Pocket Empires

Pocket Empires is a 2-player card game from Indonesia by Nomas Kurnia. It is a minimalistic 18-card game that can be played in 10 minutes. The basic game contains six different civilisations. The game has now been expanded to have more civilisations. A solo game has also been developed. 

In Pocket Empires you and your opponent will build your respective 3x3 grid of cards, and the civilisation cards in your grid will score points. You each start with a set of land cards. There is a gold set and a silver set. You must use one of these predetermined sets. Every round, you will add one land card to your grid. In the first round this is done simultaneously, but from the second round onwards it is the bid winner of the previous round who goes first. Turn order is important. The twist in this game is you must exchange your played land card with your opponent's. When you play a card, it is going to go to your opponent's grid and it will help him score points. 

Every land card has a base value printed on it. When you play a card, its value is not only this base value. You also add the value of all orthogonally adjacent land cards. The player who has the higher value wins the bid. It is not always good to win. Let me explain the implications of winning. In the first, third and final rounds, the winner gets to pick a civilisation card to add to his grid. All civilisation cards have scoring conditions, e.g. you score points based on icons on adjacent cards, or based on pairs of specific icons in the same row and column. Winning a bid to get first pick is certainly useful and a good thing. However, winning a bid also means next round you go first. That means you go first playing a land card to your grid. It is played face-down so your opponent doesn't know what icons it has. However your opponent does know the position of the card. When it is his turn to play a card, he will try to avoid playing a card that will help you score points. He knows where his card is going. He will try to give you icons which don't help you much. 

Most of these are the basic civilisations

Most of these are the advanced civilisations

The rulebook has a table which lists all 12 land cards in the game. Often it is important to refer to this so that you know which cards your opponent has left. This helps you strategise. 

I find this a clever microgame with an interesting twist. This is almost a perfect information game. The only uncertainty is you don't know which card your opponent has just played. Despite being a short game, this can be a thinky game.