BLOG – GDJ Imperial Settlers – New toys, part 1

We Didn’t Start the Fire expansion for Imperial Settlers is a small Empire pack. One would say it is just a 50 card you’ll shuffle and hopefully, get some replayability. The other will say that these 50 cards changed the whole game.

How is that?

The expansion introduces the idea of Conquest action. Instead of spending 2 Raze tokens to Raze enemy Common location, you can now spend 2 Raze tokens to grab the most left Faction card in any row (either Production, Feature, or Action) in an enemy Empire, take it and add to your Empire. You just moved the border. Now, this building is in your area of influence. The border moved.

One small rule. Believe me. It changes everything.

The number of new synergies that are born is infinite. Romans play with Pyramids. Barbarians play with Administration. Japanese build Dark Chapels. There is a ton of crazy stuff going on. It drives some players crazy. It makes some players shout aloud with amazement.

For sure, it’s not an expansion for every fan of Imperial Settlers. It increases the direct interaction to a very high level. It changes the game from a nice family game into a brutal fight for buildings. It’s what’s your are gonna take from me and what’s I am going to take from you. It’s either me or you.

To help players enjoy the new mechanism, we added more Deals with Raze token, so there is a bigger chance you will get these 2 or 3 Raze tokens in your first or second round and you can do your first Conquest action. Deals pay a bigger role now and what’s more, the buildings from other expansions and the base game that allows you to steal enemy Deal are now much more interesting too.

And besides a ton of new cards and abilities for each faction, which I will discuss next week, we created a brand new type of a building – the Fortress. Fortress is immune to any game effect except a special Siege action. When you put Fortress in play it gives you nothing yet, but then, each round you can develop it and make it bigger and better. And at the end of each round player gains a number of Victory Points equal to the level of his Fortress. It’s an expensive process, but at the end of the fifth round, when you finally get these 8 or 10 points from your Fortresses… this is a kinda cool moment.

It’s an exceptional expansion. It changes the game a lot. I hope you will like it. But before you buy it, think for w moment. Is this your cup of tea?


Originally posted on BTTS Blog on BGG Forum: https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/77038/gdj-imperial-settlers-new-toys-part-1

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