History of the World
Verdict: we’ve been playing HOW long?!
In a Nutshell: This is a strategy board game similar to RISK, but more like RISK’s older, more mature, private college attending brother.
(from the game’s box)
“This game of world conquest traces the history of the world from the dawn of civilization to the threshold of modern time. Through 7 Epochs, you’ll lead a different empire, from the ancient Sumerians to the Persians, Romans, and Huns. You may take command of the Vikings, Ming Dynasty, or Germans. You must score as many victory points during your empire’s reign, for it is fleeting. A new power will soon rise to glory.”
- Fun Rating: Sorta Fun
- Ages: 12 and up
- Players/Mode: 3-6 / PVP
- Game Duration: have yet to play a game that was less than 6 hours
- System: Board
- Developer: The Ragnar Brothers
- Website: afraid you’ll have to go to Google and see what you can find.
- Cost: apparently this game is no longer being produced so check your local shop to see if they still have a copy or can find one for you
| Yes | No | |
|---|---|---|
| Would I play this again? | X | |
| Would I recommend this game? | X | |
| Was the story good? | n/a | n/a |
| Was the music good? | n/a | n/a |
| Were the graphics good? | X | |
| Was this game difficult? | X | |
| Was this game frustrating? | X | |
| Was this game worth your time/money? | X |
What the game gets right
This game is easy to pick up and start playing right out of the box . . . after you have sorted all of the cards . . . and all of the pieces (more on this later). Moving on.
This game requires a more complex, and thus more fun, level of strategy. Where other conquest strategy games have you amassing armies through each round, History of the World starts you in the next age of the world each round, leading a new army of finite numbers. At the same time, the historical significance (and more importantly, score value) of the land you have captured changes each round so the standard “take some land and hope you can keep it by attrition” isn’t always the best idea.
Another aspect I liked was that the board was sized based on historical importance; aka North America is small and off to the side.
What the game gets wrong
About all those pieces: “700 of them!” boasts the box. They come in bags. Small bags. Non-reusable bags. Add to this the lack of any sort of box divisions to keep the various pieces separated, and the ‘Sorta Fun’ rating begins to make some sense, I hope.
Next up on the “things that make this game more difficult than it should be” is the lack of some sort of score sheet. Every round, each area is worth 3 different score values depending on how many armies you have, as compared to other players, in a given territory. And that’s just part of the scoring. The track around the board is a good indicator of score but a poor substitute for a solid, reproducible tally sheet.
The outcome of this game has usually been written by the end of the 5th round. With not much hope for those in the back of the pack, the scoring should have been a little bit more balanced to drastically reduce the gap between History’s winners and losers. It would have made winning (though I’ve never won at this game) that much sweeter. (I guess I can only hope imagine that it was bitter to win.)
Sum it up
This was a pricey game because on top of the cost of the game I went out and bought various boxes to keep the pieces organized so that setup for the next game didn’t add an extra hour to it. I’ve also created a score sheet to make point-tallying much easier to keep track of.
Though this game only gets a Sorta Fun rating, it is still one of my favorite games; but it might have more to do with getting to be around my friends for such an extended period of time than just the game. But after all, that is one of the points of any game for me.
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