Conquest of the Empire

As you can see from my output so far, I’m a bit slow on the uptake when it comes to gathering my thoughts and putting them down in written form regarding gaming. This is a recent thing, and something that I’m trying to combat. I will be better about this in the future.

Speaking of combat, I recent got to play a big session of Conquest of the Empire. As one of the members of Milton Bradley’s Gamemaster series, CotE has been around. Recently though, a new edition has come out, and while the new printing does preserve the old Risk-style game play, there are also a new modern set of rules designed for a more Euro-gamey experience.

Being unfamiliar with the old rules, I have nothing to compare the new rules to except for other games. This almost reminds me of a mirror image Twilight Imperium. In TI, diplomacy takes a back-seat to combat and you’re almost always assured a fight. In CotE, you’re not forced to fight if an opponent enters an area where you have units. On the contrary, your enemy this turn might be literally on your side next turn, so burning bridges with needless combat is something to be avoided. That said, there’s plenty of dice-rolling combat to be had if you’re feeling blood-thirsty! The mechanics of battle in this game make combined arms of different units almost a requirement, and special units like Generals and Caesars have strong non-combat functions in addition to their military role.

This is a really solid game, and is one of the few games where playing with a lot of people (6 in our case) didn’t feel like a grind. Sure the session took about 4 hours or more, but I constantly felt engaged by the experience, and am looking forward to playing again. The game has a lot of viscerally satisfying elements, like a big board, surprisingly non-sucky stock money, and a generous helping of awesome little plastic bits. I had a blast in the session we played and am now actively looking to add a copy to my collection.
8/10!