Napoleon found it exile-erating… Hitler found it a rough pill to swallow … Ghenghis figured it was just a Khan game … Alexander did it, and then keeled over. What is it? It's World Domination, and despite the aforementioned pitfalls, Avalon Hill's latest foray into the Mass Market, History of the World, makes it a lot of fun to try! Stephen Kendall's game, previously published by The Ragnar Brothers (in England) pits 2 to 6 players (the more the merrier) as auditioners for "Clash of the Titans II", a bunch of Greek gods responsible for controlling the fates of seven different empires over seven epochs of history. The object of the game is to collect victory points by establishing presence, domination, or control of geographical areas of the world. HotW is basically the same game les frères Ragnar produced, with a few minor changes for the better. I do miss the old map, though, which appears to have been drawn on a tea cozie.
There are a significant number of components in the game, all professionally done and to the high standards you expect from the Hill. Both decks of cards - the Empire deck and the Events deck - are lavishly illustrated, although the Events Decks is a bit too small for comfort. I also have a beef with the counters, which represent cities, fortress, monuments and ships by using different, geometric shapes. The triangles and ovals did add much to the visual impact. However, they were quite difficult to punch out. I suggest availing yourself of a sharp knife … if you are allowed to use such objects. As for the map, it, too, is colorful, although - again, a caveat - some adjacent areas are colored in shades so close that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the colors. And speaking of colors, is their some Big Brother Poster on the wall in Baltimore that says "Thou Shalt Use Purple Pastels At All Times. The boxcover resembles nothing less than those fur-fur, lavendar-flavored breath mints one used to find decades ago. Maybe this explains why I never went into marketing… .
Wait! Something is missing here. If you read the back of the box, you find the printed promise of a game tray. Well, I searched high, and I searched low … but nary a sign of aforesaid tray. Hopefully this is an individual oversight, as opposed to an upper-management bait-and-switch scheme worthy of a Geraldo Rivera investigation. Fat Men without Trays, and the Women Who Left Them. Video tape at 5.
Do not, however, let my perception concerning these component "flaws" detract from the actual game, because once you get past the somewhat confusing rules this is a game worthy of the gods it seeks to portray. The rules are somewhat confusing, though: not in how they are written but more in how they are presented. Before tackling the rules proper, you are instructed to read the "Read This First", first. This brief, and somewhat skewed, example of several game turns features four Greek gods/players who seem to have all drunk some metaphysical hemlock. Skip over this pamphlet, read the rules first, and eliminate any doubt about how to play the came correctly.
By this time you will be most aware this is not a simulation - by even the most remote definition; it is a game. However, it is a fun game, one highly accessible to all factions of gamers. Only the most grundy-esque grognard will fail to be amused and entertained by History of the World. The mechanics are very easy to understand, but there are plenty of decisions to make, so that players will not feel there time is being wasted in mindless effort.
The players are, in essence, gods, each trying to muck around with an empire from one of seven different epochs. At the start of each turn, players draw an Empire card. You may keep the card or pass it one. If you pass the card, the receiver must keep the card, not looking at it until the card draw phase is completed. This provides some of the more interesting and difficult decisions in the game. The leader in the game at that time is usually passed the worst card, like the Incas and Aztecs in Epoch VI, a tough play unless you're given to original recipes for chili. However, a player passing a card has several key points to consider: 1) The card the player receives down the line could be worse than what he's passing, and 2) A poor civilization could still benefit that leader, if its order in the epoch is very early. Because at least one empire will not be played in each epoch (except the first epoch if you are playing with six players), there is always an element of uncertainty in this aspect of the game. The draw sequence, from lowest to highest cumulative empire strength also manages to keep all players relatively competitive throughout the game.
Before play gets underway, each ersatz god draws 9 event cards, a maximum of two which may be played each turn. When to use events becomes a strategic decision, a major change to the original game, where events were totally random. Now each item is truly a deus ex machina. In general, events will give a limited benefit for the turn, such as an additional attack die, or barbarians who will storm out of the wastelands and trash adjacent territories, thus freeing a player's units from combat, etc. You randomists in the crowd, those of you who desire a truly wild game, can only hope that AH prints the original random event tables.
