Board Game: Empire Builder : Mediterranean, Cities, Technology, and Mercenaries

Initial Game design

Rules and Map

Start Up and Gameplay

Civilizations

All pictures of the cards are in a gallery at the bottom

City's are one of the main regions in the game. The other regions being only resource producing centers that do not add any other bonus unlike cities. All cities have a defensive die roll of one higher then what they would be if they were a resource region. For example: If a player was attacking a city that was in revolt against them (The same color as their capital and not yet taken) then it would have a defensive roll of two dice instead of one. When a player takes a city they get a specific city card which relates to the city they have taken, the cities are all labeled by a number. Some cities allow players to train troops from them, others act as a marketplace where resource exchanges can happen, while the rarest help lower the cost of winning the game through economic victory. Cities are harder to take, but they are also easier to keep. No settlements or fortifications need to be made on a city as they already have the defense of the player plus one die roll. In addition, cities support one army, meaning that if a player controls two cities and three other regions they can support three armies. Two armies for the two cities and one army for the three other regions. Cities support of troops for so little space is one of their best abilities. Lastly, cities are a dock where ships can be made and sailed from, helping the logistics of attacks or defense of territory far away.

Technology cards are the most expensive cards when not bought at a technology island being one wood, one food, and two gold while at the island they are only two gold. Technology cards give economic and militaristic boosts. Some technology cards give economic boosts by creating "enhanced" regions that produce an additional resource of what they can make. Other technology cards give horses to the player's armies allowing them to take two actions a turn. Boats can also be improved by giving the player additional die rolls when having naval battles. These boosts are unique to the technology cards and while they are expensive they are also very strong. One of the best tactics in the game is to hold the technology island because a technology card can then be bought for only two gold.

Mercenaries are a costly investment, but they can turn the tide of battle. Mercenaries cost two gold to buy and one gold to upkeep every turn after. Mercenaries are one of the resource dumps in the game, allowing an excess of gold to be used up quickly. The attack and defense of two on all mercenaries, except Germanic with an attack of three, relate competitively to armies from all civilizations, but do not outrank any of them. One of the most important features of the Mercenary armies is that they are not restricted by the number of cities or territories a player controls unlike normal armies, Any player can have as many Mercenary armies as they can afford all throughout the game. If a player can not pay an upkeep for a Mercenary army that army then disappears on their turn.