Imperial Settlers Card Game First Impressions

Imperial Settlers is one that was on and off my want list a lot before finally staying off it.

Did I make the right choice?

Settlers from four major powers of the world have discovered new lands, with new resources and opportunities. Romans, Barbarians, Egyptians and Japanese all at once move there to expand the boundaries of their empires. They build new buildings to strengthen their economy, they found mines and fields to gather resources, and they build barracks and training grounds to train soldiers. Soon after they discover that this land is far too small for everybody, then the war begins…

This is a pretty cool game with a great look.

Turns

Each of the 4 powers has its own deck of cards, there is also a common deck of cards that everyone can use.

On your turn, you take one action and play continues around the table until everyone passes. During your actions, you’re going to maximise your limited resources in order to do as much as possible… Terra Mystica anyone? This game gets a plus one from me straight away as this way of playing a game seems to be my favourite way of playing a game.

Anyway, back to Imperial Settlers…

Each different Power has its own income, which can be modified with Production buildings and making deals.

There are two other types of Building…

Feature, which has a kind of Triggered Ability. A ‘If <this happens> then <do this>’ kind of thing.

Action, which has an activated ability. I had a nice little combo here where one building allowed me to trade a meeple for stone and another let me change a stone for a VP. It was a source of most of my end-game points (Do not try this at home, I came joint last :))

Common buildings are built to the right of your player board.

Your own faction buildings are built on the left and require foundations to be built on which in general means sacrificing a common building. Factions buildings can be, but aren’t necessarily, more powerful but are worth more endgame VP.

Razing

Another thing you can do is Raze using a Raze token to destroy an opponent’s building or a building card from your hand. (To gain resources mostly, but also to destroy a building an opponent controls that’s just making you a little jealous)

You can, with a Shield, protect one of your buildings. Factions buildings, luckily, cannot be Razed… Except for the Japanese ones but as the Egyptians that didn’t concern me. 🙂

You play over 5 rounds, and most points win.

Imperial Settlers Summary

Imperial Settlers is a very nice game. As I mentioned earlier this ‘take one action until everyone passes’ style of the game always appeals to me.

The Powers seem different, and the resource tokens are nice. The game is evil but just evil enough to be a challenge rather than too frustrating.

Resources are limited, especially cards, drawing cards is so important…

But, after one play I do want to play it again. I can see that a bad draw, or a good draw, in turn, could make a difference. I do worry that certain people will ‘give up’ and sulk for 5 rounds.

So, while I don’t miss Imperial Settlers being in my collection, it is a game I like a lot so far. But, I do need to play it again to see…. not that I’m going to complain about that!

Jesta ThaRogue