Brian Train - 08:54am Jan 31, 2001 PST (#81 of 91)
"He was wont so to speak plain and to the purpose, as an honest man and
a soldier."

Yeah, I do. I wrote a review of it, here it is essentially as it
appeared in John Kula's game collecting zine Simulacrum (see related
discussion area elsewhere on Consimworld):

RISE AND FALL - by Brian R. Train

INTRODUCTION

Rise and Fall was published in 1989 by Engelmann Military Simulations.
It was designed by one "Karsten Engelmann, Military Analyst", whatever
that last may mean. Its subject is the fall of the Roman Empire and the
rise of the barbarians. One to six players may play, each taking the
role of the Western or Easter Roman Empire, the Persian Empire, or a
barbarian group. The "hook" with this game, which is otherwise rather
simple, is that players who are knocked out can re-enter the game later
with a new barbarian group.

COMPONENTS

1 - 22x34" area movement map, from England to the Caspian and from
Denmark to Arabia; 1 - 18 page rulebook; 1 - summary and clarification
sheet; 1 - player aid sheet; 1 - pad of turn record sheets; 5 - 10 sided
dice; 576 - diecut 5/8" counters (see counter manifest)

All of the above is packaged in a 2" bookcase box, with cover art
consisting of a pencil-crayon drawing of what appears to be Jimmy
Durante, dressed as a legionary, about to be dispatched by an
axe-wielding Karl Marx wearing a plaid tablecloth.

COUNTER MANIFEST

There are 576 counters. They are printed on one side only. There are six
identical sets of player counters (black on white/red/blue/yellow/green
and white on black) featuring rather crude icons of a swordsman, a
cavalryman, a tower, and a galley. Each set consists of:

25 infantry 15 cavalry 20 forts 10 fleets 1 Capitol marker (star) 1
Leader counter (crown) 6 blanks, to denote player control of an area
when necessary

There are also 72 "independent kingdom" and 36 "revolting infantry"
counters. They are red on white.

COLLECTOR'S VALUE

Engelmann Military Simulations is of course a "third world" game
publishing company, as most of them are now, though the quality of the
components is quite good compared to some of the
shirt-cardboard-and-Xerox garbage I've seen (and sometimes even been
responsible for). Quantities of the game would therefore be limited but
the game does not appear to be in high demand.

PLAYER'S VALUE

The game's thesis derives from the ideas of Arnold Toynbee, whose work
should be familiar to all of us: barbarian groups coalesce and expand to
form national kingdoms, which in turn form multi-national empires which,
due to internal and external pressures, ultimately collapse into a
collection of barbarian groups who repeat the cycle over again. Whether
this is true or not, it makes for a good mechanic in a multi-player game
where a player may be knocked out early in the evening and doesn't want
to spend the rest of the night drinking Dr. Pepper and leafing through
old issues of Fire & Movement, waiting for his ride home. There is a
good variety of scenarios in the game: players can start as imperialists
and defend themselves from barbarians, or everyone can start as a
barbarian and build from scratch.

In a turn, a player will first check whether he changes his status. This
is determined by time and a die roll: a player who starts as a barbarian
must stay at that level for at least four turns, then starts rolling to
see if he makes the jump to kingdom. After eleven turns as a kingdom, he
starts rolling to see if he becomes an empire. Empires that do not
maintain a minimum level of income or lose their capitol unit fall to be
replaced by a new barbarian group. Moving up in status imposes and lifts
restrictions on a player: for example, a barbarian group cannot build
fortifications but does not have to pay maintenance on its forces, while
empire forces are better in quality but cost more to maintain.

Next, barbarian players will take their free levies while empire players
will check for internal revolts. Then comes movement (surprisingly,
while the combat value of a player's units rises as he gains in status,
he never gets any more mobile) and combat. Combat is based on units
rolling dice against their combat value and a small range of modifiers,
trying to score hits to eliminate enemy units.

Last comes the income and victory phases. The income phase - getting and
spending - calls for some bookkeeping as players extort taxes, maintain
existing armies, buy new ones, and tot up their victory points. Victory
points are based on income and added from turn to turn, and the player
who reaches a preset total of points first wins the game.

To keep the game from becoming a completely generic exercise, there are
a few optional rules: five types of leaders, each with special
abilities; national characteristics that make one nation's
infantry/cavalry/ships a bit more effective; allowing uncivilized areas
to become civilized after they have been ruled for long enough by a
kingdom or empire; and other bits and pieces that you may be familiar
with from other strategic ancients games.

HEY, WAITAMINNIT...

And it was then that I began to wonder, and I fetched down a copy of a
game in my close that I hadn't looked at in years. It was Barbarian,
Kingdom and Empire (BK&E), published in 1983 by Icarus Games. I started
comparing components and rules. Here was another game, published six
years before Rise and Fall, whose hook was that 1-6 players could take
the role of barbarian groups or existing empires, fighting to gain power
or preserve what they had, and could easily begin again as a barbarian
group if they got knocked out of the game! What's this? In BK&E
barbarian units don't need to be maintained, but kingdom units do, as
well as improving in combat power? And when I become a king, I get a
capitol unit I have to protect? A-and my transition to Emperor comes as
a random event after a set number of turns? Gee, it's as if someone was
reading someone's mind. The designer notes at the end of the Rise and
Fall rulebook:

"Rise and Fall started one day in March when my (then) fiance [sic] went
to Mexico for a week. I looked at my game collection and decided I
needed something new. I was in an ancient's [sic] mood... and wanted to
play a game on Rome. I felt that a new game on the subject was
warranted. So away I went."

I am not suggesting that this game was plagiarized wholesale - there
remain some important differences, and frankly in my opinion BK&E is the
more comprehensive and detailed of the two games. But the similarities
are marked. SGS member John Kula told me that Engelmann has appeared
online on the CONSIM-L mailing list to deny that Rise and Fall is a
rip-off of the former game: I didn't get a chance to read the exchange,
but I just nod and say, "sure, OK."

SUPPORT MATERIAL

The following articles have appeared supporting or commenting on the
game:

Wargamer 2, #12: "Production Spiral" by designer Engelmann Wargamer 2,
#16: Developer's comments and another article Fire & Movement #65:
review article

OTHER GAMES OF THIS TYPE

Well, besides BK&E of course, there are numerous designs on the fall of
Rome as well as empire-building from scratch. Of the latter, certainly
Sid Meier's Civilization series of computer games is perhaps the most
popular (and obsessively fascinating). Others include: IV Against Rome
(WWW 1993); VI Caesars (Citadel 1982); Alaric the Goth/Attila the Hun
(SSG 1980); Ancient Conquest 1 & 2 (Excalibre 1975 and 1978); Attila,
Scourge o' God (XTR, Command #47); The Barbarians (Yaquinto 1981);
Decline and Fall (REG 1972); Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
(Ariel, n/d); Empires of the Middle Ages (SPI 1980); Fall of Rome (SPI,
Strategy & Tactics #39 and Decision Games, Strategy & Tactics #181);
Imperator (3W 1992); and Imperium Romanum (West End 1985).

OTHER GAMES BY THIS DESIGNER

Shattered States (EMS)