Do you like a little bit of chaos and unpredictability in your game play? Or do you prefer a game with scheming, subtlety and a little bit of turnabout? I may have a game for you that has a...
Do you like a little bit of chaos and unpredictability in your game play? Or do you prefer a game with scheming, subtlety and a little bit of turnabout? I may have a game for you that has a bit of both in it. Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East is a lite civilization building game that sees 1-6 players take on the role of an ancient power to see if they can build up their civilization and conquer the opposing great civilizations of the ancient Middle East. The game uses the same system as the first game in the series called Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea but does add some new tricks. First, the game now adds terrain. Second, the game not only has more playable civilizations (17 basic civilizations plus several additional civilizations in historical scenarios) but also gives some civilizations a second or even third choice for where to place their Homeland. The game is about competition to gain the most area in the ancient world, spreading your cultures influence and religion and reaping the economic benefits of your conquests. This competition comes in the form of gaining Victory Points through building cities and acquiring gods and sacking and looting cities through war and domination of the sea.
In Action Point 1, we took a look at the Game Board and its features, showing off the new Terrain and other aspects. In this Action Point, we will dive into the Growth Phase, including how you acquire disks, deploy those disks and the purpose of spreading your culture.
Growth Phase
The Growth Phase is the way that the civilizations in Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East expand the borders of their empires as well come in contact with other civilizations. During the Growth Phase, following Turn Order each civilization will perform the following steps:
1. Retirement Step
2. Acquisition Step
3. Resettlement Step
4. Deployment Step
One of the most important aspects of the game is the proper management and use of your limited supply of 48 disks that represent settlements, cities, soldiers and ships, including trade ships and vessels of war. Each turn, players will gain a number of disks to place out and expand their influence in the Ancient World. Civilizations will also be able to reclaim or retire disks that are no longer needed to then bolster their limited disks to spread influence in a different way. Let’s take a quick look at each of these steps.
Retirement Step
During the Retirement Step players are allowed to remove from the board any number of non-City disks back to the player’s supply. A City is defined as any stack of three disks. This tactic is unlikely to be used early in the game, as players will be trying as hard as they can to get their disks onto the board in order to generate more disks during the Acquisition Step or to score Victory Points in the Reckoning Phase.
This step is really provided to allow players to reclaim disks that were not ideally placed or for which conditions have changed. This can also be very useful in collecting disks to fend off a massive Barbarian invasion in your capital or that is in your way of continued expansion.
Let’s take a look at a quick example of what I’m trying to convey. In the picture above, the Medes & Persian player (orange) has recently placed several disks in Sea Areas stretching from Medes to the East Caspian Sea as they wanted to establish a presence in West Scythia to continue to grow their empire. They have to place in these sea spaces to establish a chain to the land so that they can grow into that area. But, after placing these disks they realize that they are nearing the end of their disk supply and due to the effects of an Event, there has been a massive Barbarian invasion that has come ashore and threatened the capital found in Medes. They have previously expanded southward into some very rich Fertile Areas and don’t want to give those up as they will provide better growth than the Plains they have entered in Scythia. During the start of the next Growth Phase and more specifically during the Retirement Step, they decide to take back the disks placed in the Sea Areas to be able to place them in other spaces in future turns to defend against the Barbarians during the upcoming Competition Phase. They decide to remove the 3 disks in the Sea Areas (West Caspian, East Caspian and Southwest Caspian) and the single disk placed in Dahae and place them back in their supply for later use.
Acquisition Step
During the Acquisition Step, players will collect disks they are entitled to from their Supply and place them in the Ready Box on their Civilization Display to place on the board during the Deployment Step. The number of disks collected will depend upon the terrain and disks in areas the players occupy. Aside from card play, this is the only way to acquire new disks.
Disks will be earned as follows:
Sea Areas (blue): Transfer 1 disk from the Supply to the Civilization Display for every 2 Sea Areas the player occupies.
Mountains Areas (dark brown): Transfer 1 disk for every 2 Mountains Areas which each contain 1 of the player’s Settlements, which remember is a stack of exactly 2 disks.
Plains Areas (light brown): Transfer 1 disk for every Plains Area containing 1 of the player’s Settlements.
Fertile Areas (green): Transfer 1 disk for every Fertile Area the player Controls OR which
contains one of their Settlements.
