Imperial Settlers: Roll & Write is, as the name suggests, a Roll and Write game in the Imperial Settlers world.

Roll, Harvest, Build.

Imperial Settlers: Roll & Write is a standalone game set in the universe of Imperial Settlers and Imperial Settlers: Empires of the North. The game is heavily focused on engine building! Constructing buildings grants you a special bonus, and with each passing turn, the game offers you more choices as your empire gains momentum.

Imperial Settlers: Roll & Write Gameplay

In brief, it’s a roll & write game so you’re using the results of dice to mark off boxes on a sheet to score points. Score the most points to win.

Each round starts with the start player rolling the dice. These will show each player not only the resources they have for the round but also the number of action points they will have as shown on the ‘worker die’.

Then, in turn order, players will draft a favour tile. This will give them a bonus for the round. There are five total in the game but you only use one more than the number of players.

Sheets

Players then get to work filling in their sheets simultaneously. Each player has 2 sheets that have two functions but work in pretty much the same way. These sheets have Squares and Circles and each time you cross one off you spend an action point.

One sheet shows a number of buildings each with 3 boxes to cross off. Spend an action point to cross one and ‘use’ a resource if one is printed in that box.

Once all the boxes for a building have been crossed off, you gain access to the ability of that building.

The other sheet shows lines of boxes that you cross off left to right using progressively more resources to do so. The first three of these lines are purely for points but the final (bottom) one is a little different.

Harvesting

The final row is divided into 4 sets with each set connected to an image of a bridge. If you mark off the boxes in a set you unlock that bridge which gives you access to fields which you can Harvest.

You can ONLY harvest in a field if you have unlocked the relevant bridge. To harvest, spend an action point and cross off a circle in that field. This will give you that resource to use for this turn only.

After everyone has spent their action points you return the favour tiles to the middle of the table, pass the dice left and start a new round.

After 10 rounds you add points from the rows you ticked off and points from building the Fortress, (a building that just awards points) most points wins.

There are some advanced rules that involve tracing out shapes of the buildings you should 100% play with but I’ll leave them out here.

Theme

It looks like Imperial Settlers but it could be anything. However, the dice with the resources and Worker action points connect this game to the card game.

But, if you ask me to think of Imperial Settlers I would immediately say “Build Buildings” followed by “Different Races”.

I would have liked to have seen the different races. I know a set of different sheets for different races would be difficult to balance. Also, the same sheet with different art would just make people complain that they’re not different.

Can’t win 🙂

Setup & Rulebook

The setup is obviously simple.

The rulebook is good… However, it’s a Portal Games rulebook. So there are a few places for me where just a line or two of clarification would have been nice.

Components & Artwork

These are nice. The sheets are cool, the dice look and feel good, the tiles are pretty and pencils are included which is always good.

The boxes on the sheets need a good old scribble to cross out. It’s hard to tell if you crossed it out sometimes. It’s doubly hard if the box contains a printed resource. It can be hard for other players around the table to see.

Not sure if it’s the sheet, the pencils or user error but it was an issue.

I like the Imperial Settlers art and remember nominating it for Best Artwork for the Dice Tower awards when it came out. They changed it for this game. Instead of a nice bunch of cute art, it’s sketched.

It works for the ‘Roll & Write’ theme but it doesn’t look as nice to me.

Ease of Teaching & Accessibility

Teaching is straightforward…

But, I still struggle to explain how you ‘spend’ resources you don’t physically have, like in 7 Wonders. Add this to ‘every time you cross a box it costs an action point’ which was something people were struggling with and I was having problems teaching.

Imperial Settlers: Roll & Write Summary

So as a quick Roll & Write I still prefer Qwixx. It’s just really fast and light and turns are really quick. Also more recently I enjoyed That’s Pretty Clever.

For a Roll & Write game of a similar weight rules-wise I would still take ‘Welcome To…‘ over this.

It’s not that it’s a bad game, it’s just a VERY competitive genre, like Social Deduction and Deck Building Games.

Actions & Resources

One thing I struggled with is remembering how many actions and resources I had left.

At times I would spend an action point and harvest 3 stones and gain a Gold (wild) resource because the faces of the dice were different, or the same, is that an extra action? Did I get an extra action? Which building did I finish again? Oh, and the food from the farm and was 4 stone because of the Tool Shop bonus. How many actions did I take already? What were the dice again?

So much to remember for a light game, was it playtested with idiots like me? 🙂

If you think I’m being down on it but I’m not. I mean, I am, but don’t let me put you off trying it. It’s a very fun, thinky game but in my new ‘You shall not pass’ rule to get/stay on my shelves it just doesn’t make it.

Jesta ThaRogue