What is Imperial? It's another variant of Diplomacy! Well, that's what it looks like. However, unlike Diplomacy, you can play it in an evening, and - I think - it offers far more enjoyment.

Craig may disagree, though. Well, he'd probably not disagree on the Diplomacy part, but he didn't enjoy Imperial at all. This is a pity, because I really enjoyed the game, and I think Mike did as well.

Meanwhile, Randy, Rich, Troy and Patrick were enjoying a game of Shogun. In the end, both games ended at about the same time.

Imperial is a game that looks like a wargame. In fact, it isn't. Well, only insofar as that you probably maximise the revenues of your country by conquering neutral territories, and minimise the revenues of you foes by invading theirs. But really, it's about investing in countries, and making sure they give you back a good rate of return.

Not that we realised that when we played our first game. It was all about invading our opponents and making them pay for the invasions they hadn't executed yet, but they were thinking of!

Oh, and it was also about Mike buying up every country on the board so they all fell under his control.

One of the great things about Imperial is how control of a country is not fixed. I began the game controlling Austria and England. At the end of the game, I controlled only Germany. How did that happen? Mike loaned more money to the other countries than I did. Then he got it back from the governments - interest on loans is a wonderful thing - and invested it some more. As the game progressed, Mike and I happily swapped our countries back and forth.

This provides some excellent changes in how the game is played - somewhat reminiscient of another of my favourite games, Tigris and Euphrates. Since control of powers can change, Germany and Austria may be in a massive war one turn, and then find themselves allied - both under the control of the same player. I love this!

Italy, which was the only country Craig controlled after a few turns - just sat out of things for the most part. It really wasn't a game that clicked for Craig, which is a great pity.

Of course, it also meant that Italy, not being involved in all the wars and having a great defense fleet, taxed more than we did, and ended up being the nation to reach 25 VPs first, and thus end the game.

Then things got interesting. How much money had we made? The power of the various nations gave us a multiply for our bonds. We had some cash of our own. How much were our investments really worth?

Italy was worth a lot, let me tell you. That's why Craig did so well.

Merric: $116 million
Mike: $127 million
Craig: $135 million.

Craig hadn't enjoyed the game, and hadn't done much, but he still won! Serves us right for leaving him alone.

Mike noted that if he'd made his last investment in Italy, he would have won the game... we'll keep that in mind for our next game, which will probably not include Craig, but will probably include Randy who really would like this game!