Introduction: Part 1 of this article took readers through an Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East (ACME) game’s setup through its Growth Phase; which includes deployment of each civilization’s disks upon the map.
Those familiar with ACME’s predecessor, Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea’s (ACIS) Playbook example of play may observe similarities between that piece and this exposition. However, although both games share the same basic system, there are differences. For details, and links to material which explain game term references (for this article’s limitations can only allude to rulebook details); see an associated InsideGMT article: Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East Design Background and Differences from Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea.
This ACME Example of Play Article Part 2 shows the tension and uncertainty of one of this game’s key system engines, its Card Phase, as well as the game’s dice-less Competition Phase (used to resolve conflict between civilizations when they vie for the same map area).
So let’s rejoin our protagonists: the Hittite and Egyptian civilizations of a two player game, as they experience ACME’s excitement and uncertain arena of chaos while competing against one another for advantage towards earning an Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East triumph.
Card Phase
During this Phase of Epoch One/Turn One, each civilization, in the order determined during game set-up (see this Article’s Part 1) alternately take one of the following three Actions: Play a Fate Card, Build a Deity, or Pass. One player can interrupt another’s Action by playing a Negate card. When to play a Negate card can be a decision fraught with anxiety since once that weapon is expended; who knows what’s now in the offing? Something even worse?
For this example, each Card Phase Action is identified by number. It may be helpful to reference ACME’s map illustration as each card affecting one or more disks is resolved. The Hittite player starts things…
1_Hittites: Play Trade Fleet to place three Camps: one each in Icarian Sea, Rhodian Sea, and Egyptian Sea. The Hittite Player reasons if Egypt wants to threaten his Fertile Crescent presence; why not reciprocate by placing a Hittite Camp right off the Nile Delta’s coast? Note that this card allows placement of disks without need of any adjacent already existing Hittite disk as a “base” (unlike a regular Deployment).
2_Egyptians: Play Biblical Plague on Hattusa’s City with intent of ravaging the Hittites ability to generate disks during turn two’s Growth Phase. It will remove one disk from Hattusa itself (not the two disks the card calls for due to Hattusa’s special benefit to the Hittites*) and reduce the five Settlements adjacent to Hattusa into Camps.
*_Hattusa’s special benefit is that it can’t lose more than a single disk to a single Fate card play, both during the Card and Competition Phases, with the last Hittite burnt orange disk in the area immune to Fate card removal/replacement. Hattusa is a mighty fortress indeed… although it is fully vulnerable to the wiles of the Traitor card and that the last disk with the area’s Stronghold cube can be eliminated through Competition resolution.
STOP THE ACTION!!
2_N: The Hittites negate Biblical Plague through play of Great Person – High Priest. Rather than lose six disks, the Hittite Player foils Egypt’s nefarious intent by playing the High Priest Negate card. He removes a disk per the card’s instruction: selecting the one in Caucasus Sea. He reasons this price a very fair exchange; one disk rather than removing six and hobbling next turn’s Hittite Growth.
Since play of a Negate card does not constitute a Card Phase alternate play; it is now the Hittite’s opportunity to take an Action (Play a card, Build a Deity, or Pass).
3_Hittites: It would be good offsetting the cost of building a Deity later during this Card Phase by having something other than disks or cards to pay for it, thinks the Hittite Player. Consequently, he plays Sea Route to Tarshish which earns the Hittites 2 Mina for playing the card and an additional Mina for the Egyptian Sea Hittite Camp for a total of 3 Mina into the Hittite Treasury (Ker-ching!). Since Egypt has a Camp in the Sinai Sea, the Egyptian Player gets a Mina as well; for which she smilingly conveys her thanks with a “thumbs up” sign.
4_Egyptians: As the Hittites seem to be telegraphing intent to soon acquire a Deity; the Egyptian Player reasons she should acquire one now and have first choice. Consequently, she plays Great Person – Gold Smith. This fortuitously acquired card reduces the usual cost of Building a Deity from five to three. The prime requirement of removing two Egyptian disks from the map is fulfilled by placing back into Supply the disks currently occupying the Eastern Desert and Western Desert. The third resource is the Mina just acquired through Hittite play of Sea Route to Tarshish. The Egyptian Player believes having Mina each turn a great benefit to a civilization such as Egypt, which already gets Mina at the start of each Growth Phase, so she builds God of the Forge, placing its small stickered Deity block atop Egypt’s Thebes Homeland block. This Deity provides two Mina at the end of each turn’s Acquisition Step.
