PCB Game Review: Eight Minute Empire

As much fun playing a game as you can have in 8 minutes? Well, more like 20. But still pretty darn good.

I am addicted to Kickstarter. There, I said it (or wrote it, whatever), and I can freely admit it. I've backed over 50 (!?) Kickstarter campaigns in last year, most of them being board games, because I just love them. Plus, there are so many that are under $30, it's hard to say no!

One of my most anticipated has been Eight Minute Empire, by Ryan Laukat and Red Raven Games.

Power Grid: maybe not the first game to teach your new girlfriend.

Here's the situation: for those of you who are board game fans, you're probably aware of the "Euro-game" genre. That is, there are a bunch of games, mostly authored by Scandinavians and Germans, with a lot of little rules and resources and bits of wood or plastic, that can involve 2-5 players in intricate gameplay for two hours or more. Think Settlers of Catan or Arkham Horror or Power Grid.

Thing is, though, that most folks aren't really up for those kinds of games: learning the rules takes a while, you have to play at least a couple of times to really get into it, and tell 90% of people a board game will take more than two hours, and their eyes gloss over and they start looking for alcoholic beverages.

"But," you say to them, "it'll be so much fun if you'll just give it a chance." And half the time they say yes, and half the time again, you're right.

If only there were a game that had much of the fun of a Euro-game, but much less of the commitment.

Enter 8 Minute Empire.

Everything you need to take over the world, Pinky.

The premise of 8 Minute Empire is that you and up to four of your friends (five total) are competing to control the world. The game looks a lot like Risk, but is different, in that there are no battles and no dice. This is a key point for those who have had bad experiences with Risk.

Instead, the challenge is to control territory and gain resources. The player with the most of both by the end wins, and nobody dies!

Costs: zero on the left, three on the right.

Learning the rules does take a few minutes, maybe ten if everyone is listening. Players start with 3 armies on the start space. The basic game mechanic is this: at the start of the game, there are 6 action/resource cards face up on the table. Each player has coins, and the cards cost either 0, 1, 2, or 3 coins, depending on whether they're the first, sixth, or in between card, as listed on the map. Players bid coins to be the first player, then that player buys one of the cards. On the card is an instruction as to what you can do: add armies, move armies, build a city, remove other armies. Once you've decided whether to do the action or not (you can elect not to), you then keep the card, which is also a resource. Much like in Bohnanza, each resource gains victory points at a different rate. There appears to be iron, stone, crystals, food, and lumber. One crystal card, for example, gets you one victory point, but you need two lumber cards for one point, and three food cards for one point. It pays, therefore, to know what you have and what you can take advantage of.

Those crystals are pretty good. Carrots? Not so much.

When adding armies, you can only add them at the start space or at a space with one of your cities. You can have up to three, and those are best used once you cross the water. The only way to cross is to get a land/water crossing action. Then, get a card that lets you build a city, and the next time you add armies, you can add some or all of them at your city.

Finally, as cards are purchased, they move to the cheaper (left) end of the line, and a new card is placed in the 3 coin slot. That's pretty much it. Repeat for 7-10 turns (depending on the number of players), then count up your victory points. You get one point for every space you control (have more armies than the next guy), then one point for each continent you control (have more spaces than the next guy), and one point per victory point on your resource cards. Resources and spaces are weighted about the same; continents aren't really that valuable, as usually there are only 4 points to be had. Games are typically in the 10-18 point range.

Being first and being last can be very important, especially last, where even if you don't win, you can very often decide who the winner is.

How is the game, then? Well, as many on the internet observe, it's really never eight minutes. In a three player game, for example, there are 30 turns. That means, if you don't include going over the rules, each player would have to make each move in 15 seconds. That's not really realistic, although if you wanted to prove something, you could probably manage it. A more realistic title would be Fifteen Minute Empire, but in my experience, each game took around 20 minutes.

The start space can fill up fast.

That is not a dig on the game. If the goal was to have a fairly easy to understand game which balances strategy and luck, and gives a feel of what a Euro-game is like without too much pain, Eight Minute Empire succeeds. The rules are well balanced, the pieces and art first rate, and the style is high quality and appropriate to the theme.

See, I think Turkey is attached right there. But it's not clear.

My only quibble about the game is that the map art went more towards art and less towards legibility. For example, on the bonus Europe board that came with the Kickstarter, it's unclear if you can move from Greece to Turkey via Istanbul, mostly because there is the chance to cross the Black Sea by boat. Further, since all the land spaces are the same color, on many maps it's hard to tell where the continents are, and there are a couple of places that have islands that look like separate spaces. Finally, the start spaces are pretty crowded if you have five players.

But again, that's a quibble. Once you resolve that, this is a very fun, very fast and light resource and conquest game. Including explaining the rules, the whole thing can easily be completed in under 30 minutes, and from there, you can find out if your friends are interested in a more complex game. It's also a great game to play to fill time while waiting for other players to arrive.

Eight-Minute Empire
$24.99 from Amazon
9 out of 10 crystals