Introduction

Rise and Fall was published in 1989 by Engelmann Military Simulations. It was designed by one “Karsten Engelmann, Military Analyst”, whatever that last may mean. Its subject is the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of the barbarians. One to six players may play, each taking the role of the Western or Eastern Roman Empire, the Persian Empire, or a barbarian group. The hook with this game, which is otherwise rather simple, is that players who are knocked out can re-enter the game later with a new barbarian group.

Components

1 22"x34" area movement map, from England to the Caspian and from Denmark to Arabia
1 18 page rulebook 1 summary and clarification sheet 1 player aid sheet 1 pad of turn record sheets
5 10-sided dice
576 diecut 5/8" counters (cf. counter manifest)

All of the above is packaged in a 2” bookcase box, with cover art consisting of a pencil-crayon drawing of what appears to be Jimmy Durante, dressed as a legionary, about to be dispatched by an axe-wielding Karl Marx wearing a plaid tablecloth.

Counter Manifest

There are 576 counters. They are printed on one side only. There are six identical sets of player counters (black on white, black on red, black on blue, black on yellow, black on green, and white on black) featuring rather crude icons of a swordsman, a cavalryman, a tower, and a galley. Each set consists of:

25 infantry
15 cavalry
20 forts
10 fleets
1 Capitol marker (star)
1 Leader counter (crown)
6 blanks, to denote player control of an area when necessary

There are also 72 independent kingdom and 36 revolting infantry counters. They are red on white.

Collector’s Value

Engelmann Military Simulations is, of course, a third world game publishing company, as most of them are now, though the quality of the components is quite good compared to some of the shirt-cardboard-and-xerox garbage I’ve seen (and sometimes even been responsible for). Quantities of the game would therefore be limited but the game does not appear to be in high demand. Boone quotes low, high and average prices of 5/28/14.75 at auction and 10/ 40/20.33 for sale.

Player’s Value

The game’s thesis derives from the ideas of Arnold Toynbee, whose work should be familiar to all of us: barbarian groups coalesce and expand to form national kingdoms, which in turn form multi-national empires which, due to internal and external pressures, ultimately collapse into a collection of barbarian groups which repeat the cycle over again. Whether this is true or not, it makes for a good mechanic in a multi-player game where a player may be knocked out early in the evening and doesn’t want to spend the rest of the night drinking Dr. Pepper and leafing through old issues of Fire & Movement, waiting for his ride home.

There is a good variety of scenarios in the game: players can start as imperialists and defend themselves from barbarians, or everyone can start as a barbarian and build from scratch.

In a turn, a player will first check whether he changes his status. This is determined by time and a die roll: a player who starts as a barbarian must stay at that level for at least four turns, then starts rolling to see if he makes the jump to kingdom. After eleven turns as a kingdom, he starts rolling to see if he becomes an empire. Empires that do not maintain a minimum level of income or lose their capitol unit fall, to be replaced by a new barbarian group. Moving up in status imposes and lifts restrictions on a player: for example, a barbarian group cannot build fortifications but does not have to pay maintenance on its forces, while empire forces are better in quality but cost more to maintain.

Next, barbarian players will take their free levies while empire players will check for internal revolts. Then comes movement (surprisingly, while the combat value of a player’s units rises as he gains in status, he never gets any more mobile) and combat. Combat is based on units rolling dice against their combat value and a small range of modifiers, trying to score hits to eliminate enemy units. Last comes the income and victory phases. The income phase -- getting and spending -- calls for some bookkeeping as players extort taxes, maintain existing armies, buy new ones, and tot up their victory points. Victory points are based on income and added from turn to turn, and the player who reaches a preset total of points first wins the game.

To keep the game from becoming a completely generic exercise, there are a few optional rules: five types of leaders, each with special abilities; national characteristics that make one nation’s infantry/cavalry/ships a bit more effective; allowing uncivilized areas to become civilized after they have been ruled for long enough by a kingdom or empire; and other bits and pieces that you may be familiar with from other strategic ancients games.

Hey, Waitaminnit...

And it was then that I began to wonder, and I fetched down a copy of a game in my close that I hadn’t looked at in years. It was Barbarian, Kingdom and Empire (BK&E), published in 1983 by Icarus Games. I started comparing components and rules. Here was another game, published six years before Rise and Fall, whose hook was that one to six players could take the role of barbarian groups or existing empires, fighting to gain power or preserve what they had, and could easily begin again as a barbarian group if they got knocked out of the game! What’s this? In BK&E, barbarian units don’t need to be maintained, but kingdom units do, as well as improving in combat power?

And when I become a king, I get a capitol unit I have to protect? And my transition to Emperor comes as a random event after a set number of turns? Gee, it’s as if someone was reading someone else’s mind. The designer notes at the end of the Rise and Fall rulebook:

“Rise and Fall started one day in March when my (then) fiance [sic] went to Mexico for a week. I looked at my game collection and decided I needed something new. I was in an ancient’s [sic] mood ... and wanted to play a game on Rome. I felt that a new game on the subject was warranted. So away I went.”

I am not suggesting that this game was plagiarized wholesale -- there remain some important differences, and frankly in my opinion BK&E is the more comprehensive and detailed of the two games. But the similarities are marked. Editor Kula told me that Engelmann has appeared online on the Consim-l mailing list to deny that Rise and Fall is a rip-off of the former game: I didn’t get a chance to read the exchange, but I just nod and say: “Sure, OK.”

Support Material

The following articles have appeared supporting or commenting on the game: Wargamer 2, #12: “Production Spiral” by designer Engelmann Wargamer 2, #16: Developer’s comments and another article Fire & Movement #65: review article

Other Games of This Type

Well, besides BK&E, there are numerous designs on the fall of Rome as well as empire-building from scratch. Of the latter, certainly Sid Meier’s Civilization series of computer games is perhaps the most popular, and obsessively fascinating. Others include: IV Against Rome and Imperator (3W); VI Caesars (Citadel); Alaric the Goth/Attila the Hun (SSG); Ancient Conquest 1 & 2 (Excalibre); Attila, Scourge of God (XTR); The Barbarians (Yaquinto); Decline and Fall (REG); Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Ariel); Empires of the Middle Ages (SPI); Fall of Rome (SPI and Decision Games); and Imperium Romanum (West End).

Other Games by This Designer

Shattered States and Crisis Games: Columbia (EMS).

What the Designer Posted
From: Kaarin Engelmann
Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2000

You might want to tell them, from the designer, that the game is not an update of Barbarian Kingdom & Empire. It is a completely separate game. Never any connection at all. If people are interested in asking questions or getting together to play Rise and Fall, they should email me or Karsten at karstenengelmann@hotmail.com.