Desert Areas (sandy or yellowish): Deserts do not generate disks but are counted for purposes of
Commerce.
Commerce: This is a unique situation and represents civilizations trading with each through shared borders and connections. Transfer 1 disk for each opposing civilization that has a disk in or adjacent to a Land or Sea Area that the player occupies.
Special Abilities: Some civilizations gain Special Abilities’ with regard to the Growth Phase. The player will get to transfer disks from the abilities of their civilization shown on the Civilization Display.
No matter the situation each round, each civilization will receive at least 3 disks to use during the Growth Phase. The key to this phase is managing growth properly meaning early in the game you should worry about building Settlements and Controlling more Fertile Areas as they will generate more disks while later in the game you should focus on building Cities as they generate Victory Points.
In the picture above, the Assyrians will receive 12 disks during the Acquisition Step. Can you see why? They have disks in 3 Sea Areas which will create just 1 disk (1 for every 2 Sea Areas occupied), 0 disks for Mountains Areas as they only have 1 Settlement in 1 Mountains Area, 4 disks for having Settlements located in Plains Areas, 5 discs for Controlling 4 Fertile Areas and having a Settlement in 1 other and are adjacent to 2 opposing civilizations which will garner 2 disks. 1 + 0 + 4 + 5 + 2 = 12 disks.
3. Resettlement Step
During the Resettlement Step players are allowed to transfer up to 1 disk each from any number of their Cities on the map to the Disks for Growth area of their Civilization Display. Why would you give up these Cities which earn you Victory Points? Well, because you may want to grow in a certain area or create more competition to control better producing areas. Remember, these returned discs can be held in preparation for deployment back to the Game Board during step 4. This is an example of one of the more strategic moves in the game as players may have an opponent who is threatening several of their Cities and they don’t want them to gain Victory Points and Mina from defeating them in a Competition. Players might also just simply need to regroup and ready their forces to put up a fight later as they deploy disks to the board during the Deployment Step.
4. Deployment Step
Finally, players will get to deploy their disks to the Game Board during the Deployment Step. Not all of their available disks need to be placed but any that remain in the Ready Box at the end of the Deployment Step will be returned to the Supply. Discs may be placed according to these four stacking limits:
into an Area the player Controls or a Contested Area they occupy (regardless of the ratio of disks between the different civilizations. Remember, that a single disk in a Contested Area allows you to place disks there; into an Area adjacent to an Area the player Controls; into an Area adjacent to a Contested Area the player occupies, but only if their civilization already has at least as many disks in that Contested Area as those of the largest opposing civilization. in or adjacent to the players’ Home Area regardless of their Control or presence there, but only if they have exactly 0 disks on Game Board at the start of the Deployment Step.Just keep in mind that placing out disks typically requires adjacency to the area you are trying to place your disks into. You cannot go across the Game Board and just place a disk into a favorable area. That wouldn’t make sense! Just as in lots of wargames, a connection is important for things like supply, reinforcement, support and advance.
Let’s take a look at the Egyptians (green) as they deploy their disks and attempt to encroach into the area Controlled by the Israelites.
The Egyptians collect 7 disks during this Acquisition Step and want to get near to their opponent the Israelites and get a foothold in the area east of Sinai. To this end they place a single disk into the Sinai Sea which they are adjacent to in the Nile Delta Area. They then place a single disk into the Levantine Sea where the Israelites have just a single disk. This is now Contested and allows adjacent to the spaces next to it. They follow this strategy and place a disk into Byblos and from there into the connected Ugard they place 2 disks to establish a Settlement. They now are adjacent to the island of Alashiya and place a single disk there. They also decide they would like to begin putting pressure on Judah and place their final disc in Sinai. Was this a mistake? I would think so yes as they could have placed that disc into the Fertile Area south of Amarna called Thebes. This would have garnered them another disc in the following Growth Phase to then place out on the Game Board.
I hope you got a good feel for the Growth Phase and how it works. The game is very simple and the rules take only a few minutes to learn and a round or two to see how they should be done. Through continued play, the players will gain a better understanding of how to maximize their Growth and create the most disks possible in order to win the Competition against their enemies.
In Action Point 3, we will dive into the Card Phase and take a look at the different types of cards that appear in the deck.
-Grant