From: stuarts@gvgadg.gvg.tek.com (Stuart Smith) Description: Question: History of the World I am interested in Avalon Hill's History of the World. I enjoy Civilization, and History sounds both educational (at least broadly) and fun. I have a few questions: How many players does it need to be a good game? Is it fun? How long does it usually take to play? How hard is it to learn? (I am a game enthusiast who loves reading rules, but most of my friends are not, so the question is really, can I get them started playing enjoyably without a one-hour lecture before we start?) What kinds of things are involved in the play? Trading, deals, war strategy and conquest? Does it have thousands of tiny counters with abstruse symbols on them (thumbs down from my wife for this kind of game). From: barry@playfair.Stanford.EDU (Barrett P. Eynon) Description: Re: Question: History of the World > I have a few questions: > > How many players does it need to be a good game? I feel it's best with 5 or 6 players. With 4 many of the empires in each epoch go unplayed. With 2 or 3 players, you can play with multiple empires per epoch per player, which sort of works but is not optimal. > Is it fun? Yes > How long does it usually take to play? 4-6 hours. > How hard is it to learn? (I am a game enthusiast who loves reading > rules, but most of my friends are not, so the question is really, can > I get them started playing enjoyably without a one-hour lecture before > we start?) It's easy to learn and easy to teach. I'd put the complexity about halfway between Risk and Civilization. > What kinds of things are involved in the play? Trading, deals, war > strategy and conquest? Does it have thousands of tiny counters with > abstruse symbols on them (thumbs down from my wife for this kind of > game). There are seven epochs in the game, stretching over the course of history. During each epoch, each player plays one empire that comes on the scene, struts and frets it's way to controlling as much of the world as it can, and then sags into old age while younger empires come out to play. There are only a few kinds of units, armies, fleets, forts, capitals, cities, and monuments. Each empire starts with from 4-30 armies/fleets and maybe a capitol. Armies are placed one by one in new provinces, possibly having to fight the current occupant, in order to control territory, and never move after being placed. So it's pretty straightforward. There is very little trading or deal-making, the main player interactions are during assingnment of the empires for each epoch, and even in that there is restricted information and choice so there is little diplomacy. In fact, one of the few deficiencies of the game is that there is little for other players to do while a player is taking his turn than watch. I'd say try it, it's a good game for even non-hardcore gamers. -- Barry Eynon barry@playfair.stanford.edu From: jeff@gg.caltech.edu (Jeff Goldsmith) Description: Re: Question: History of the World > I have a few questions: > How many players does it need to be a good game? I think four or five is best. 6 is possible. 2 and 3 are quite different games. > Is it fun? Yes. > How long does it usually take to play? At the beginning, about an hour/player. Half that if everyone knows the rules well and puts effort into playing quickly. > How hard is it to learn? (I am a game enthusiast who loves reading > rules, but most of my friends are not, so the question is really, can > I get them started playing enjoyably without a one-hour lecture before > we start?) It'll take 45 minutes or so to explain the rules to non-gamers. Most of that will be discussing the event cards and repeating how to score points a lot. > What kinds of things are involved in the play? Trading, deals, war > strategy and conquest? Does it have thousands of tiny counters with > abstruse symbols on them (thumbs down from my wife for this kind of > game). None of the above. The counter situation is much like Risk, except that the blocks have single numbers on them, though the numbers are not important very often. HotW is a lot like Risk, but shorter and more fun in general. The luck factor is quite large as is diplomacy: "Don't kill that stack! It's the last remaining survivor from the first Epoch!" --Jeff From: bruno@cerberus.csd.uwm.edu (Bruno Wolff III) Description: Re: Question: History of the World ] I have a few questions: ] ] How many players does it need to be a good game? It is best with 6, but you can play with less. ] Is it fun? I think so. ] How long does it usually take to play? About 4 - 6 hours. ] How hard is it to learn? (I am a game enthusiast who loves reading ] rules, but most of my friends are not, so the question is really, can ] I get them started playing enjoyably without a one-hour lecture before ] we start?) Except for a couple of minor things, the rules are pretty clear. Someone who knows the rules can teach someone enough to play in about 15 minutes. ] What kinds of things are involved in the play? Trading, deals, war ] strategy and conquest? Does it have thousands of tiny counters with ] abstruse symbols on them (thumbs down from my wife for this kind of ] game). During your turn you run amok (this is the fun part). This is a balance of power game, so some deals are made about where you run amok and what empires players get to run. The counters aren't too diverse. It's not really that complicated of a game.