Though it may seem at first glance, Western Empires is not a wargame. Yes, conflict may be involved, but rather it is a game about history, culture, trade, development, and... calamities. The civilizations involved are all situated around the Mediterrainean Sea. The Romans, The Egyptians, The Celts and The Minoans. Players develop their own unique civilization in arts, crafts, science, civics and religion. Each player starts his civilization with a single population token, 8000 BC, but grows and grows over time, and eventually cities can be built. Cities of course bring wealth and fortune, but also… natural calamities such as epidemics, famine or earthquakes, or civil calamities such as pirate attacks, slave revolts and civil disorder.

This wealth is expressed in trade cards. The more cities, the more cards a player gets. These cards provide both trading commodities, and calamities. Trading is the heart of the game. Develop religion, democracy, improve science… 51 different advances can be developed in five different categories.

Maybe a player can even construct a wonder of the world, or scatter their people all over the map, and gain cultural ascendancy. The player that knows best how to work together, trade or battle for territory, defend his people against nature or enemies like barbarian hordes, and stand the test of time, eventually will win the game. After up to 12 hours of playing that is. The game can be expanded with Western Empires: The Special Buildings Expansion (2019).

When combining the board games Western Empires (2019) and Eastern Empires (2021) this forms: Mega Empires (2021), an 18-player experience. A full game of Mega Empires takes up to 13 hours to complete. This bundle contains both stand alone games, each of which can be played by 3-9 players and can be expanded with the two Special Buildings Expansions (2019) for either game or the combination of both games. Where Western Empires has a focus on sea travel and trade on the Mediterranean Sea, Eastern Empires follows the Silk Road to India and trading is done through the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula.