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Empire box art
2022 Ranked #16,253

Empire

An economic engine game has industrialists build factories, hire workers, produce resources, and sell them for profit over thirty years. Changing markets, labor costs, upkeep, and staffing make growth valuable but costly to sustain.

Economic Industry / Manufacturing Open Drafting Network and Route Building

Players

1-2

Play time

15-30 min

Age

10+

Complexity

2.8/5

Rating

6.25

Harder to teach Highly interactive Deep strategy

Overview

At a glance

Is this game right for my group?

ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.

Teachability 2.4/5

Harder to teach

Replay value 4.0/5

High replayability

Interaction 3.6/5

Highly interactive

Player scaling 4.4/5

Scales well

Strategic depth 4.7/5

Deep strategy

See all 5 specifications

How it plays

How does it play?

At the turn of the century, build your industrial empire by constructing factories, hiring workers, producing goods and selling them for a profit. How rich will you be when you retire?

Core mechanisms

Key systems that shape the decisions players make.

Read the full game description

At the turn of the century, build your industrial empire by constructing factories, hiring workers, producing goods and selling them for a profit. How rich will you be when you retire? Create a manufacturing empire in 30 years (15 turns) by building factories, producing Capital, Materials, Commodities, and Goods, and earn as much Profit as you can. Needed to Play: 9 Game Cards 7d6 to track workers (Worker Dice) 1d6 to track The Market (Market Die) 1d6 to track Managers (Managers Die) 9 eurocubes (8mm suggested) as tracking markers Phases of a turn Each turn consists of three phases: Set the Market Take Your Actions Upkeep/Record Time Passed Phase 1. Set the Market Roll the Market die and place it next to the Market. Reference the Market die’s face against the Resource numbers listed in its matching row. This row shows the amounts you will gain in Capital or Profit for each resource unit sold during this turn in Phase 2. Phase 2. Take Your Actions You may now take up to 4 actions in the game, once each, in the order listed below, though you may skip any action in the series (ex. - A, (skip B), C, D): Sell Resources and/or Capital for Profit; Hire and/or Move Workers; Build a Building/Events; Produce Resources and/or Capital. Phase 3. Upkeep/Record Time Passed Overstaffing a building can lead to additional costs and to buildings requiring upkeep. On years 6, 12, 18, 24 and 30 you must pay rising labor costs for any workers represented by a Worker die whose value exceeds the Staffing Requirement die icon for that building (do not count the Central Factory during this phase). For each building with more workers than the staffing requirement (as shown by the die icon) pay Capital equal to 1/2 of the value on the current Market die (rounded down). If you are unable to pay this amount, the Worker die is rotated to 1 and the building must be restaffed. On years 8, 18, and 24 you must pay for Building Upkeep and Maintenance (do not count the Central Factory during this phase). For each building built, pay a cost of any two Resources shown for the original building cost. You may choose which two of these you pay; then reduce the value on a matching Resource track among any one of your buildings. For each unit of the Resource cost you cannot pay, subtract 1 Profit unit. At the end of each turn, move the marker on the Years in Business track forward one space. The game ends after your 30th year. —description from the publisher

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Editions

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Game and edition data

All specifications (5)

Play and group

Players
1–2
Best with
2
Play time
15–30 min
Age
10+
Complexity
2.8/5
Credits and catalog connections

Credits

Designers

1
Todd Sanders

Artists

1
Todd Sanders

Publishers

1
AVStudioGames

Linked items

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