Struggle of Empires FAQ V 2005.07.15 Corrections to innovan “at” yahoo Struggle of Empires recreates the military, economic, and political rivalries of the major European powers during the eighteenth century at home and in their far flung colonies. Players make alliances, establish colonies, enslave Africans, improve their economies, build armies and fleets, wage war, and avoid revolutions. And it plays in a decent amount of time, too! Written by Martin Wallace and the other warfrogs (prominently James Hamilton). As with any empire building game this complex there are some questions about the finer rules. Rather than posting multiple updates to BBG I'm maintaining this FAQ here and will post occasional updates to the BBG entry as this doc stabilizes. Note that SoE - Quick Reference.doc is a shorter document than this FAQ intended for use during the game. Alliances Auction Q: When there are an odd number of players (for example 5 players), which side of the Alliance will the odd player end up on, or always the first camp? R : The players bid to determine which camp the 5th player will end up in. (source : Martin Wallace) Q: We're bidding for...? R: You're proposing who will be opposite each other in the next war and in what turn order. This makes it harder to control who will be your ally --you have to match them up to the correct side over the course of multiple proposal rounds. Note the alliances also alternate turn order. In games with an even number of players you have to look ahead --the last two players left to join have to be opposite each other, which takes newbies a bit of time to catch on to, particularly in a four player game. Q: Can players once placed in an alliance still bid? R: Yes. Auction continues until all pass around table. May re-enter bid after passing. Q: Who opens the second proposal for alliances auction for this war? The third? R: The player to the left of whom started the first alliance proposal. You will want to use the spare black wooden tokens to keep track of this. The person making the first alliance proposal takes a black wooden marker when they start the first auction round after which clockwise the other players either raise the bid and make a new proposal, or pass. After that's done the person to the left of the black marker also takes a marker and makes the first proposal for the second alliance auction of the war, and so on. If there's more than 2 proposal rounds (ie more than 4 players) some people prefer instead to take the dice and put the "1" "2" "3" "4" as the side face up to track who started each proposal. Q: Oh, so that's what those extra black wooden markers are for! R: Yes. They're used to manage the rounds of the alliance proposal auctions at the beginning of each war. Q: Do I have to start with a bid of 0? R: No. You may start with any bid you like. Likewise you may increase the bid any amount you want. Q: Any preference for turn order? R: War 1 going first is an advantage. You get first pick at Slave and Pop counters and first choice of the tiles. But "Moving last in the final war with a couple of logistics tiles and a war office can be and often is devastating. By the start of the last war most of the decent tiles are gone and while the alliances tiles are available again I generally favour moving later in the turn in the 3rd and quite possibly the 2nd war." (source: James Hamilton) Note also that last turn of each war is when Pirates and Slave Revolt tend to be played on the leaders, particularly after their turn is done and they can no longer respond before the scoring. Game Opening Q: In the setup phase when we place five units, may we place them anywhere, or only where we have a control token? R: Anywhere without restriction. So you may place an army in a colony during setup even if you have no control tokens and no fleets present. The whole world is your oyster during setup. Note also you do not make a sea roll on the units placed in the colonies during setup, unlike the rest of the game. Q: I'm lost. What tiles should I buy in the opening? R: Usually the tiles are bought by the players in this order: the two Mercenaries at $3, the single Trained Natives at $4 (with no sea roll required), the single Diplomatic Service at $2, the single Pressgangs at $3 and the single War Office at $8. (These are grouped together in one row in the Player Aid sheets below) Your goal should be first round to buy one of these, since they are so powerful and shape your Empire the rest of the game. They pay off best if bought early and are tapped each war. In particular any group of 4 or more that lets someone get two of (Diplomatic Service/(2)Mercenaries/Trained Natives) during the opening has been asleep and will probably lose. It's also why the opening order in the first war is important --it determines who gets first pick at buying the most juicy tiles in the game. Mercenaries and the Trained Natives are a free army and a free action to build/place it. Diplomatic Service is also a pretty good tile at $2. The Alliance Tiles, most of which are free and none of which require the cost of maintenance at the end of each war are pretty useful, and being able to pick up one as a free action just before an attack can be a powerful move. Pressgangs is stronger the more players in the game, the same way fleets become more important the more players. Usually the War Office is too expensive to be bought by anyone except the person who got stuck going last. But going last also has an advantage because you have the last actions right before scoring happens and no one can undo them. Save using War Office until this last round right before scoring for maximum effect. Having bought one of these tiles (and used it!), your second action of your first turn should be racing for low hanging fruit from Pop and Slave counters that are sitting around free for the taking at the opening. After that try to get Company tiles in locations where you have Control Tokens for extra income, Reserves to reroll failed wars, Banking, and Navigation are popular since they're free. So are the free Alliance Tiles. Trained Natives, Navigation and Pressgangs are useful with a Colonial policy. Improved Agriculture, Militia and Logistics (collecting these gives you 3, 4, or 5 moves instead of just 2 each time you choose "move 2 units") are useful for a European policy. (The European neutral counters are tougher and need more armies to defeat them.) And go out there, build up your forces and defeat neutral counters. But don't bunch yourself up in only one scoring area --you make far more points being spread out and sharing VPs than you do having a monopoly over only one country and locking out other players from 2nd and 3rd place. Do use your allies to divide and conquer against the stronger European tokens. Two allied players with only 2-3 armys each who agree to split up the German States between them by allying for each other's attacks can be quite effective. Building Units Q: Do I need a ship present in a region to replace its Pop or Slave counter? R: No. You only need a fleet present in a region to move land units (armies and forts) to it. Q: To replace a slave counter I just need a fleet in Africa? R: Yes. You do not need a second fleet also present where the slave counter is located to be able to replace it with your own marker. That's only for landing armies and forts. Q : Can I build my two forts in the same country? R : Yes. Their combined defense strength is 4. (But you can never build two forts in the same build action. See: Militia) Q: Do you need to make a naval movement roll when creating new units in the Americas? R: All units (except one built with the Trained Natives tile) are built in your home country. You then get a free move to put them where you want but that move must obey the normal movement rules, including rolling for sea movement when moving from your home country to the Colonies. (source: Hamilton) If a failed sea roll returns a newly built unit to its "point of origin", it is placed in your home country on the map. It can still be moved out in later actions. Q: So Trained Natives lets me build in any colony? R: You must have a control token or military unit (army, fort or fleet) of your color in the colony. Q: I failed the sea roll when building a fort. What happens? R: If it was destroyed, place the fort back in your unit pool and take one unrest. If it "returned to point of origin" then place the fort in your home country on the map. You may still use any later movement action to move it out of your home country as a normal action.