From: bgregory@nrel.nrel.gov (Brian Gregory) Subject: Re: How is History of the World? bispa@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu (Sureshrani Paintal) writes: > In reading the top ten games list, I noticed that History of the >World was number three. I wish to learn more about it but cannot find >any information on the net about it. If anyone could please give their >opinion on it, give an overview of it, and give me an estimate of how >much it would cost, I would greatly appreciate it. > Thanks in advance, > Ajit Paintal History of the World is sort of like where Risk meets Civilization. Like Risk, HotW has a board that covers the whole world and pushing people out of certain geographical areas to obtain resources (actually victory points) is the main thrust of the game. There's a lot of combat but fewer dice, because of fewer units, than in Risk. Like Civ, HotW involves more subtle strategy, as well as some loose bargaining with other players and a bit more of planning for the future than happens in Risk. What happens in the game is you pick a color. Each of the seven epochs you will pick (or be given) a card that determines which prominent empire of that period you will represent. This means you're given a starting place, possibly a capital, and a certain # of tokens; as an example the Aztecs/Incas are the smallest at 4, whereas Rome is the largest at 25 tokens. You expand your armies into adjacent territories from your starting point, attacking enemy tokens or replacing any of yours from previous turns. You then gain VPs at the end of your turn for territories occupied and for cities and monuments possessed. The geographical importance of certain regions changes as time goes by. The epochs span (from memory) from about 500 BC - Egypt - to 1914. The Middle East begins as the most important region, followed by India and China, thence slowly superceded by Southern and Northern Europe (Africa, Japan, Australia, greater Asia and the Americas slowly gain influence) as indicated by a sliding VP scale for each. One gains more VPs for a certain area if you've more tokens occupying the states of a region than other players. You can get an idea of these regions by looking at the back of the box, which has a reduced copy of the map printed on it. To add a bit of spice, each player also gets nine or so cards, that help one get extra armies, bonuses in combat, plagues to dump on others, kingdoms (minor empires) to add to your control, etc... Only two may be played per Epoch. GOOD THINGS ----------- You've got the fun of both Risk (combat) and Civilization (trading, planning, plotting and doublecross), so it is a very fun game. Pile on top that the 'empires' listed for each Epoch are actual from history, and the cards you hold and you've got very nice game. The best way to dis on someone out front is to pick a lousy Epoch card (the player with lowest aggregate tokens picks first) and dump it on the lead player! It does not pay to jump out too far too soon in this game. BAD THINGS ---------- It takes a long time, and ain't terribly cheap. This means 4-5 hours average and $40+. The part our group hates the most is the limited player inter- action. Once the cards have been dealt out, you don't have much to do until it's your turn, unless rolling die for defense of a territory is your idea of a rollicking good time (I think some do). Running the Romans or Mongols out can take a while. It plays well with 6 who know what they're doing, or pretty well when 3 take two colors each. OK with 5, but not so great with 4, because one player can 'set up' relatively undisturbed in one corner of the map. It's a good game, that I like, but pales a bit compared to some of the other fair my group likes: Cosmic, Junta and Die Siedler von Cataan. If I didn't have the above games, I'd buy it. If I'd the choice of buying any of the above, I'd have to decide which my group would like the most. It's a winner for the historical/combative types, but not as creative or involving as Cosmic, though its replay value is just as high. Good luck, and ask if you need more info. Brian