Imperial Struggle

 

The Game

Imperial Struggle is designed by Ananda Gupta and Jason Matthews of Twilight Struggle fame. Twilight Struggle used to be the #1 game on BGG. When they partner up again after 15 years, people pay attention. Imperial Struggle is a 2-player game about the two major colonial powers in the 18th century - Britain and France. 

I must say the game board is rather intimidating. So many different shapes, colours, lines, charts and symbols. You need to patiently read through the rule book before everything makes sense and you can calm your nerves. The game is not as scary as it initially seems. Still, it is a complex game, more so than Twilight Struggle. The board is divided into four regions, North America and Central America on the left, and Europe and Africa / India on the right. 

This small section of the board shows the flow of a complete game. You will play six peace turns, and in between some of these peace turns there are wars (triangles) to resolve. There are four wars in a complete game. The six peace turns are divided into three eras - white, green and purple. When you change era, you will swap the cards you use in the game. 

This is the global demand chart, which shows 6 commodities. Some of the spaces on the game board are markets, and commodities are sold at markets. Each market specialises in one specific commodity. Every peace turn, three commodities are randomly determined to be the in-demand commodities. Players have to compete to control markets trading these commodities. At the end of the peace turn, whoever controls more markets in the relevant commodities gain some benefit. 

This is the main score board. It is used to keep score and also to track a few other things, like your debt limit and current debt level. There is only one victory point marker, which starts the game at 15. Whenever France gains points, you add to the VP total. Whenever Britain gains points, you deduct from the VP total. It's a tug of war. If the VP marker hits 30, France wins immediately. If it hits 0, Britain wins. 

This is the British player's player board. The nine shapes on the right represent the various actions you can perform in the game. The shapes have different meanings and represent different types of actions. The two face-down cards on the left are ministry cards. They are special powers you get to pick at the start of every era. They stay face-down, and thus are secret, until you are ready to use them. The square tiles at the upper left are advantage tiles. When you control certain locations on the board, you get to claim these advantage tiles. They too are special abilities you may use once per peace turn. 

This is the admin board. There are nine investment tiles at the bottom. They are used for performing actions. At the start of a peace turn, nine such tiles are randomly drawn. Players then take turns picking one and using it to perform actions. A tile specifies two types of actions you may perform, and the number of action points in both types. E.g. the first tile gives you 2 economic action points and 2 military action points. The three action types are economic, military and political. Some tiles allow you to play an event card. Some tiles allow you to replace an army. Throughout a peace turn each player will claim four investment tiles. The last one left will be discarded. 

There are five location types on the board, with different shapes. Most locations in Europe are diamond-shaped political locations, representing diplomatic relationships and alliances of Britain and France. Round locations are markets. You compete for markets to control commodities. Hexagons at sea are for deploying navies. Hexagons on land are forts. Squares are controlled territories. Pentagons are not locations you can control. They represent advantage tiles you claim when you control certain locations on the board. When you control all locations connected to a pentagon, you claim the corresponding advantage tile. 

Some locations are in blue or red. These are locations France and Britain control at the start of the game. 

This is the Central America region. At the start of every peace turn, you randomly draw and place an award tile for each region. The award tile is that black bordered square token on the right. At the end of a peace turn, whoever controls more locations in a region claims the award tile and scores points accordingly. In addition to the 0VP or 30VP instant win condition, there are two other instant win conditions. One is peace victory, and the other war victory. To achieve peace victory, you must win the award tiles of all four regions, and also beat your opponent in all three commodities. If you are able to achieve these, your opponent is probably in a very bad situation and it would be a mercy to end the game. 

In the photo above, every market location (round) has a small icon representing the commodity it deals in. 

This is a war board. There are four such boards, called War Displays, in the game, one for each major war the combatants will fight. You set up the game with this one in play - the War of the Spanish Succession. Wars are resolved at specific points in the game. Prior to that, both sides get to prepare and influence the outcome of the upcoming war, e.g. securing alliances, building forts, deploying navies and sowing unrest. Once a war is resolved, the next war board is brought out, and players may now start preparing for the next military conflict. 

A war board is divided into four theatres. Each theatre tells you what elements affect the outcome in that theatre, e.g. alliances which will confer strength and whether naval presence will help. You may also deploy war tiles (which I think of as armies) to increase your strength. The outcome of wars includes scoring points and annexing enemy territories. Normally territories can only be gained as the outcome of a war. 

You can achieve instant win through warfare. You win a war victory if you achieve the maximum victor rewards in all four theatres of a war. 

These are ministry cards. The three boxes on the left tells you which eras the cards can be used in. The card on the left can only be used in the first era, i.e. the first two peace turns. The card on the right can be used in the second and third eras. 

These are event cards. Players share the same event card deck. The colours white, green and purple indicate the era the card is for. Every peace turn you can have at most three event cards. Some event cards resolve differently for France and Britain, e.g. the one on the right. 

The similarity between Imperial Struggle and Twilight Struggle is that you are competing to control as many locations as possible on the board. You want to do this as efficiently as possible, making use of events, ministry cards and achievement tiles. In Twilight Struggle, what you can do is highly dependent on the cards you draw. In Imperial Struggle, the investment tiles are placed in the same pool and are accessible to both players. You take turns claiming what you want most. There are still cards, but they are a secondary mechanism and not the core mechanism. The ministry cards are pre-set. There is no luck of the draw. It is a matter of guessing what your opponent has picked. The game is mostly open information. Similar to Twilight Struggle, it is a tug of war. 

