TDG: Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East

[@davedogge2280]

When my grandad goes to the Middle East he gets the cheapest possible leased family apartment possible.. .. . .... ... Over there they call him Low Rents Of Arabia.

[@TheDiscriminatingGamer]

Wonderful! A Lawrence of Arabia joke! We don't have too many of those.

[@richard-mtl]

Thank you for this review! I'm impatiently waiting for my copy from my FLGS, I hope it gets here soon! I played ACIS once and had so much fun with it even though it was so chaotic and random and take-that-y, but it generated a lot of laughs. I was able to use the Trojan Horse card against Troy, it was a blast! So yeah, looking forward to getting this one.

[@TheDiscriminatingGamer]

Inner Sea was great, but I think this one's better. Great games!

[@Ad3tr]

Not expected for sure, considering the box.

[@TheDiscriminatingGamer]

What wasn't expected?

[@Ad3tr]

The genre of game, you make it sound like a good version of the more casual take that genre rather than a dry GMT civilization game, which is what I always assumed.@@TheDiscriminatingGamer

[@curseofyig6727]

My group has played Inner Sea lots and I picked up Middle East but I have not played it yet. For Inner Sea i'll combine the disks from both games so we can have more epic expansions of territory. We noticed empires run out of gas in that game before getting very large. 2x as many disks will address that.

[@TheDiscriminatingGamer]

Let me know how it plays out. As stated in the video, I think Middle East is superior to Inner Sea, so hope you get a chance to play it before too long.

[@reftomgreen82]

Thanks for the review.

[@TheDiscriminatingGamer]

Thank you.

[@davidnichol9669]

I really enjoyed Inner Sea, even though I initially hoped it was a streamlined version of the Avalon Hill classic 'Advanced Civilization' (now reborn as Western Empires). If anything, it's more like a 'Risk Ancients' game. That's not a bad thing necessarily, my group are a pretty mean bunch - so we loved it! Looks like the geography in this one will help the game - everyone pretty closely packed and no handy Mediterranean Sea to keep rivals at arms length! I do remember an awful lot of card shuffling in the first one, is that still the same?

[@TheDiscriminatingGamer]

It seemed the card shuffling wasn't quite as much in this one.

[@thegamesninja3119]

Looks like of those games classic Avalon Hill put out in its later years of glory before they got sold off, with modern games Quality of Life play mechanics revamp. Looks like Age of Ren, ect...

[@TheDiscriminatingGamer]

Whatever it looks like, it's fantastic!

[@thegamesninja3119]

@@TheDiscriminatingGamer how does it compare to the likes of Age of Ren?

[@rolandbruno686]

Fun like a drunk uncle.

[@TheDiscriminatingGamer]

Drunk uncles can be a lot of fun.

[@richard-mtl]

I forgot to leave a Thanks with my comment, here you go!

[@TheDiscriminatingGamer]

Thank you very much, sir. Much appreciated.

[@andrewshaw3703]

Have you played it Solo? Given the fun comes from messing with your opponents I’m not sure about Solo play.

[@TheDiscriminatingGamer]

No I haven't. I see this as a take that game, and I don't know if I'd enjoy it solo.

[@christopherwilson2606]

I'd like to know as well. Maybe, if time permits, he can play it Solo and get back to us.

[@JM16714]

Not only do I not think I would like solo, I doubt i would like less than 3 players.

[@rockhopper01]

What was the ancient Egyptian’s favorite music? Wrap music!

[@TheDiscriminatingGamer]

Ha!

[@jpro8908]

Anyone tried the solo play on this one? Thoughts?

[@TheDiscriminatingGamer]

I haven’t.

[@seanobrien798]

Thanks for the review. Looks like a very interesting game. I look forward to playing it. Your anesthesiologist girlfriend seems really nice. I have a new girlfriend too. She's an astronaut. She's out of this world.

[@TheDiscriminatingGamer]

First rate! Thanks!

[@inwyrdn3691]

I've never found a GMT game I enjoy. This, however, might be the first! Definitely going to try it!

[@TheDiscriminatingGamer]

You've haven't played enough GMT Games. I think you'll get a kick out of this one.

[@majkus]

One thing I have to say for GMT is that their product line is amazingly diverse. One really cannot generalize about a catalog that includes 'Battle Line', 'Twilight Struggle', 'Commands and Colors', 'Panzer', 'Charioteer', 'Mr. President', and 'ACIS/ACME (Ancient Civ xx)'. With so many games in their catalog, they do not keep any one game in print as long as one might wish, but it's really a pretty amazing product line. I haven't been able to get this to the table because it _is_ sort of scary-looking to less hardcore gamers, even though it is really little more complicated than Risk. But it does have options for just about any kind of play configuration you might want (including limiting the game to something like two hours), so I may try harder to talk people into it.

[@NexusBaum]

It looks sooooo ugly :( But I'll probably try it anyway. :)

[@TheDiscriminatingGamer]

To each their own. I like the aesthetic.

[@Conflict_Boardgaming]

FIRST!

[@TheDiscriminatingGamer]

But far from best.

[@thegamesninja3119]

No, they would be the Inner Sea game. 🥷