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You lead a grand civilization at the height of its influence, but can you save it from collapse? In Empire's End, 2-4 players compete to keep calamity at bay. Empire's End marries the intuitive and elegant mechanism of reverse-bidding with engine-building, long-term planning, and strategic depth. The result is a game with a quick tempo, abundant tension, and multiple challenging paths to victory. Players begin with a civilization at the height of its power. Play proceeds through a series of phases, varying as you progress through the game. During the Disaster phase, players face a common threat such as famine, a flood, or barbarians. The player who ends the bidding must take the disaster, which devastates one of their territories. With each disaster that befalls an empire, its people grow in wisdom and resilience. In the style of the modern classic game No Thanks, resources bid by all players will end up in the hands of the player who ultimately takes the disaster card. That player also gains a new ability, an innovation that reflects their empire's ability to adapt in the face of challenging times. Each turn, players move along a progress track that dictates whether they will face a disaster or another type of phase. Players can gain new resources during Production phases, rebuild lost territories during Industry phases, and challenge one another during Military phases. At the end of the progress track, the game is concluded and the winner is the civilization with the greatest number of victory points. Intact territories contribute points, but innovations and military successes can provide alternative ways to win.
| Year | 2023 |
|---|---|
| Designers | John D. Clair |
| Artists | Kwanchai Moriya |
| Publishers | Lucky Duck Games, Maldito Games, Broadway Toys LTD, Gémklub, Nice Game Publishing, Brotherwise Games |
| Players | 2–4 |
| Time | 45–60 min |
| Status | Want to play |
| BGG Rating | 6.9 |
| Categories | Ancient, Civilization |
| Mechanics | Auction / Bidding, Hand Management, Closed Economy Auction, Constrained Bidding, Income, Auction: Turn Order Until Pass, End Game Bonuses, Events, Increase Value of Unchosen Resources, Turn Order: Auction, Auction: Multiple Lot, Auction Compensation |
| BGG Rank | 2200 |
| Complexity | 2.42 / 5 |
| Language | Some necessary text - easily memorized or small crib sheet |
| Date | Location | Duration | Qty | Players | Scores | Winner | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
2023-10-06 | Spiel | – | 1 | MourningDragon, Pascal, Yashima | –, –, – |
My BGG Comment
SPIEL 2023. Mr Space Base does a civ game. There is some shared dna with SB. You’re 11 slot empire is in decline. For the start you have a building in every slot that gives you either some resource during production phases, some strength during military action or some building bonusses during building phases. But between those 3 phases are the catastrophes. And when those come up you better have some resources to pay to avoid getting hit… just like with No Thanks, the first person not to put something atop the catastrophe gets to take it and has to flip the slot determined by the catastrophe card to the “burning” side losing the bonus. As a slight mitigation they get to place the catastrophe which itselfs provides a bonus under a slot of their choice where it will help until that slot goes up in flames. The sequence of phases is fixed. There are 3 types of resources and coins as a joker. Slots can be repaired during building phase but if you spend too many resources to repair a slot you might just end up in the position that my partner had where he could not bid anymore and had to take a whole bunch of catastrophes. Even if they burn a slot already destroyed, it just skips over to the next one. I liked it fine. But my partner went down a dramatic decline after a few rounds and we had to end the game early because it was too frustrating for him to continue. We might have been missing some mitigation rule that might have helped him get out of the hole he dug for himself… the problem is No Thanks is a short silly game and this is not. Here having to bid first for the next catastrophe after you just got one because you have no resources… kind of makes some spiral inevitable and I doubt that this is correct. But maybe the game is just that punishing. I’ll check. I can’t buy it anyway after this experience.