I've just received my free copy of ADG's 7 Ages - 6,000 Years of Human History and it's beautiful. Having playtested it off and on for the past six years I may be biased. But it's fun. Even now the job is done, 7 of us have been meeting on the last few Monday nights playing with a proof copy. Seven players makes for an interesting game. All my previous play throughs have been with a 4- 5- or 6-player game. With seven players six of the players each have two empires with their two counter mixes. But the seventh player has a third empire with the elite black counter mix. Watching the play in this, and the previous six player game, I'm not sure that having a third empire is beneficial. In theory, a third empire should be good, because it's one more empire scoring Glory points for you each turn. But the way Glory scoring works - typically you want to be one of the three biggest empires in the world, be top two in money, largest in China etc - large, powerful and rich empires score well and second rate empires score poorly. Having only two empires means you can focus on these and use your third action - often using the Wild chit - as either Destiny or Civilise. This allows card throughput - Destiny to fill your hand, Civilise to play 'gotcha' cards on neighbours and rivals. Running three empires you find yourself card poor and may have to have one of your empires play Destiny from time to time, which does nothing to develop that empire. [Although there is an advantage of playing Destiny on an empire rather than the empty 3rd space - your hand-size goes from 5 to 6, or 7 if it is an advanced Empire.] The other downside of having a third empire is that it makes that particular empire a target for jealous players who want a third empire of their own. Typically they will try to strike the final blow the turn before they become the first player and hence will be first to take a Start Empire action. A useful counter-play - used against me in the latest game - is to have an Oi! It's My Go card ready to play when your 3rd empire is taken out. Back to Table of Contents -- Game! # 11 To Game! List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by George Phillies. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com