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If you liked Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea, you are going to love Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East!
Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East (ACME) is brought to you by the same team that created Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea —designers Christopher Vorder Bruegge and Mark McLaughlin with developer Fred Schachter. ACME is not a sequel nor an expansion but a stand alone game using the same multiplayer and solitaire systems as its predecessor with many new and exciting features to intrigue its players.
ACME is a game of the chaos-inducing wrath of gods & men—a chaos each player does their utmost to manage, survive, and guide their civilization through to triumphant victory. Spanning the ancient world from the Hellespont to the Indus, from the Caspian to the Red Sea, and from the early Bronze Age to the Hellenic Age, Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East allows you to command not just 10 but 17, SEVENTEEN CIVILIZATIONS!
If you want a War Game, you got it. If you want a friendly game, this is it too! As in Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea, Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East can be all about war, but it doesn't have to be. It can be a friendly game of exploration, city building, trade, and faith. Players (solitaire, a group of up to six, or even a mix of live players with a system-driven civilization of two or more) can make of ACME what they wish or imagine. Competition can be martial or cultural, warlike or friendly, or a combination of both—how the game unfolds depends entirely on how the players want it to play. The duration of the game is also up to the players: from a multi-hour odyssey of all four Epochs to a pre-arranged shorter contest of an hour or two or to an agreed Sudden Death Victory Point threshold.
—description from the publisher
- Hilarious
- So much fun
- Always have a big grin on my face
- Funny when played with new players
- Can be a longer game with higher player count
- Civilization building
- Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- civilization building — Players build cities, temples, and invest in other things.
- Resource Management — Cylinders act as units, cities, and money, used for various things.
- Take That — The core mechanic involves players constantly playing cards to hinder opponents.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the discriminating gamer.
- My top 50 GMT games of all time, 30 to 21.
- This is really the game, I think, that I cut my teeth on coin with um and really learned how to how these systems worked.
- It's not as difficult as and and and treacherous to learn as I thought it would be.
- And I really loved that tension of trying to to to do as much as you can, but having to really pick and choose because at any moment, the game could end.
- But critically, even though the game looks like a civilization building game at its heart, it is a take that game. You are constantly playing take that here.
- And it is hilarious. It is so much fun trying to build things up and then you're playing these cards and your opponents are just swatting you down.
- It's a very unusual game. I don't know that I've ever played a game quite like Atlantic Chase.
- I really felt bad about it. This is one maybe I need to require at some point.
- So, you've got to be very careful as you play this game because the cards you play to help you can end up helping somebody else.
- This is probably the most popular game when I take it to my West Civ one game nights.
- Well, what do you think ladies and gentlemen?
- If you really like what we do here, please check out my other channel that is Cody Carlson PhD where we talk about history, military history, books on history. I even post some of my lectures on there.
References (from this video)
- deep civilization-building experience
- disc mechanic provides a tactile, multi-use resource system
- noted take-that elements can disrupt play
- civilization-building with disc-based components and take-that elements
- Ancient Near East civilizations
- card-driven, disc-ownership economy and conflict
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- 4X-like progression — expansion of empires, resource development, and military conflict
- Disc-based components — discs serve as units, villages, currency, and cities with multi-use functionality
- take-that card play — random events and attacks from barbarians or other disruptive effects
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Forbidden Stars is a great 4X game where you are the various factions from Warhammer 40k.
- The game is beautiful. You have these tiles that have the different planets and whatnot on there. You've got these minis that are these beautiful spaceships and tanks and forces.
- I love it. I think it's a fantastic game.
- this game more than anything, I would say is probably a take that game with the card playing stuff.
- it's a great civilization building game, but it would be a great civilization building game even if it wasn't Star Trek.
- it's absolutely 4X because again you are exploring.
- you are laying down warp lanes and you're actually laying down these like lanes that you do to travel to different planets and you're laying down the different planets and exploring them and then you're trying to take them over and build up your resources.
- Twilight Imperium is my number one.
- it's a grand epic space adventure. Again, you got a mountain of cards. You've got tons of plastic. I freaking love Twilight Imperium.
- this is a show. It's like a movie. It's like a book.