When I bought Imperial I was looking for something a bit different to add to my collection. I had economic games like Agricola and Puerto Rico, and I had tactical games like Memoir '44 and Warhammer 40K. Being a big computer RTS fan, I was looking for something that combined the two. I tried Starcraft, but it seemed to mimic the video game so much that it seemed simpler to just play the video game. Then I tried Imperial.

Synopsis - Imperial is an econonmic game with a military element. You are an investor that is speculating on the success of one of six nations. As an investor, you buy bonds from a nation that will pay you interest from time to time. If you end up having the most invested in a nation, you will take over control of that nation. At the end of the game, the player who has the most points will be the winner. You will receive the most points by having stock in the most successful nations.

Target Audience - This game is appropriate for anyone who likes strategy games. I would not recommend it for children under 11 or 12. This is a game that you could play with some friends who may not be big gamers. Just be aware that they may not do so well the first game as most new players seem to miss the real objective and get too caught up in the military aspect of the game.

Number of Players - The game is rated for 2-6 players. While I have played the game with two players, and had quite a bit of fun, the game is very different and a lot more fun with more players. In a two player game, you find yourself using the military a lot more than you do with more players. I think things change quite a bit when you have four or more players. Because you are investing in these nations, you may have a vested interest in a certain nation doing well, and you may even find yourself helping another player by protecting their interests from someone else. In the two player game, this doesn't happen because (most of the time) you want the other player to do poorly no matter what. The game is very fun with two players, but more players is more fun.

Complexity - I actually find the BGG weight rating to be slightly high in comparisson to other games in the same range. Of course the game has more going on than your typical department store game, however I think that the rules are simple enough to understand that almost anyone can learn and play. The complexity of this game really hits the sweet spot for me. I like to have a very slightly heavy game, but I don't like it so complicated that it causes the game to drag. I personally give the game a weight rating of about 3.2.

Time - The game actually flows fairly well. Players will generally have their next action mainly planned out. The time to play increases only slightly with more players. The same actions and the same number of nations are always played in every game. The game is rated for 120 minutes, and I think that is pretty accurate.

Rule Book - The rule book is good. There are a couple of things that I think could use clarification (as with most games), but overall, it is well organized and logically ordered. It is easy to learn to play by playing the game and reading the rule book at the same time. There are a few typos or grammatical errors, but that is really irrelevant.

Components - The components are great. I love how the game has its own wooden pieces and doesn't just use standard wooden blocks or chips. The bond cards are thick cardboard, and the board is sturgy and nice. The only part that I didn't like was the paper money. It seems a bit flimsy, and I generally just don't like paper money, but maybe that's just me.

Game Play - Each nation takes a turn in order. Austria goes first followed by Italy, France, GB, Germany, and Russia. There are six different actions that a nation can take and are represented on the Rondel shown here. As a nation moves around the Rondel, it can mvoe up to three spaces from its current location for free, and three additional spaces for an additional $2,000,000 each paid by the player.



Factory - The nation can build a factory for $5,000,000
Production - Every unoccupied factory can produce one troop for free (either infantry or naval depending on the type of factory)

Maneuver - Every military unit controlled by the nation can move one space outside of its nation, or if its nation is not occupied, it can move for free across any number of spaces in its own nation. After movement is completed, tax chips are laid on the board if the new area is neutral and unoccupied.

Investor - This can be the most exciting action. When a nation lands on this action space, the nation pays out interest to all players who hold its bonds with the controller of the nation receiving payment last. Landing on or moving past this space also activates the investor card. The person holding the investor card then receives $2,000,000 and is allowed to buy any nation's bond. The investor card is then passed to the left where it waits to be activated again.

Import - The nation may purchase three military units for the cost of $1,000,000 each.

Taxation - The nation and player are paid by the bank. The bank pays $1,000,000 for every one of the nation's tax chips on the board, and $2,000,000 for every factory that the nation has. From that amount, the nation pays $1,000,000 for each military unit, and the remainder is paid to the nation. Also, this action will move the nation's marker up a track at the bottom of the board that will increase the value of the nation's bonds and give the holders of those bonds more points at the end of the game. Once the nation's marker has moved to the end of the track, the game ends and everyone adds up their points.

As you notice there is no randomness. There are no cards or dice, and considering that my group has one or two people that always blame their losses on poor cards or poor dice rolling, it is nice to put total control in the payers' hands.