Mega Empires: The East is an empire-building strategy board game for 3-9 players that covers the development of empires through history, from the Stone Age to the Late Iron Age, on a map board that stretches from Northeast Africa to Southwest Asia. In this colossal game, players lead their historic empire as they gain victory points by expanding their population, building cities, trading and developing their knowledge and culture. Notwithstanding its large scope, the game's core mechanics are straightforward and easy to learn. A key element in the game is player interaction as they position themselves on the map board and search for valuable commodities during interactive trading sessions.
Gameplay
Each player starts their empire in the Stone Age with a single population token on the board. As the game progresses, population will expand, spread over the board, fight some border conflicts and build cities. Cities bring resources and wealth, expressed in trade cards. The more cities players manage to build on the board, the more trade cards they receive. Trade cards are mainly valuable commodities, but sometimes turn out to be disastrous calamities.
Trade
Trading is the heart of the game, a social experience where all players interact with each other to optimize the value of their sets of commodities. In addition to the desired commodities, calamities are secretly traded as well, adding an additional layer to the trading dynamics. Once the trading phase has ended, players that end up with a calamity in their hand will suffer its effects.
Develop Civilization Advances
When the smoke of trading and resolving calamities has settled, players can decide how to spend the wealth gathered through trading. The game includes 51 different advances that can be developed, each of which provides benefits in the game to its holder. For example, Metal Working provides an advantage when fighting conflicts, Architecture facilitates city construction and Enlightenment reduces the impact of (civil) calamities.
The 51 Civilization advances are divided into the categories Arts, Crafts, Science, Civics and Religion, each of which has specific powers. Each advance acquired by a player provides discounts to other advances that can be purchased later in the game, thereby creating a path of strategic decisions. The ultimate advance in the game, Wonder of the World, is only in reach for players who manage both their trading and purchasing strategy very well.
Winning the Game
The players who have best developed their position on the board whilst avoiding making enemies and defended their empire against natural or civic calamities and stand the test of time, will eventually gather the most victory points and compete for wining the game. After up to 12 hours of playing, that is.
Combining with Mega Empires: The West'
The East can be combined with The West (2019) to scale up the game to as many as 18 players! Where The East has a strong focus on movement by land, The West concentrates on the Mediterranean Sea, which stimulates movement by ship. Both games were designed as balanced counterparts, albeit with unique characteristics. Since many phases in the game are played simultaneously, larger player numbers do not materially increase the total playing time.
Expansions
The West/The East - The Special Buildings (2024) is an expansion set that provides additional flavor to the game through 18 miniatures of ancient buildings historically associated with each of the empires in the game. These buildings can be built on the map board and provide additional benefits in play and victory points to their controller.
The Silk Road is a versatile expansion set for all Mega Empires games. It includes additional maps that create geographical connections between The Far East - North, The Far East - South, and The East. It also adds components for 2 more empires, along with rules and components for various alternative game setups. This even allows for the combination of all basic games for up to 30 players! The Silk Road also includes The Age of Grandeur Module, which is an upgrade to The Special Buildings expansion(s). It adds unique effects to the special buildings of each of the 30 empires in all Mega Empires products, indicated on large cards that players receive when constructing a special building. Whoever controls the building can use its unique effect to their advantage.
The Pirate Ships Expansion is an expansion to The West and The East. It includes 10 miniature pirate ships that are placed in open sea areas on the board at the start of the game. Initially these pirate ships block players' movement by ship, but they can be used as mercenaries for attack or defense later in the game, creating interesting new dynamics on the board. It also includes a set of alternative copies of the Naval Warfare advance with a new attribute that interacts with the pirate ships. Pirate ships are by default included in The Far East - North and The Far East - South. This expansion can be used as an upgrade for the cardboard tokens.
The Zodiac Events is an expansion to The West and The East. It contains a set of tokens and rules for events, which are effects triggered when moving the turn marker on the A.S.T. These effects generally apply to all players and provide various balancing mechanisms. The Zodiac events are themed around the Chinese Zodiac. The Zodiac events are by default included in The Far East - North and The Far East - South.
The Quests Expansion is a small expansion set for all Mega Empires games. At the start of the game, each player receives a Quest card indicating a specific Civilization Advance. Players who successfully purchase the Advance shown on their Quest card during the game receive bonus Victory Points at the end of the game and may draw a new Quest card while they are available.
The Cultural Heritage Module is a mini expansion to The West and The East for 3-4 players, when using the market board for trading. At the start of the game, each player receives a Cultural Heritage card that can be used for a one-time trading points bonus during the game.
Accessories
The The East – Deluxe Game Mat (2024) is a neoprene game mat at 125% scale of the original cardboard map that offers an enlarged playing area and high-quality design for easier and more immersive gameplay.
The Identifier Cards Bonus Pack (2024) is a set with 18 large player identifier cards, one for each of the empires included in The West and The East. These can be used for distributing the empires among the players during setup, to identify which stack of civilization advances belongs to which player, or to divide acquired cards from not yet acquired ones during the game.
Wrap-up
Mega Empires: The East is a long strategic board game about development, trade, culture, politics and showing resilience when dealing with calamities. The game is a perfect fit for larger groups of strategic board game enthusiasts, which, due to its scalability, can also be played in smaller groups. It is not just a game, it is an experience!
—description from the designers
Ancient, Bluffing, City Building, Civilization, Economic, Memory, Mythology, Nautical, Negotiation, Pirates, Political, Prehistoric, Real-time, Territory Building, Wargame · Advantage Token, Area Majority / Influence, Area Movement, Betting and Bluffing, Bribery, Hand Management, Memory, Negotiation, Real-Time, Set Collection, Take That, Tech Trees / Tech Tracks, Trading, Variable Player Powers
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