Portal Games Imperial Settlers,10+ Yers Multi-Colored

Ignacy Trzewiczek, while not exactly a household name in the United States, is a name that has been on the radar of many gamers (myself included), since 2004.The release of his first tableau builder, 51st State, caused quite a stir amongst players bold enough to learn the game and familiarize themselves with its vast use of iconography. If you have been a fan of the series, you will be right a home with this game...If not?.... NO PROBLEM! Imperial Settlers takes the best of the 51st State series and streamlines it for the better. The game takes considerably less time to complete in comparison to 51st State, and it plays out in 5 rounds after which final tallies are taken and a winner is declared.Rounds are basically:1. Draft cards.2. Produce resources (Factions are asymmetrical, and produce certain resources by default... then more as you tableau grows, or *GASP* less as it shrinks)3. Take turns performing one action per player, until everyone has passed or all resources for the round are spentEven for players unfamiliar with tableau building games, learning Imperial Settlers should be an easy and rewarding experience.I was able to teach 2 gamers whose experience ends with Catan, in under 10 minutes.The factions all feel quite different, and as a result have both their obvious strategies, and subtle metagame unique to each group.I will echo something that has been said, (though my opinion may be different) one faction.. The Japanese... does not feel quite as balanced for our gaming group. The last four games ended with Japan in last place, 2 of which were played by the same player. With time this may change.*****EDIT********I have changed my mind about the Japanese faction at this point.... I think they may even be overpowered.. I am leaving my initial thoughts up there for posterity... It seems to be the first thing people think. In the right hands though, with some good card luck (namely a bunch of food early on) they can be a tough act to follow*****************A fun game for all, though I would suggest waiting for a more reasonable price. The publisher has stated at boardgamegeek.com that more copies are at print, and there will not be a shortage. Extra cards, and perhaps factions, are also in the works.

Imperial settlers is a great engine building game. I always liked games which you need to choose a nation before you start the game. Everybody has their own cards, special abilities, resources, buildings and more.Also, in imperial settlers you need to choose a race, and you need to play according to your faction's cards, benefits or abilities. Every faction has their own cards and unique playing style. For example, if you want to be a barbarian, you need focus on razing locations and constructing black labeled locations in order to gain VPs. A roman needs to build grey buildings, and try to build all faction locations because romans have a card that allows you gain VPs each time you build a roman building. I did not play with Egyptian yet but gold is very important for them, and you can convert your gold into VPs easily. Lastly Japanese faction... I think this faction is the hardest one to play. You have samurais to protect your lands but your faction buildings also under the risk of razing. However, Japanese deck is more versatile deck in this game.Game is really great for weekend nights. One more thing can be a weakness for this great game - limited resources especially workers. Of course game has a multiplier for limited resources but it is not as good as a real fleshy pink meeple. Especially in four player games players can face hard times when dealing with multipliers. I hope we can see more goods ( old goods and new type of goods ) in order to get rid of this multiplier issue because game box has lots of space for them.

It's a great game. Easy to understand (except for the solo-player variant rules in which I struggled to understand how the attacks work). I love the art and illustrations and especially the little wood pieces. I don't know why they didn't make the gold coins wooden, but not a big deal. I've been playing the Solo variant a ton lately, it's fun, but way too easy. I'll have to play the game more with my friends to see how competitive it is. I think it's a balanced game from what I'm finding. The 5 rounds goes by fast, so it's not a all-night type card game which is what I like about it. I'm interested in getting the 2 expansions for it as well.

The art in this game, as Zee Garcia said, looks like a Facebook app. The art is corny and the theme is not my favorite, but the iconography/wording on the cards is certainly functional. Even with theme and art being important to me and missing the mark in Imperial Settlers, this game is in my top five games, probably #3 or #4. The game play is brilliant and eloquent. Every time you think you are out of actions on a turn, you find another way to get more done. The back and forth of turns keeps you constantly engaged and taking actions. I have only played it as a two player game, but I don't feel like I'm missing anything with the other player counts. This game makes you feel really smart as you find more options and combos from your cards and resources. You always feel that there is more strategy that you can learn. Because of this, I am constantly saying, "I need to get this game to the table again." Actual rating: 9.5/10

We've played this a dozen times, from 2 player to 4. 2 player is the best. It's ok.