Wray Ferrell - 03:12pm Jul 2, 2001 PST (#6730 of 6764)
Currently reading "Chronicle of the Roman Emperors"

>Steve or anyone else whos played it, could you please be more specific
>and list the differences between editions. Thanks in advance.

A friend of mine bought the game at DonCon and we played a six player
game of it that afternoon. Differences include:

o Sumeria is now a power

o The leader at the end of each epoch gets a bonus VP chit. It is drawn
at random and not looked at until the end of the game. Values range from
3 to 6 points.

o Only one army allowed per space.

o Forts still give a +1 to defense rolls, but are considered a unit.
Thus if I attack an area with a fort and win, only the fort is removed.
I must attack again to remove the unit.

o Defender on a sea invasion now roll 3 dice instead of 2.

o Tie in combat, both the attacker and defender remove a unit.

o You must play all event cards you plan to play BEFORE you start your
turn.

o Domination and Control are now different. The one that doubles your
presence pts (always get them reversed) is now have at least 2 or more
armies than any other power. Used to be 3. The one that triples your pts
is now having at least 3 armies and no other power having any spaces.

o Fleets are now generic. If you have fleet capability you place a fleet
marker where you have it. Fleets work exactly the same. When your turn
ends you remove the fleets. Seas are no longer worth any points.

o They have introduced "coins". Coins can be used to build a fort or if
you lose an army in combat to return him to your force pool. So for
example population explosion gives you two coins, not two additional
armies. A subtle difference because if your power does not lose any
combats then the coins would have to be used for forts.

o Some events cards have been changed. For example if the Barbarians win
a battle you place a army unit there. So instead of being used to
"clear" out a space, you can use them to establish them presence where
you have none.

Overall I think they did a great job. The cards and map look great and
the plastic pieces are a nice touch. The playing time is about 20%
shorter (our game took 4 hours) without losing any of the flavor of the
AH version.

Wray

Togu Oppusunggu - 04:20pm Jul 2, 2001 PST (#6731 of 6764)

Another big change in History of the World is that card choice is by
order of least victory points rather than least accumulated strength
points (which you no longer keep track of). Alan Kwan at rec.games.board
says that this was the original Gibson rule, and he suggests that it
actually creates more depth to the game, so that you're not always
trying to maximize points for your Active empire during that its epoch.
This could be true; there tended to be stereotyped play in the Avalon
Hill version of making sure you don't get the Romans, the Germans, or
the U.S. by planning your strength acquistions accordingly. Overall, I
think the game is better balanced and gives more avenues for victory.
Forts look more formidable, so there's a little more room for defensive
strategy, I think. A nifty new card is "Reallocation". It allows the
later maritime nations to turn in their fleets for coins, which helps
rebuild armies lost in battle. So as a maritime empire, you can try to
spread all over the place or instead focus on an area, as I did in India
with the Dutch to topple my rival from dominance there. The British have
been toned down from its original 40(?) to 16. But in the original, a
lot of that 40 was used for fleets, whereas now fleets are free. With
"Reallocation", the British can convert some of that fleet into
coins/armies. I also like the pre-eminence victory points chits. It
gives you an incentive to be a leader for an epoch, and prevents an all
out "take the front-runner" only strategy.

There are less historical restrictions. Vikings are not limited to just
one space in North America. One ended up in South America! I'm not so
sure how much I liked this aspect of the changes. It's interesting at
least.

There are a few other subtle changes not mentioned by Wray, such as no
retreats when a new Empire erupts in a land.

Downtime is still a problem, in terms of waiting for others to finish
their turn. The interaction is primarily table talk while you're
waiting. But it is true, the average game time has dropped from 6 hours
to 4 hours, I think because of the streamlined combat rules.

I actually like the AH graphics and cardboard counters better. The
Hasbro map is too dark for my tastes and all those figures makes things
look too busy. But I got more used to the graphics as the game wore on