
More information can be found at: bit.ly/YT-Weste...
Players: 5-9
Ages: 14-99
Game length: 6-12 hours
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[@valchothegreat8411]

really good looking and creative game. so difrent from others i the genre. i can emagine how hard but also awesome it would be to send a massive army to destroy somebody s hopes and dreams.

[@Violaist2021]

Are you going too restock the estern empiers

[@Gyftomancer]

My consern is: what if you always have no more than 5 people to play it? Will have to always use the same area of the map?

[@vladimirdimitrijevic5746]

The old Civilization game is still one of my favourites ever. What are some of the main differences?

[@999Games]

Hi Vladimir, Here's a somewhat elaborate answer to that question, but I hope it helps ;) Compared to classic Civilization, many rules were deleted, added, or changed but most of all streamlined. The focus of 'Empires' is to make the game 100% realtime, using a phase-base, rather than any turn-by-turn procedure that the original game followed. This reduced much downtime and lets players play rather than wait for their turn. 'Empires' adds much more flavor, both in colour, artwork and in historical background than 'Civilization'. Some terms, names for advances, commodities or calamities were kept, though the rulings for these cards, or their frequency might have changed radically. The adding of many more cards leads to a wide range of new strategies to explore. And player aids make the game more easy to play.

[@vladimirdimitrijevic5746]

@@999Games Thanks for the reply. Seems very interesting.

[@collintrytsman3353]

hi, nicely done, like a lot of your ideas, any plans to adopt it to pc game?

[@nickjanssen1087]

Lijkt me echt een leuk spel ik zal het willen.

[@Anonymous-qx1vd]

I'm not buying it because there isn't Thracian civilization included

[@youtubeadministration8037]

Play Hellas or hatti

[@ConstantineManikas]

play Hellas wich is the same!

[@Mantala0611]

Heb het vandaag gekocht....komt morgen aan bij me, ben benieuwd :)

[@999Games]

Leuk! Veel speelplezier alvast!

[@Violaist2021]

Have you thought of making more then just the two east and west

[@999Games]

There was a time that we considered it, but as of now there are no plans for a sequel.

[@Violaist2021]

Are you going to restock estern empiers

[@999Games]

Unfortunately we will no longer be publishing Eastern and Western Empires. There will also be no more reprints.

[@Violaist2021]

Why

[@Violaist2021]

It's the best game ever made to represent the historic game.

[@999Games]

To our knowledge the author is going to continue to publish the games. For more information you can check colossus-games.com

[@joaquininiguez4475]

have guys considered making a game like this but set in the americas?

[@zlyntudteam2394]

That's what i was gonna say

[@rockk50]

Don't try to buy this game You're going to wait and wait and wait for it to arrive It can take up to 6 monts I've heard

[@moglyn446]

I just bought the game and it only took a week to get it in,

[@rockk50]

@@moglyn446 You must be from Netherlands then

[@moglyn446]

@@rockk50 Nope, eastern United States.

[@rockk50]

@@moglyn446 That is good to hear

[@MassDefibrillator]

I got mine in Australia about 3 weeks after ordering, this was in January. Also, they reduce the price of the game to compensate for increased shipping prices, meaning you don't pay anymore for game+shipping than someone getting it delivered to the Netherlands. Very nice practice.