Empires: Builder Expansion Review

Today's review is of an expansion for a game with a different name - Empires: Builder Expansion. This is the expansion for Age of Empires III, and I'm going to assume that you're familiar with the base game. If not, I recommend checking out my Age of Empires III review. (In case you're curious why the names don't match, Age of Empires III was renamed to be Empires at some point. I'm not entirely sure why. And, officially, it was known as Glenn Drover's Age of Empires III and is now known as Glenn Drover's Empires.)

The Builder Expansion adds five main things: builder specialists, pieces for a sixth player, new buildings (including "Spoils of War" buildings), National Advantages, and the ability to buy Victory Points. So, let's dig in...

First are the new builder specialists. These specialists can help you in two ways: they can be used to buy a capital building for $5 less than normal, or they can be sent to the new world to increase the value of the location where they are present (add 4 Victory Points for 1st place and 2 Victory Points for second place). I really like these new builders, and I think that they add an interesting element to the game without being overpowered. They give you flexibility with your strategies, as they can be helpful when focusing on money and buildings, but can be just as useful if you're only worried about the new world. However, they are quite perilous in the new world, as a few well placed soldiers can completely de-rail your strategy if you appear to have too much of an advantage in the new world. The one thing that I dislike about the builders is that you aren't able to collect them in the same way as other specialists. For any other specialist, there is a location where you can place a worker and then the next round you will gain that specialist. With the builder, you have to place your worker in the "Buy a Specialist for $5" space; the builder is free in this space, but he can be blocked by another player wanting a second copy of one of the other specialists. I would have preferred if the builder was given his own place on the board (possibly as a piece the size of a capital building that you set next to the specialist track to create a place for him.)

The new builders

The next thing that the Builder expansion adds are the pieces for a sixth player. And, well, it's about time. I have never understood why the base game only came with pieces for 5 players. The board was very obviously setup for six players - there was a sixth spot on the turn order track, on the initiative track, and 11 places on the colonist dock (which is how many you need in six players). Why did it take so long to release this? Either way, I am happy that my copy can now be played with six players. Aside from being able to play the game with more friends now, it's also interesting how much more stressful a sixth player causes decisions to be. In a full six player game, when deciding between two different places for your colonist, you can almost guarantee that whichever place you want to go will not be available by the time everyone else has taken their turn, and so you have to pick the one that you really want.

The third addition are new buildings, and specifically, new "Spoils of War" buildings. Spoils of War buildings are collected in the capital building track, but do not cost any money. They give you one time bonuses like two extra trade goods, a merchant ship, $5, or specialists for the next turn. I think that the Spoils of War buildings add an interesting new element to the game. Generally, in the base game, you can tell which building someone might be taking. And, if they are on the capital building track, you assume that they are going to buy something. However, with the new Spoils of War buildings, you don't know if they're going to buy something, or simply collect a Spoils of War. And, this can completely throw off your plans if you are in one of the later positions on the capital building track. After all - you might have placed there assuming that you would be able to collect a Spoils of War, but the players in front of you decide that they want it. Then, you are left without being able to collect anything, unless you actually had the money for a building. I thought this was interesting. Some of the other buildings also added a neat new twist - such as the Mayflower, which allows you to use your merchant ships to transport colonists to the new world.  Overall, I was happy with the new buildings.

Asymmetric starting positions!

The addition that I may have been the most excited about was the addition of National Advantages. Essentially, these are a way of providing an asymmetric starting position, which I am a huge fan of. Each Nationality has two powers, and the player using that Nationality gets to select one of the roles for the game. Most of the powers mirror Age I buildings - things like +1 Captain, Soldier, Missionary, or Merchant per turn. However, there are a few that are more creative - like +1 coin from every other player per turn. The powers are nice, as they make it less critical to have the first choice of Capital Buildings in the first age.  Unfortunately, when using them, the powers really dictate your starting strategy, even if that wasn't a strategy that you normally would want to implement. Plus, if you combine powers with a sixth player, the game can get very, very crowded (with powers and six players, you are potentially adding 12 extra workers to be placed every turn, and only opening up 3 more places for these workers). We tried this - and the Discovery box was essentially always full. I like both of the new additions, but will probably not use both of them at the same time again. Also, I wish that the powers had been a bit more creative, instead of mirroring existing buildings - but I'm not really sure what those other powers would look like.

The last major change that the Builders expansion added was the ability to buy Victory Points. At the end of Age I, you can buy them for $1 per VP, at the end of Age 2 they are $3 per VP, and at the end of Age III, they are $10 per VP. This really adds a completely different viable strategy to the game. Now, suddenly, you can focus on getting as much money as possible and turning it into Victory Points. I watched as one of my opponents sent two merchants to the new world almost every turn in Age I (his Nationality gave him one per turn, and he often got the merchant specialist position) - collecting $10 per turn. At the end of Age I, he traded in all of his money and collected 40 Victory Points. That's an amazing Age I score! Of course, he was doing this at the cost of having capital buildings to help him in the following Ages. Overall, he did not quite win (he came in second), but he proved that this strategy has a great potential for victory!

