Mega Empires (2021)

Mega Empires is a strategy board game that covers the development of civilizations through history, from the Stone Age to the Late Iron Age. It consists of 2 standalone games Mega Empires: The West (2019) and Mega Empires: The East (2021), which can be combined into a single game. Players lead their historic civilization as they gain victory points by expanding their population, building cities, trading and developing their knowledge and culture. The game's core mechanics are straightforward and easy to learn. A key element in the game is player interaction as they position themselves on the map board and search for valuable commodities during interactive trading sessions. The West concentrates on the Mediterranean Sea, which stimulates movement by ship. The East covers Northeast Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and Southwest Asia, and has a stronger focus on movement by land. Both games were designed as equally balanced counterparts, albeit with unique characteristics. Each player starts their civilization in the Stone Age with a single population token on the board. As the game progresses, the population will expand, spread over the board, sometimes engage in conflict, and build cities. Cities bring resources and wealth, expressed in trade cards. The more cities players manage to build on the board, the more trade cards they receive. Trade cards are mainly valuable commodities, but sometimes turn out to be disastrous calamities. —description from the designers