(reposted from Hardcore Ludography)

On Sunday Al, Rachel, James, and I played In the Shadow of the Emperor, one of only three games by Ralf Burkert, available from Rio Grande Games.

We had played it a long while back (it's Al's copy) and I remembered little about it. When I suggested it, Rachel gave a "yes, please!" as she was eager to learn it. So Al brought it by and we booted it up on the table.

In the Shadow of the Emperor (SoE) is a tough game to describe. There's sort of area majority. There's elections. The money functions sort of like action points. Negotiation is possible. You can kill your opponents' characters. You have a baby every round. It's got a little something for everyone.

At its heart it's a game about intrigue. The theme involves various nobles vying for power in the Holy Roman Empire, and the theme is rock solid here.

Without giving you the entire rules breakdown, here's the gist. On your turn you will get money, tracked in the upper left. The money isn't really money -- you use it to pay for various actions and it tops out at 12 so it's more like an action point system. With your money you can select from various action cards. The cards do things such as allow you to put nobles onto the board, move them, add knights (underpowered nobles that can be pushed out by proper nobles but still provide influence), alter the voting conditions for the upcoming election, build cities (provide influence in a district plus some extra "income"), or just plain get victory points.

There are also "doctor" cards. The 15-25-35-45 around the counters? That's that person's age. Doctors can make them younger or older (plus they will age naturally -- be rotated a quarter turn -- every round). If they get turned past 45...well, let's just say they retire from public life to spend more time with their family.

All of these actions alter the power in the districts, of which there are seven. The four at the bottom are secular districts; individuals or couples can control them. The three in the middle are religious districts, and only single barons can control them (though couples can contribute to the power there.) After everyone has done all the actions they want to do, you check each district to see if control has changed. If so, the old controller is downgraded and the new controller gets the electorate seat. Each electorate seat comes with some kind of special ability.

If someone picked the "Rival" action card, there's an election. The players cast their electors' votes for either the current Emperor or the rival. Then, whoever won the election gets the benefit of being the Emperor (victory points, money, "imperial cities" -- plus you get to break all ties!) You play for five rounds, person with the most VPs wins.

So far, this is pretty standard stuff. However, there are a number of elements that raise SoE above the average.

1) For taking control of an electorate, you get 2 VP, plus you get to use the benefit of the electorate. For maintaining your control of an electorate, you get to use the benefit of the electorate. It doesn't take a super-canny player to realize the goal is in the taking, not the keeping. Unlike many area influence games where you are rewarded for grabbing and holding territory, SoE rewards grabbing and then ignoring. The only reason to keep an electorate is to prevent someone else from getting the 2 VP, but it won't help you much!

2) The age mechanic is pretty cool. I've seen very few games in which pieces gradually decay and are lost. Plus, it's fun to use the doctor to age an opponent's baron to death!

3) Each action card is blue or pink. When you use one, you keep it in front of you until the next turn, at which you tally up how many of each color you have. If you have more blue than pink, you just gave birth to a son! You can now place an age 15 noble onto the board. Otherwise, it's a bouncing baby girl, who you can either marry off to an opponent (they get to upgrade a single noble to a couple, which adds power; you get a VP) or ship off to a convent (since doing so earns you 1 gold, I think she might be going to a "convent".)

All of these things drive home the concept that this is intrigue for its own sake. Having an electorate isn't nearly as cool as getting one. And frankly, being the Emperor isn't that great! It's hard to not see a mass of scheming nobles marrying off their daughters to each other and poisoning their rivals just for a shot at maybe getting to be head of the Diocese of Trier for a month.

What's even more great about SoE is that all of this is packed into a small and inexpensive game! Thoughthammer has this game brand new for seventeen bucks!

I think everyone walked away from Sunday's session with a good appreciation for this underrated game. The next day, Rachel and I joined an online game of SoE on MaBi Web. I'm looking forward to having it hit the table again soon, and wouldn't mind having my own copy. In the Shadow of the Emperor deserves a lot more appreciation than it's gotten.