Empires at Sea: Deluxe Edition (2016)

Overview

Launch your fleet, capture ports, and wage war in the absolutely epic board game for 2-5 players. In Empires at Sea, you play as one of five nations, and work to amass the largest empire at the end of 15 rounds of play.

A Quick Overview of the Game

Each Round opens with a History Card, which hurts or helps one nation or another based on the actual impact of the actual historical event. A Weather Card is played, limiting or improving movement for all players for the Round (e.g., ships can only move North and East). Next, all players gain resources, based on the Ports they own, plus any Resource Cards played during the game.

Each player then takes a turn, first by playing a Captain's Card (used to launch a ship, advance your military, strengthen a port, etc) and then by sailing their fleet to take command of new ports, trade, or attack their enemies. The combat system is based on a roll of the dice, plus modifiers for ship size, the weather gauge, military advancements, and Captain's Orders.

At the end of the round, all players may bribe the Pirate. The highest bidder gets to use this ship to attack their friends/enemies/loved-ones.

At the end of the game, you tally up your Empire score based on the ships you sink, the ships you command, the ports you own, and the gold and resources you've collected. The biggest Empire wins.