When a player's turn comes he reveals his Empire card and begins his actions. The Empire card lists the pertinent vital statistics, starting location, strength, sea capability, capital, etc., of each empire. Play consists of placing one of the allotted number of tokens on that empire's starting space, then expanding to adjacent areas. All actions must be able to trace a line back to the empire's starting area through the current player's units of the current epoch. Within that basic guideline, a player is free to exercise his whim with his empire, with only a few exceptions. If a player has sea capability, he must build at least one ship.
If a player desires to move into a land occupied by enemy hordes, combat occurs. In general, the attacker rolls 2 dice, and the defender rolls 1 die. If attacked across difficult terrain, the defender rolls two dice. High roll wins, ties re-roll, and the loser removes one token. Overly simplistic? Perhaps, but it is definitely fast, furious, fun … definitely in keeping with the theme of the game. While the system treats Caesar's Legions the equal of soldiers of Napoleon, you can rest assured that nobody trying to learn the game will get confused about what a ZOC is, why he has to round down to 3 - 1, what column of the IRA-IFT to check, or whether or not case 13.B.2.ii6 is applicable to a particular battle.
At the end of his turn a player calculates his score for the epoch , not at the end of the epoch! This can have dramatic results if a player does extremely well as the last empire in one epoch, and is fortunate to draw or receive an early empire in the next epoch. But while the scoring is straightforward, the counting can get a bit crazy. Capitals are worth 2 points. Control of seas, cities and monuments (which are built by controlling lands with resource symbols) are worth 1 point each. The majority of a players points, however, come from the occupation of the 13 areas on the board. Occupation is a suit with three pairs of pants: presence, domination and control. It is also dependent on how many of the lands within a particular area are occupied by the phasing player. Not all areas have the same number of lands, and the victory points awarded for each area vary by epoch. One interesting point is that remnants of early empires DO count when a player calculates his occupation level of a particular land.
Obviously, with a game as mechanically simple as HotW, strategy must play an important role if the game is to be successful. HotW does not disappoint . In general, and somewhat obviously, you are trying to do as well as possible with your empire in each epoch. This depends on what empire has been drawn including its size and starting location, what areas will yield the greatest victory points in the current epoch, and how difficult it will be to establish different levels of presence in each area. Consideration also needs to be given to whether an empire's gains are to be viewed as a short term or long term investment. It also goes without saying (Ed. although it hasn't, I see) that you need to give some thought to hindering other players. As is the case with similarly, styled multi-player games, cooperation between the "trailers" is necessary to catch the leader. It is not easy (sometimes impossible), nor is it the most advantageous course of action, to march your troops against the enemy hordes, but knowing when and if it has to be done is critical. Otherwise, your opponents will gladly take a few free victory points each turn for a half dozen units which remain scattered on the board.
Because of the variability in the number of players and the assignment of empires, no two games should ever play the same. Thus, players cannot rely on set strategies to do well in HotW. They must depend on their ability to perform well in an ever changing environment. THAT is the beauty of this excellent game, yet another totem of TAHGC's efforts to become a cross-over, mass market company. A few more like this and they can probably start singing "Eternal Father, Strong to Save" over the burial remains of ASL.
CAPSULE COMMENTS:
Graphic Presentation: Solid, but keep humming "Deep Purple". A definite improvement over the quaintly quirky original.
Playability: Eminent.
Replayability: A major plus.
Creativity: Both the original, and the new version, score high marks for knowing what "gamers" want to do. And here I thought the Ragnar Brothers was a missing sketch from Monty Python.
Historicity: Actually, not a bad surface study of empires and where and when they occurred in relation to each other. Well, perhaps a bit hazier than "not bad".
Comparisons: Risk meets Britannia. Far less complex than, say, Civilization.
Overall: I don't care what you like to play, you will thoroughly enjoy this game.
from Avalon Hill
One 22" by 32" mounted map (in two sections); 4 counter sheets (724 counters); one deck of empire cards; one deck of event cards; rules folder; example of play folder; 5 dice; no game tray.
TAHGC, 4517 Harford Road, Baltimore, MD. $35.00
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© Copyright 1993 by Richard Berg
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