Author Topic: History of the World  (Read 7177 times)

tampamac2002

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History of the World
« on: October 20, 2008, 06:48:01 »
Recently played this game instead of D&D due to lower player turn out.
Ben, Chuck and myself played a game of History of the World.

It involved seven turns of epochs. Each turn the players chose a card at random, then decided to keep or pass to a player with out a card yet, since there were only three of us, we each played two colors to make sure the world was full of conflict. As the cards were chosen and distributed, the order of each turn was preset according to which civilization you were 'dealt'. From there, each turn, the weakest, using the strength number on each card, with the most victory points was able to draw a card first. Victory points were accumulated by totaling up each colors cities, monuments, capitals and land area control(ala Risk). Land area was broke up into three types, presence (one or more countries in an area), domination (three or more, having the most, no ties), or control (all countries in an area). Some land areas only became available later in the game, namely southern Africa and North America. There were also 9 cards dealt out to each player, you could use a limit of two each Epoch. Some cards gave bonus minor civilizations, some let a barbarian horde loose on the map, others involved treachery, sneak attacks, revolts, civil wars, pirates, allies, natural disasters and more.

As the game played out, my one color, Green, was hexed by have 4 out of 5 civilizations with no capital. That meant 2 less points each round, compounded. Ben was able to snag the uber powerful Roman card, which gave 25 'armies' in Epoch two. The usual strength of the civilizations was about 10 up to that point. However, my blue team came through with what was the game winner in turn 3, where I amassed an amazing 49 points, or so.

We had to cut the game short due to time constraints and only made it to the end of Epoch 5 of 7. Not sure who got second as the last two civilizations, green and purple, were not fully counted as it was obvious they would not beat blue.

Overall a fun game, took me two turns to fully grasp the concept and strategy concepts. Playing two colors allowed me to give my blue team a decent card a couple of turns, and a bad card twice to other 'super' powers.
"That which knocks us down, can only make us stronger. "   Yeah, right!

Dragon

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Re: History of the World
« Reply #1 on: October 20, 2008, 09:03:20 »
Thanks for posting a summary of the game. How would you rate it ao

History of the World is one game that has been on my wish list for quite a while. I wanted to get the Hasbro/Avalon Hill version when it first came out, but due to the time requirement to play I figured it would never happen.
"Hello IT. Have you tried turning it off and on again? ... OK, well, the button on the side. Is it glowing?... Yeah, you need to turn it on. Err, the button turns it on. Yeah, you do know how a button works, don't you? No, not on clothes." - Roy (The IT Crowd)

TylerChuit

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Re: History of the World
« Reply #2 on: October 20, 2008, 14:07:39 »
I might be more interested to play this if it was "History of the World: Part 1" the boardgame... or at least if I could say, "It's good to be the King," whenever I'm in the lead. ;D
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cinemax

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Re: History of the World
« Reply #3 on: October 20, 2008, 19:14:04 »
"Jump the Queen!"

Wyldwing

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Re: History of the World
« Reply #4 on: October 20, 2008, 19:55:03 »
"Sire....you look like the piss-boy!"

"And you look like a bucket of *censored*!"

 ;D

tampamac2002

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Re: History of the World
« Reply #5 on: October 21, 2008, 01:32:14 »
I never rated a board game before, so here goes.
Out of ten, I'd say an eight. You are never really out of it. If your past Epoch civilizations are wiped out, you still draw a card and get a new civ each Epoch. I didn't like that there are some civ's that get some kind of handicap. If your civ has ship capabilities, it means one of your strength must be used on a ship. Although, a plus is that you can use the ships for any Epoch, whereas the previous civilizations you had to take over. If you were taking previous civilization land that was your color, we just said you won the battles. However, we did roll for color against color. I found the far eastern civ's had only two choices for ships, Sea of Japan or South China Sea. Did I mention that you don't really move, like in Risk. You get a strength and just start laying your armies down on countries adjacent to your preset starting point, fighting or taking vacant lands.
As I mentioned, my green team had only one capital out of five opportunities. Since we each played two colors, an advantage could be given to one. (The game is intended for four to six players.) I used a barbarian card to wipe out all the troops surrounding the barren lands with my green team, only to set up the blue team to take over all the empty lands and cities.
I would play it again, for sure.

Not sure what all the jokes are, probably from some Mel Brooks movie or something. I did watch the movie, but don't remember all the colorful comments. :(
"That which knocks us down, can only make us stronger. "   Yeah, right!

Dragon

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Re: History of the World
« Reply #6 on: October 21, 2008, 01:49:51 »
Cool.

... And yes, those are quotes from the Mel Brooks movie. I couldn't remember any before, but now that the other guys posted them, I recognize them.  :D
"Hello IT. Have you tried turning it off and on again? ... OK, well, the button on the side. Is it glowing?... Yeah, you need to turn it on. Err, the button turns it on. Yeah, you do know how a button works, don't you? No, not on clothes." - Roy (The IT Crowd)