The on the map battles would have been an entire game in themselves. SSI (correctly) told us we were trying to do to much. Looking back, Spieth has some ideas about how the battles could have worked better:įor the first game the original plan and design was to have been battle on the main map almost like a war game. There was also, of course, the tedious battle system – identical maps from one battle to the next, culminating in the siege of the capital city. Which territory is safest from amphibious landings? Are there two related minor powers who can meet different needs you have? Where is your rival investing its money? Every turn was a matter of scanning the map, checking your needs and desires and finding a way to outbid your opponent for the loyalty of a minor. You would know quite quickly who had the best forests for logging and who had the most hills for mining. Though studying the map is a minor skill set for most strategy games, it could be the difference between winning and losing in the Imperialism series. So lots of the new elements in production had to do with making a set of new world resources that would satisfy this model. So what did colonies do? Well, in very simple terms their products created wealth and made European population larger, happier, more productive. To win you have to control the Old World. I think what were after for production was partly that and partly an attempt to create a (again simple) model of what made a colony useful. That applies to the research element for sure.
It has to supply ‘more of the same’ to players who liked the first game without becoming too complicated for new players. Spieth says:Īs far as I remember we just added things as part of the challenge of making a sequel. If you take one or two more turns than your neighbors in grabbing (peacefully or not) rich sugar and tobacco farms then you may find yourself backed into a corner in the Old World.īecause, in both games, the Old World was entirely the point. Set in the Age of Exploration, you started with a known Old World and a lot of black map space – the New World is in there somewhere. Where the exploration in the original Imperialism was focused on resource hunting, Imperialism II took a more traditional approach. This is when the whole “legality” thing goes out the window and you find yourself planning aggression against a tiny neighbor and its great power sponsor. And even your own country was largely undeveloped you might not know that you are starving for iron until you had committed yourself to a region that turns out to be rich in copper. But there was a lot of guesswork in knowing which minor state to approach first. Giving trade subsidies would lead to minor treaties and eventually you could build railroads and mines. The whole “cloaked with legality” thing is important for the game, since getting into some territories would require an investment of time and money. This was true even in India where power was cloaked with legality. Also, in most places by the 1800s (parts of Africa are an exception I know) the Imperialist powers had to at least appear to be dealing ‘fairly’ with minor power governments to obtain resources. No one knew there were diamonds and gold in South Africa for instance. Still when you have an event like the 1880 Scramble for Africa, the powers didn’t know what resources they would actually be able to obtain. Co-designer Bill Spieth says that this was integral to the period theme.īy the 19th century, the European powers were well-acquainted with the shape of the continents and in many places knew more. Many valuable resources were hidden from view until you sent an explorer/prospector to take a look. As well as the iron, oil, coal and copper. Where other resources were used to make finished goods or arms, the precious metals and stones went straight to your treasury.īut you had to find them first. Each country was broken into provinces with raw materials to exploit – an only the minor powers had gold and gems. The minor powers in each cluster were closely related, so friendship with one would increase relations with the others. There were seven major powers, and four clusters of four minor powers each. Hundreds upon hundreds of random maps were available, each one conforming to a basic pattern. The original Imperialism was set in the 19th century. It made economic policy an important consideration in foreign policy and made your Great Power strength reliant on the development of your railroads, factories, mines and colonies. The first Imperialism game was the first game that even tried to capture the imperial dynamic of economic exploitation of small powers by larger ones. Frog City’s Imperialism games are perennial favorites on forum lists of underrated or underappreciated strategy games.