Ad Imperium

We sit on the precipice of a new era. The discovery of Facient has changed the face of the empire. The Facient mines have granted us the ability to open worm holes and expand to the stars. Our civilization, once confined to the few planets around Sol, has begun to grow and all this as the emperor slowly fades to some strange disease. Soon he will die and as we plunge into this new future we need a leader who will carry us beyond the mere conjuring of our imaginations. Surly the senate will select the greatest among us.

In Ad Imperium you take control of a powerful imperial family seeking to build your position in the empire and ascend to become the ultimate ruler. It draws inspiration from games like Through the Ages, Lords of Water Deep and Eclipse to offer a unique blend of civilization building and worker placement strategies with the elements of 4x games that we all love.

Play Ad Imperium if:

✶ You love games filled with player interaction, diplomacy and conflict
✶ You want to explore a tech filled sci-fi universe
✶ You like combat but don't want it to dominate the game
✶ You like fast paced games with just a little bit of luck and a lot of thinking ahead

How It Works:

The object of the game is to collect the most imperial influence before the emperor dies. The game spans six rounds with players taking actions each round until all players have passed. Players act in three newly discovered remote systems and their private home system. They will explore new worlds, build facilities to collect resources and gain imperial influence. To manage these resources players must draft leaders who are revealed each round and can be used in three different ways. The planets are randomized each game offering a variable challenge providing significant replay-ability. Each planet has a different back story. The planets are shared between players with each supporting a limited number of facilities. Each world produces differently. Some refresh each round giving the biggest boon to the player who activates it first in the round while others require consistent work providing a big reward to all the contributors when the task is complete.

Combat occurs exclusively in the remote systems, where players execute attacks by declaring an attacking and defending force, selecting tactics and then executing a single toss of the dice. The die roll results in a combat margin based on the luck of the die, your tactic selection, the size of your force, and your ability to predict your opponent’s tactics. The result is a margin of victory; the bigger the margin the bigger the reward. A small margin might let you block a player from using one of their facilities or let you use it this turn, a large victory will let you destroy a facility or take it over.
The key to the combat system is that attacking does not leave you totally depleted or vulnerable like often happens in other 4x games. The attacker can still use the attacking ships to defend against attacks and for the weaker player, the emperor will not permit excessive violence in his empire. If a player is attacked and damaged in a system, the emperor will deploy peace keepers to prevent others from doing the same in that system for the rest of the round. This ends the dog pile on the rabbit effect. The bottom line is attacking is helpful, has some cost and does not leave you or the person you attacked overly open to opportunistic opponents.

Players also have a home system where they manage facilities for the refining or resources and the development of technologies. A player’s home system provides them a tech tree and an opportunity to gather imperial influence through a leadership council and the participation in imperial initiatives.

Open to the Gaming Community

I love TGC’s capacity for on-demand printing. If you try out Ad Imperium you will notice the modular nature of the game. Do you have an idea for a planet or your own leaders (with the faces of your friends and family)? Would you like to develop your own tech tree? Do you have an idea to add a new element in the game? If you are interested in making your own expansion I would be happy to work with you to make your ideas come to life. Just send me a note and I will get you setup with the files you need to make it happen and maybe even help out with the Art.