Home · Hot games · Strategy Games

Playtest build using Risk Collectors Edition metal figures for armies, cubes for cities, and gold from the Game of Thrones LCG.

Eight Minutes in Liberty City - my GTA retheme with custom carved components

The end of our most chaotic 5-player game yet, with the optional Goods Tokens variant.

My Discworld-retheme with a new board and a tin box!

During a play with my print-and-play prototype. Note that I shrunk the map to fit on one 8 1/2 x 11 sheet, so it's a bit smaller (and more crowded) than intended and the cards are in larger sleeves, so they don't line up very well with the board.

A PnP test copy of Eight-Minute Empire. Having only a B/W printer, I used some crayons to add the needed color to the cards. Armies from Mastermind and money from Pirates of the Spanish Main. All stored in a 7-day pill holder. A great little game.

Eight-Minute Empire (2012)

Players

2–5

Best: 3, 4

Playing time

8–20 min

Age

13+

6.54

Average rating

9,019

Ratings

1.63/5

Weight

#1867

BGG rank

Top 5,000

Alternate names:8 Min Imperium +16 more

Designer:Ryan Laukat

Artist:Ryan Laukat

Publisher:Piatnik +16 more

Average rating, ratings count, weight and rank are sourced from BoardGameGeek (BGG).

Game DNA

Strategy5.0

Luck5.0

Interaction7.0

Complexity3.3

Theme5.0

This game's strategy, luck, interaction, complexity and theme.

Card GameTerritory BuildingSet CollectionOpen DraftingArea MovementArea Majority / InfluenceAuction: Dutch

Overview

Eight-Minute Empire, by Ryan Laukat, is a quick game that implements the Civilization/Exploration theme using card-driven area control (by placing armies and cities in a small map) and set collection (by getting resources from the board and the cards). Players spread through the map in order to collect points at the end of the game by having majorities in regions and continents. All actions (such as land or sea movement, army production, or the founding of cities) are driven by cards that are face-up (six at a time) and available by increasing prices. Cards also contain resources, which also give points when the game ends if properly collected.

Its first version was available as print-and-play, and a regular (Kickstarter funded) version was published in 2013. An expansion featuring a European map is available as an expansion (Eight-Minute Empire: Europe Expansion Board), and a stand-alone sequel has also been published (Eight-Minute Empire: Legends).

From the publisher: Build an empire and conquer the land in around eight minutes!

In Eight-Minute Empire, 2-5 players take turns selecting a card from six displayed. The card gives a good, and also has an action that the player takes immediately. Actions help players take over the map, but sets of goods are worth points at the end of the game, so players have to balance the two aspects.

Eight-Minute Empire is the super-quick area control game with tough decisions. It's easy to learn and perfect for when you only have a few minutes.