Empires of Arcana Gameplay

Expand you territory and grow your armies! Drive back the goblin hordes that have spread across the world! Rebuild civilization and conquer your rivals to unite Arcana into one empire!

Empires of Arcana is fantasy empire-building wargame. Each player becomes a warlord controlling a few towns and armies, the last vestiges of a once powerful civilization. As the leader of your faction, you send your armies out into the wilds seeking to expand your territory and drive off the savage goblins that have taken over the countryside.

As you gain more wealth, you can build new towns and castles in the territories you control, giving your empire the ability to raise more units of infantry, cavalry, and dragons. Players are also competing to rebuild wizard towers which allow unit of wizards to be trained. Magic gates can be constructed to allow units to teleport far across the map, even into enemy territory!

Players may also cast spells at each other and at goblins, to destroy enemy units and structures or save their own. Wizard towers give player greater range across the world, and more mana to spend each turn.

But the players are not alone in their ambition to rule the world! The goblins themselves strike out each turn, occupy territories and attacking players. Goblins can build up together into massive green tides rolling across the world, until so many have gathered in one place that they build a new warren. Each warren allows the goblins to attack another territory each turn.

The players must balance their conflicts with each other and the need to keep the goblins from overwhelming the world.

Empires of Arcana is a relatively simple empire builder with complex strategy. If you have played games such as Axis and Allies, Twilight Imperium or Shogun, you already understand the basic gameplay. However, Empires of Arcana also has a cash economy and magic economy to balance, and rapid movement options make for dynamic, slashing gameplay. The game is normally played to five victory points, which can be garnered by defeating goblin warrens, having significantly better income than rivals, possessing more wizard towers, or boldly wresting six or more territories away from enemies in a turn.

There are many variations to the game as well, supporting solo-play, cooperative play against the goblins, passive goblins for when the players just want to fight each other, and old school victory conditions to win the game the hard way!

Empires of Arcana is hand made, mostly from laser cut wood. The box is also laser cut plywood with a beautiful red color; a unique and prestigious item for any game shelf! It contains three laser etched boards and over 700 playing pieces for up to 6 players:
6 player sets of 80+ wood pieces
50+ Goblins and goblin warrens
25+ Wizard Towers and Gates
80+ Wood coins in 1's and 5's
50 Territory Cards
25 Acrylic Gemstone Victory Point markers
50+ Arcylic Gemstone Mana markers
20 Dice

Players: 1 - 6
Play time: 2 - 3 Hours
Ages: 13+