Imperial - The Game

I'm surprised that a new popular game in my board game group is Imperial. This is a game that looks much like an advanced Diplomacy or Risk variant with a map mainly of Europe with the powerful Empires moving in a set order. The pieces are control markers, factories, armies, and navies but what is happening on the map is only the surface. In reality players are playing as the international financiers who are loaning these countries money and if they have a majority control in a country get to decide what to build and who to go to war with and what territories to take over to maximize their investments. The financiers don't only invest in one Empire and control can easily switch in a game. If Germany looks like it is losing a war just place your new investments in the winning countries, particularly if you can gain control.

I'm surprised the mainly conservative group is playing a game based on tales of the Bavarian Illuminati or hidden secret rich Jewish cabals. The game looks good, I've yet to play. This type of historical abstract games can be pretty non-PC. Another popular board game game is Puerto Rico with a very abstract colony development. A big part of the game is importing slaves to work your plantations and factories. In the game slaves have been renamed colonists and their pieces are brown instead of black. Twilight Struggle, which I would like to get, recreates the Cold War and many of the events. I like it that whoever starts World War 3 immediately loses. "Back down General LeMay, you want us to lose!"

Cross referenced in my game blog.

Tags: games, imperialism, Imperial, Illuminati, Risk, non-pc, WW3, Puerto Rico, Twilight Struggle