The Play

Allen played Britain and I played France. 

Game setup is convenient, since the locations you control are clearly marked (in red or blue) and you do not need to look up some reference chart. This above is how a game is set up. All ready to go.  

In the early game, Allen (Britain) worked diligently to pacify his backyard. He invested much effort in Ireland and Scotland. One of the Irish locations was initially French-controlled, so it took significant commitment on his part to wrest it from me. Later I realised he did this due to misunderstanding an event card he held. That card said if you controlled Ireland and Scotland you would get to do so-and-so. However this ability only applied to the French and not the British. I missed this part when explaining the rules, and he only realised it later on when he saw the French and British icons on the card. Sorry about that.

In our first peace turn many of the investment tiles were political tiles. Most of the political locations were in Europe. I (France) spent most of my energy competing in Europe. I had one ministry card which gave me extra political actions if I controlled locations in Spain, Austria and Italy. I worked towards that, so that I could play this card under the best conditions. When I eventually used the card, I received 5 or 6 political action points at one go! This helped me dominate politics in Europe. 

Some political locations have a green border. Whoever controlled more of these scored an extra 2VP. This was an additional layer to compete in. My dominance in Europe gave me a strong advantage in this. 

In North America Allen (Britain) was much stronger than me. Britain started the game with a stronger navy, and he built upon that, commissioning more ships to assert his naval dominance. He sent three squadrons to North America (the red hexagonal pieces). 

In the first peace turn, we tentatively explored and learned the game, internalising the rules as we went. I find that in simple terms, this is a game about controlling more locations on the board than your opponent. Yes, there are different location types, you need to use different action types to compete for them, and there is regional scoring, war scoring, global demand scoring and victory point scoring to juggle, but under all that, it's still about controlling locations. Events, ministry cards and advantage tiles are your extra weapons in this fight and you want to fully utilise them. The game board is your platform, and the various ways of scoring are overlapping arenas you have to manage. Markets are important because they contribute to both regional scoring and global demand scoring. Some political locations are important too because they contribute to both regional scoring and war scoring. 

This is Central America. Allen (Britain) had an advantage here too. He had 8 flags to my 6. When competing for markets, you need to have connectivity to capture any new market. However for controlling sea locations, there is no such requirement. You just sail your ship there and squat. There are different rules for different location types.

This is Africa and India. At this point Britain had an edge too. The yellow hexagonal marker with crossed muskets is a conflict marker. If you create such unrest at your opponent's locations, they become easier to steal. They also lose effectiveness when competing for the various scoring. Mess for enemy, good for me. 

In the second peace turn, I (France) used that same ministry card and gained a bunch of extra political action points again. This helped me claim many advantage tiles, and they in turn gave me many perks. In contrast, Allen (Britain) had only a few advantage tiles. Advantage tiles are not always useful. It depends on what you need. You have to study what benefits they give before deciding which ones to go for. At the end of the peace turn when we did regional scoring and global demand scoring, I was surprised that I managed to reach 30VP. I knew that I had a significant lead in Europe, and that indirectly helped me in other regions, but I had not expected that the little wins here and there could add up to 30VP. Don't underestimate small victories! 

The Thoughts

I like Twilight Struggle, but it didn't click for Allen despite multiple attempts. He felt at the mercy of the card draw. Indeed Twilight Struggle is a lot about hand management and disaster management. The first thing Allen said after we completed our game was "this is good stuff"! Indeed you do feel more in control when playing Imperial Struggle. You pick your own ministry card. The investment tiles, which is the core engine, is a shared pool. You decide whether to take that tile you want most, or that other tile your opponent wants most. Only the event cards are subject to fate, but they are an accessory, not the core engine. There will be some luck in the three random commodities to fight for every peace turn. If you always draw commodities you are weak in, you will be disadvantaged. That said, at game setup, no one is significantly stronger in any of the commodities. So I would say this is unpredictability and not luck determining victory. You still need to make your own luck. 

I like that Imperial Struggle is rich and flavourful. The mechanics, the board design, the ministry cards and the event cards all portray well this 100-year competition between Britain and France. Admittedly, we only managed to play 30 years or so, but it was an immersive experience. You compete in multiple overlapping arenas and you need to keep track of them all. You can't be everywhere all the time. You are forced to concede some areas. I admire how the complex politics and economics of the era are presented in the game. It is a complex game, but the complexities are justified. Imperial Struggle is quite different from Twilight Struggle. That is good. If you want something more similar, check out 1989: Dawn of Freedom. Despite being a complex game, I like how Imperial Struggle does not feel hard to digest. The mechanics make good sense. The component and graphic design help make the game easier to understand. While we were still trying to remember the rules, we frequently referred to the rule book. However the overarching strategy was always clear to us. It was only the details we had to double-check. I felt I was already playing the game and not still learning the game. 

I highly recommend Imperial Struggle! 

This is my favourite ministry card, because Samuel Johnson is now a famous internet meme. He was probably just short-sighted. Now he has been turned into a what-the-hell-did-I-just-read joke.