5_Hittites: There’s no rush to acquire a Deity now, thinks the Hittite Player, building a Deity can still be done later during this Card Phase. Therefore, it’s time for a bit of mischief. The Hittites play Rebellion on the Egyptian Thebes Homeland/temple City. With a sigh, the Egyptian Player sacrifices Fishing Grounds, placing that card in the Discard pile in lieu of having an Egyptian disk replaced by a black disk. Therefore, Thebes is now Contested by two black Barbarian disks and one sky blue Egyptian disk. The Egyptian Player knows that playing Queen of Sheba, unless Negated, will bring her a Mina; thereby enabling a stand-off in Thebes during the upcoming Competition Phase*.
*_This is important, for it foils the Barbarian rebels destroying Egypt’s newly built Deity. Furthermore, since Thebes at the end of Competition would be occupied by at least one Egyptian disk, the God of the Forge benefit can be used and Religion cards played.
6_Egyptians: The Egyptians play Queen of Sheba; arguably one of the best “reward” cards in the game. The aforementioned Mina is received and placed into Egypt’s Treasury. Its two disks, which must be deployed in Egypt Controlled areas, are placed in Abydos and Amarna, transforming those two Settlements into Cities. Finally, the Egyptian Player takes a card from the Draw Deck and gets a good one, a very good one… Great Person – Master Armorer. This card can be played either during a turn’s Card Phase or Competition Phase. It has both “I” (Investment Card) and “C” (Competition Card) coding. It is added to her Hand. What an unpleasant surprise to the Hittites when Egypt decides to play this card!
7_Hittites: With the Card Phase winding down, the Hittite Player now Builds his civilization’s Deity. For the advantage of an extra card each Draw Step, God of the Dead is selected. Its small stickered block is placed atop the Hittite Homeland block in Hattusa. This costs five Resources. The Hittites pay for this with three disks from the map, since the game is young and Egypt will take the Victory Point lead anyway with the two Cities adjacent to Thebes. He removes two disks from Hattusa and a third from Icarian Sea. These are combined with two Mina out of the Hittite Treasury, leaving one remaining. Ah, but there’s another motive for doing this as the Hittite Player silently chortles to himself; for this play means he’ll have less Victory Points than Egypt and therefore control any Barbarian Event card invasions which arise.
8_Egyptians: Although Egypt’s Homeland/temple is being Contested by black disks, this does not prevent the Egyptian Deity from being considered Active. Therefore, a Religion card may be played. The Egyptian Player does so by playing Religious Zeal. A sky blue disk is placed in Aleppo making that Egyptian Camp into a Settlement and, to the Hittite Player’s dismay, this is adjacent to all three of the Fertile areas occupied by Hittite Camps: Carchemish, Mittani, and Emar. The Hittites avoid two of these disks being replaced by Egyptians through expending the last Mina in Treasury and placing the Shield Bearers Competition card into the Discard pile. Alas, one Hittite disk must fall victim to Egyptian play of Religious Zeal. The Hittite Player grudgingly allows the Hittite Camp in Emar to become Egyptian.
9_Hittites: With no cards remaining in Hand, the Hittite Player Passes thereby concluding this Card Phase for his civilization.
10_Egyptians: Rather than risk her remaining card being stolen next turn through Hittite play of a card such as Great Person – Eyes of the King (see below); the Egyptian Player plays Great Person – Master Armorer as an Investment card. She puts it near the Egyptian Civilization Display with four sky blue disks atop it.
As the Egyptian Player has no cards remaining in Hand, this concludes the turn’s Card Phase.
Play now proceeds to the Competition Phase.
Competition Phase
There is but a single Competition to resolve, Thebes, where two black disks confront one Egyptian sky blue disk. The Egyptians, having the lesser number of disks, must first decide whether to lose one disk, which will end the competition and result in loss of Egypt’s Homeland and its God of the Forge temple to Barbarian Control, or choose to avoid that catastrophe. Obvious choice, eh? The Egyptian Player consequently avoids the loss of a disk from Thebes by instead removing a disk from Great Person – Master Armorer. A single black disk is then taken from Thebes and returned into black disk Supply. That ends the Competition by making Thebes a Shared area of one black and one sky blue disk. The Egyptian Player is happy with this result since it means her one remaining Mina in Treasury is not expended and the sole remaining black disk should be easy Turn Two prey.
The players now prepare to address Turn One’s Reckoning Phase: this will commence in Part 3 of this article series. This installment will also include a more substantial example of Competition resolution since our two contenders, as the preceding shows, had but one simple Competition for this example’s demonstration purposes.
Author: Fred Schachter
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