7 Empires

In this case the empires in question are those of Europe in the 16th-17th centuries. Over eight rounds, the empires will expand and fight each other, aiming to control more of the continent. At the end, each empire is valued and players score according to their 'influence' in each empire. And it's the player with most influence that decides what an empire does each turn (probably – other things can happen).

There's no roundel in this Mac Gerdts game. Instead, each empire has its own action track and placing a marker on this gives that empire its action for the turn – building, moving or attacking with its military units, for a start. The way this works means players need to think what actions they'll want to do two or three turns ahead. However, as players add to their influence, the same person may not control that empire for long!

It's a clever game that provokes some head-scratching as you plot (and/or negotiate) what to do. Gerdts' earlier game, Imperial, has a similar feel, but rather different mechanisms.

For 2-6 players, aged 13+, playing time 90-150 minutes

7 Empires was designed by "Mac" Gerdts and is published by PD Verlag

Find out more:
    7 Empires at BoardGameGeek
    Pevans's first impressions of 7 Empires in TWJO issue 254 (PDF, 1 Mb)