From: Tracy Johnson Subject: [consim-l] Worth It's Weight in Plastic - AH's "History Of The World" A mini-review. I purchased one of Avalon Hill's new releases yesterday, "History Of The World". It follows in the genre started by Milton Bradley's "Axis & Allies" and "Shogun" of a large board and plastic pieces for ages 12 and up. To sum it up: --- It is Risk meets Axis & Allies meets Civilization.* --- - It has a large multicolord mounted board in 4 sections of the World using a stylized Risk areas with a "T in O" concept of world projection from the Midaeval period. In other words the map is centered primarily on Jerusalem and the Mediterranean and the rest of the world is oriented to it. A lot of effort was put into the map artwork. There are 6 sets of monocolored soldier pieces of about about 100 for each Player. They are of 7 shapes which represent a an army from 7 historical "Epochs" of the game. Starting from an Egyptian to a Imperial British soldier of the 1800's. There are plastic markers that represent cites, capitals, forts and monuments. Note: The pieces were Pre-Cut (no sprue!) and the cities and monuments were vacuum metalized! The reverse side of a city piece had the gold color metalization, when flipped over stood for your empire's capital. What this tells me is that the components were probably manufactured in China. A Western country wouldn't have spent the labor to cut the sprue nor to mask half a piece for the metalization process. There are about 104 glossy cards which represent various things from your "Empire" assignment for the current "Epoch" to "Greater" and "Lesser" events. The events can be disasters similar to Civilization* or tactical advantages. The game combat systems is EXACTLY like a Risk battle of 2 pieces attacking one piece. The attacker rolls 2 dice and the defender rolls 1 die. Tie goes to the defender. Since there can only be one Army in an area this cuts down on the multitudinous die rolls. Terrain or Event card advantages can increase the dice or add pips to the rolls. Like Civilization*, Players expand their empires by simply placing pieces in empty or owned areas. If owned, you must fight for it. The game is playable in an evening, there are only 7 round called "Epochs" in which to play. Once an "Epoch" is over, points are scored and you move to the next "Epoch, (like Civilization.) Only the number of Players increase the game length, because you have to go through more Players to complete an "Epoch". The unique game concept that I've never seen in this type of "Empire building" type strategic wargame, is once an "Epoch" is over, Players start afresh with new civilizations abandoning the movement of their previous civilizations. It's like the game has a "reset button" 6 times in the game. Although the Player keeps all previous civilizations for scoring purposes, he re-scores them every "Epoch" he just can't move them. Oddly enough, it is possible for a civilization started in "Epoch I" of 3000-1400BC to still be around in "Epoch VII", 1550-1914AD (thats 1550-1914CE for you politically correct types.) For some reason, I thought there should be a tactical advantage should a newer "Epoch"'s army should it attack an older "Epoch"'s army, not so. Loser of the previous "Epoch" gets an advantage at the start of the next "Epoch" in that he gets to draw first of the avialble new civilizations. If he thinks it's crap, he gets to pass it on to the next lowest loser of the prior "Epoch", if the next Player thinks it's garbage too, he in turn passes it on. This goes until all Players get a new civilization starting point. Winner of the game wins by cumulative scoring of all the points which is kept on the board by moving a piece around the edge of the board on a 100 point track. Various areas of the board increase or decrease in value based on the current "Epoch" in play. * The board game Civilization, NOT Sid Meier's Computer Game. -- BT NNNN Tracy Johnson Justin Thyme Productions Sponsors Free Multiuser Wargaming on the WEB at: http://hp3000.empireclassic.com/ From: "Bliss, Gordon D" Subject: RE: [consim-l] Worth It's Weight in Plastic - AH's "History Of Th e World" 2 questions on your review of the new edition of HOTW. You mention that defender wins ties - if this is true it is a major change from the previous edition where ties were a re-roll (and there were a couple of event cards that allowed the attacked to win ties). Also, you mentioned that the loser of the previous epoch gets to pick first - this used to be based on whoever had the lowest army strength total - have they changed it to be lowest victory points in the epoch ? Thanks, Gordon From: Tracy Johnson Subject: Re: [consim-l] Worth It's Weight in Plastic - AH's "History Of The World" 1st question will be answered in another post. Yes, they changed it to the lowest VP's in the epoch. Which I heard that used to be the "original" method. The lowest army strength total, seemed to be something AH put in when it was first bought. "Bliss, Gordon D" wrote: > > 2 questions on your review of the new edition of HOTW. > You mention that defender wins ties - if this is true it is a major change > from the previous edition where ties were a re-roll (and there were a couple > of event cards that allowed the attacked to win ties). > Also, you mentioned that the loser of the previous epoch gets to pick first > - this used to be based on whoever had the lowest army strength total - have > they changed it to be lowest victory points in the epoch ? > Thanks, > Gordon > > -- BT NNNN Tracy Johnson Justin Thyme Productions Sponsors Free Multiuser Wargaming on the WEB at: http://hp3000.empireclassic.com/ From: Tracy Johnson Subject: Re: [consim-l] AH's "History Of Th e World" Yes I stand corrected. As well as playing my first 4 games of it incorrectly. Although the incidents of ties weren't that many. There is also an "Attacker wins Ties Event card." "Santagato, L. Roger" wrote: > > On July 1, Tracy Johnson wrote: > > >A mini-review....Avalon Hill's...."History Of The World".....Tie goes to > the >defender. > > I just got back from the WBC (old AvalonCon). What I heard there was that > on ties the defender AND the attacker each lost an army. Again, only what I > heard. > > Roger Santagato > Last 3: a lot I was at the WBC -- BT NNNN Tracy Johnson Justin Thyme Productions Sponsors Free Multiuser Wargaming on the WEB at: http://hp3000.empireclassic.com/ From: Tracy Johnson Subject: Re: [consim-l] Worth It's Weight in Plastic - AH's "History Of The World" I stand corrected again. It isn't specific to whom you pass the card to. You may pass it to any Player, and that Player is stuck with it. This changes factors to the decision, such as you may now simply pass it to a Player you don't like. Matt Deaville wrote: > > This is a major change also. Part of the strategy used to be deciding who > to pass the card onto. If you are forced to pass it onto the > next lowest loser then it takes away the decisions like: > > a) red went last in the previous Epoch and so has lots of armies on the > board > b) I have drawn a card that is reasonably good but goes last in the Epoch > > So do I keep it for myself or pass it to red giving people a chance to beat > up red > before their turn so they don't score the same armies again? > > Reducing it to a keep or pass decision. > > Matt > > > Loser of the previous "Epoch" gets an advantage at the start > > of the next "Epoch" in that he gets to draw first of the > > avialble new civilizations. If he thinks it's crap, he gets > > to pass it on to the next lowest loser of the prior "Epoch", > > if the next Player thinks it's garbage too, he in turn passes > > it on. This goes until all Players get a new civilization > > starting point. > > -- BT NNNN Tracy Johnson Justin Thyme Productions Sponsors Free Multiuser Wargaming on the WEB at: http://hp3000.empireclassic.com/