The one other thing that I will mention (as a con) about this expansion is that the rules aren't especially clear, so you'll want to have the FAQ handy. As an example, the rules don't even tell you how to gain a builder specialist, and the entire expansion is named after him!  Another one I was annoyed by was that one of the National Advantages has been completely changed from what is printed on the card.  Here's a link to the FAQ on BoardGameGeek. You're welcome.

Overall, I give Empires: Builder Expansion an 8.5/10. I think that it is a solid expansion that adds some freshness to one of my favorite games. Though I might not play with every additional element in every game, I will probably continue mixing and matching different elements of the game as I continue playing it.

If you like worker placement games like Glenn Drover's Empires, you might also check out Caylus, Kingdom of Solomon, and Pillars of the Earth.

I would like to thank Eagle/Gryphon Games for providing me with a review copy of Empires: Builder Expansion.

Age of Empires III Review

One of the worker placement games that I have kept in my collection for a while now is Age of Empires III. (Just as a note, Age of Empires III has absolutely nothing in common with the computer game except for the picture on the front cover. I'm guessing that they branded it this way to try to pull in more players, but it actually made me avoid the game for quite some time.)

Age of Empires III is played in 3 different Ages. At the end of each Age, the players will score points based on how many colonists they have in the new world (and the available buildings will change and go up in price). On any given turn, the players will take turns placing colonists or specialists (if they have any) in order to gain the most victory points. They can use them to gather trade goods, improve their turn order, send them to the new world, discover new locations, and a few other things. The specialists can be placed just like colonists, but if utilized in certain places, they will give extra bonuses (for example, if a Merchant goes to the new world, the player who controls him will get $5). After all of the units have been placed, the board is resolved from top to bottom. Play continues like this for 8 turns (which is 3 Ages), and then the players add any bonus victory points they have from discoveries, buildings, etc, and the player with the most victory points is the winner.

Getting specialists for next turn.

The first thing that I really like about Age of Empires III is how the specialists work. First of all, there are two ways of getting specialists - you can either purchase a building that gives you specialists, or you can place a colonist on one of the spots on the board, which will give you a specialist for the next round. When I first read through the rules of this game, I didn't really think that specialists would be very important - but after playing, I have realized that careful placement of specialists may be the most important aspect of the game. Captains can help you discover or get a "merchant ship" (which helps you with income). Merchants can get money or help with the "merchant ship". Soldiers can shoot opponents in the new world, or (when discovering) can earn money. Missionaries bring extra people to the new world. Understanding when and how to use these (and how your opponent will use them) is critical to the game.

The next thing that I like about Age of Empires III is how the placement works. (This is related to the specialists.) In Age, players take turns placing units (colonists or specialists) until they run out. This allows a player with a large number of specialists to get several placements in a row after the other players have all run out of units; this can be a very powerful thing to do. Whereas some places on the board reward the first player to place there (such as trade goods and purchasing buildings, because the first person there gets to pick first), other places reward the person with the most units. If you are the only person placing units at the end of the turn, it allows you to easily take over all of these places.

Fighting for a merchant ship

The final pro that I will mention about Age of Empires is the different paths to victory. It is always nice in a game when you can try out completely different strategies and still have a chance at victory - and Age falls into this category. Players can really score a lot of points through the collection of trade goods. They can also score tons of points through settling the new world (and potentially shooting other players out of it). Finally, discoveries can also be worth a lot of victory points. I like that Age allows a player a chance to win by doing any of these strategies, or by balancing them through the course of the game.

My cons to Age of Empires are fairly minor. The first one that is almost too trivial to mention is that the box is too big. The board folds up quite nicely, and then fits in about 3/4 of the box. This is one of those things that you don't realize that you miss until it's gone; I really like my board fitting snugly inside the box.

The next con with Age of Empires is that the buildings aren't all balanced. Now, this may be on purpose to encourage players to want to be the first one in the building area (thus getting first pick), but it can really punish players for going last at the beginning of the game. And one specific building seems especially overpowered - it is an Age I building (thus costing $10, which is the amount you start with), and it gives you $20... so basically, it allows you to purchase 2 more buildings on the turn you buy it. None of these buildings are single-handedly so powerful that you cannot win without them, but they are powerful enough that you feel that you have a disadvantage by not purchasing them.

Overall, I give Age of Empires III a 9.0/10. As I said at the beginning, I was very reluctant about the game because board games based off of video games are often atrocious, but this game pleasantly surprised me - I plan to keep it in my collection for years to come.

Other worker placement games that you may be interested in include Caylus, Stone Age, and (not completely "worker placement", but still very good) Princes of Florence.