"Phil Sabin's Empire: The Macedonian and Punic Wars" Topic

This arrived with Slingshot the other day and I played a game through solo this afternoon. A simple but evocative game, I got through 200 years of alternative history in about 25 minutes. Played solo it was akin to watching the highlights of the PC game Civilization.

It will work very well for campaigns, and the system could easily be used for other periods of ancient history, too. If you want a short little empire building game that doubles as a campaign engine, could be worth checking out.

Anyone else given it a crack?

Cheers,
Aaron

Nope, haven't tried it yet, but I can see us using it as the basis for generating figure games quite easily. The thing I like about it is that there is no need for individual army book-keeping, something that always seems to bedevil campaigns…

Paul

I wanted it, but I didn't subscribe soon enough to qualify. It doesn't appear yet on the SOA webpage to buy.

Have played two games now, both resulting in identical placings: East 1st, with Carthage 2nd, Macedonia 3rd and Rome 4th.

Fun game, and great for a solitaire game on a week night. Looking forward to using this for campaigns.

We've set it up as the basis for a miniatures campaign. So far, Bactria has rebelled (a Saka incursion?) and the Macedonians have attacked Greece. Playing that game next week. It has generated some interest at our club on Tuesday evenings.

Cheers to all
Paul

how can we get this?

Sounds good, Caliban. What rules are you going to use for the battles?

Thor, If you are a member of the Society of Ancients and renewed your membership before the end of January, you'll get Empire with the current edition of Slingshot. If not, you'll be able to order it through the Society of Ancients website when it's been added to their games page:

soa.org.uk

Cheers,
Aaron

We're going to use Tactica II, which we've been playtesting for some time now. The big problem is going to be in translating Great Captain status into wargames terms – simply giving a points bonus in accordance with the strategic game won't work with most rulesets. I'm toying with the idea of some battlefield advantages instead – something like a reserve unit under the commander's direct control, as in Alexander's Companions. Another would be the ability to force the enemy to deploy first, to simulate Hannibal's ability to predict how the Romans would normally move and fight.

Any other suggestions would be welcome!

Paul

This is now available from the SoA website here, price £5.00 GBP including shipping.:

link

Mark

It looks interesting- I'm going to playtest my copy tomorrow night.

Simon

Just ordered this myself as I'm returning to the Punic Wars after a long break and this looks interesting. Also finally just got round to joining SoA so hopefully I'll not miss out next time.

Andy

Has anyone else ordered this and received their copy yet?

Or am I just being impatient? :)

Andy

I played it last week.

It is a game that romps along at a fair pace; we finished it within an hour. It did seem to be a simple, straightforward simulation of the rise and fall of the four empires concerned.

On the downside, it's simplicity means that it is pretty obvious what you need to be doing in each of your moves, most of the time. One of my opponents said that it is a game that an AI could relatively easily be taught to play. Having played it once, I don't feel I need to play it again, although that it would be a good game to illustrate the issues facing the various empires to students or to novice boardgamers. But I did enjoy playing it the once.

With a little thought, it might work rather well as a campaign mechanism for a game like DBA.

cheers, Simon

Hello Simon,

Phil Sabin is working on rules to tie Empire in as a campaign system for Lost Battles. I believe the plan is to include these in the next edition of Slingshot, but they will no doubt be available from the Lost Battles yahoo group also. It should also work well with other games in which one side can be easily given an advantage that approximates those afforded by the strategic modifiers.

Your mate is right in saying that an AI could be taught to play it – it almost runs itself. For a (mostly) solo gamer like myself, that is a large part of its appeal!

Cheers,
Aaron

Hi Aaron,

I respect what he's designed, but it feels more like a simulation than an entertaining game, to me. It is a good simulation, though! As a campaign background, I'd prefer something with a little more meat on the bones; perhaps like the "Successors" game.

Cheers, Simon

I'm still waiting for mine…still waiting for my copies of Slingshot.

Is this the normal rate of things with the SoA?

Count B, mine arrived a couple of weeks ago and I'm in the UK, so yours should be there by now. I think you should check up with the membership secretary. The SOA sometimes publishes late, but AFAIK they mail everyone's out at the same time.

Simon

Hi Simon,

That Successors game looks a good one. Unfortunately, I couldn't justify picking it up as I still have Hannibal: RvC sitting ogled but unplayed on my shelf…

BTW, your project Zama is getting some press over on the consimworld C&C page:
link

Belisarius, if you only ordered a week or so ago you could be waiting a little bit longer. AFAIK The SOA officers are volunteers so they don't always have the time to find the products and pop them in the mail immediately. Be assured though that the goods will arrive eventually, if my experience here in Japan is anything to go by.

Cheers,
Aaron

Hi Aaron,

Successors is a very good game, indeed. I come back to it about once a year and even my eldest boy and his friends have played it with enjoyment.

The reason I think it would be a good campaign battle generator is that there is some detail about the army compositions; they often consist of about half a dozen units, and could be scaled up to a game. Now if I every get the rest of my phalanx painted….

Entertaining to see the reference on Consimworld; there are going to be a lot more than 1000 minis by the time we are finished, if I have anythign to do with it! :-)

Cheers, Simon

Yes Simon – I wondered if 1000 figs was not a significant underestimate!

Cheers

Got a response from SoA and expecting game and mags next week. Looking forward to trying this…

"The SOA sometimes publishes late, but AFAIK they mail everyone's out at the same time."

If that's Slingshot, it's mostly published late these days, I'm afraid, but hopefully before the publication month for the following issue! We do mail everyone's out at the same time, but if you manage to join after a particular issue has gone to press (along with the mailing list), it won't make the mass mailing, and has to wait for the spare copies to make it to postal sales (and incidentally, the later you join or rejoin, the more money from your subscription goes to the postal services and less to the society, since each of those mass mailings qualifies for a discount, and the postal sales don't).

Postal sales do generate some delay as well, since there are two people involved in the process (membership secretary Peter Garnett for the subscriptions, and John Graham Leigh mails out the back issues) and as someone said earlier, we're all volunteers with real lives that have a nasty habit of getting in the way.

Anyone who fancies stepping up and helping the committee, and making this more efficient, we're looking for volunteers for 2010.

Mark (Mark Watson, 2009 Slingshot Editor)

You chaps do a great job, Mark. Also, Slingshot has really gone to a new level under your stewardship. You're going to be leaving some big boots to fill.

Cheers,
Aaron