From: John Best Subject: Re: King of Kings?? >Has anyone see a game called "King of Kings"? If so, what's it about? > >Bob K. > > Originally, I think this game was designed and published by Bill Banks, the same guy who did Ancients. I'll offer a description that others might argue about: I would describe it as a strategic-level multi-player game simulating commerce and warfare in the ancient world. If you own Ancients, you can fight the strategic-level battles in KoK out on the tactical maps using the Ancients rules, and Banks provides you in KoK with some rules for making the conversion from the KoK scale to the Ancients scale. I didn't understand those rules too well (that is, the conversion rules--Ancients by itself is easy to play, and fun too). I suppose we'll start about talking about the box cover to KoK; I think this was the one with the cartoony depiction of the (male) king reclining and being attended to by scantily clad females. Whatever. Back to the game: KoK was ok, I wanted to like it more than I did. It's one of those things where the game might actually be ok, or even good as games go, but it really requires the ole' split personality syndrome to solitaire it--even more than most games do. I haven't ever seen much discussion about this game; it would be interesting to hear from people who have actually played it in its multi-player context. Thanks for reading. John Best cfjbb@eiu.edu From: Steven Wesley Bucey Subject: Re: King of Kings?? Robert Kasten wrote: > > Has anyone see a game called "King of Kings"? If so, what's it about? > > Bob K. King of Kings Copy Right William L. Banks, 1990, and published by Good Industries. It covers the rise and decline of ancient empires using a map of Europe and the middle east on a scale of about 75 miles per hex (guessing) and three months per turn (stated). It comes with 15 multi-player scenarios ranging from Hammurabi (1700 BC) to the Mongols (1240 AD). The rule book is a small meta-gaming style format with only 15 pages including optional rules, plus a couple of player aid cards. It says it can be played solitaire, but you lose a lot of the diplomacy (see below). Although you can build armies and adjust your borders with your neighbors (other players and -- until you try to adjust their borders -- neutral states) aggression is expensive and the size of your army does not factor into your victory points. You gain victory points by amassing gold, cities, and 'Achievements' such as Law, Monuments, Religion, etc. The game ends when two event phases have passed in which at least one leader has died, so you can not time the end of the game. Even if your leader dies, he can get better, and since victory is solely based on accumulated points, you don't have to play to the end to win. Sequence of play is like this: a) Seasonal Function b) First player turn 1) Sieges 2) Looting 3) Move and combat 4) Supply 5) Purchase c) Next player turn Seasonal Functions depend upon the season. Winter: Pay maintenance for units Spring: Oppress, er, I mean tax the people and merchants (trade income). Summer: Each player rolls on one of three diplomacy tables. (Administration, Court, or Foreign) Fall: Random Events. Cities produce gold, which you use to buy armies or rebuild cities one of your neighbors thoughtless burned when you tried to adjust his borders. You can move trade goods about (which give you gold also). Diplomacy is a major element, both with other players and neutral states, and alliances can be formed -- or lost, and you can even get married. There are a lot of random events which occur once per year (every four game turns), from gaining (or losing) a general to corruption, plague and barbarians. Civil wars can occur also. Combat wise, there is siege, looting, fleets, and old fashion armies. The game must have been designed to mesh with the game Ancients, because the units fit that game’s types and it could be used to resolve battles on a tactical scale. Otherwise, very simple and lively rules are presented for combat resolution. There is also a good review, plus errata, in an article by Alan Emrich (developer of Krieg!, by the way) in Fire and Movement #72 (April 1991). From the sounds of it, Alan is secretly a frustrated Despot, and the game may have provided him with an outlet to his frustrations. I knew I liked him for some reason :) Steve -- --------------------------------------- 99 bottles of beer in the fridge, 99 bottles of beer...