Designers Christopher Vorder Brugge, Mark McLaughlin, and I would like to express our gratitude for the support, patronage, and encouragement which so many of the GMT Community provided over the lengthy, but always enjoyable, journey of ACME from concept to publication.  You have our thanks.

We would also like to express our particular gratitude to Joel Toppen, a prolific, talented, and creative designer who so graciously and expertly created a VASSAL module for ACME. This module is available at VASSALEngine.org: https://vassalengine.org/wiki/Module:Ancient_Civilizations_of_the_Middle_East

Joel converted Mark Mahaffey’s beautiful Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East artwork to this digital platform.  The game board, the 110 Fate & Deity cards, the 17 Civilization Displays, the 400 colored disks, and the rest of the assorted wooden bits that come within the game box are digitally recreated and may be easily manipulated to play any of the setups and scenarios that are laid out within the Rulebook.  For those who do not have the physical game, that rulebook is available at GMT’s site for the game.

To experience the historical scenarios and exploration scenarios, and to play with the solo rules (which allow you to play against one or more ‘bots’) one does need the 88-page Playbook.   There are 16 Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East historical scenarios, which include, among others:

            – the rise of the first great Mesopotamian kingdoms under Sargon,

            – the challenges faced by King Solomon as the “Lion of Judah,”

            – the devastating invasions of the Sea Peoples,

            -the creation of the Persian Empire under Cyrus the Great,

            – the Campaigns of Alexander the Great (and his Successors),

• and many others, including two bonus “Here come the Romans!” set-ups.

Those of us who play tested the Vassal module were fortunate being able to continue to develop, test, and play the game remotely even when Covid shut down face-to-face gaming.  Several of us continue to play ACME this way, often Skyping as we do so.  Now that the mod is available to the public, you and up to five other gamers can also play this fun and exciting “Civilization Survival” game on Vassal.

And, yes, you read that correctly, for in Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East you do not merely build a civilization – you have to ensure it survives!

(For background of how that game design approach came about, please consider this InsideGMT article: Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East Design Background and Differences from Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea Part 4 of 4: The “Real History” Behind the Game)

Note that you will need the Playbook in order to make use of game’s Solitaire Rules.  These allow you to create one or more NPCs (Non-Player Civilizations) which a single player can vie against or, in a game with more than one player, can be added to create an even more challenging situation.  (I still recall the fun Mark and I had when the two of us masochistically chose to take on THREE NPC’s for a five civilization game.  Those NPC’s can be vicious indeed in their single-mindedness to take out a threatening human player!    

In any event, it’s hoped you’ll investigate ACME Vassal and get immersed in this game’s quick-to-learn fun, excitement, and gaming challenges.  We hope you’ll also check out the first game in the series, Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea: GMT Games – Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea.  What’s next for the series?  That will be Ancient Civilizations of the Far East.

For those interested in seeing the final game components, here is a great unboxing video from Board Again Games:

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