Review Detail

I love this game. It is a wargame, yes, but really it's a multiplayer negotiation and diplomacy game at its core. For me, it is the perfect mix of an actual game and theme. In fact, both of the elements actually make the game far stronger. By making all the cards and flavor into events that you can generally play for other players, the negotiation part of the game is that much more enriched. Players negotiate with each other to play each others events, send them mercenaries, help them with attacks, alliances, etc.

I've played this game a lot for such a long game, and at this point I'd probably suggest something else because the game does have some fairly straightforward best directions for each power. I only learned these best directions after several PBEM plays with top expert players, and I'm told that the new 500th anniversary edition may throw some twists into the mix.