Chapter One: The Great Person Cards of ACME

Part 1: Great Person Investment Cards

Introduction by ACME Game Developer Fred Schachter: The February 2021 GMT Update contained a wonderful new development as the game proceeds towards production readiness: the first increment of professional graphics by the talented Mark Mahaffey! These cards fulfilled my and designers Chris & Mark’s hopes by creating a basic card layout including all play test card elements: each card’s classification, title (color coded by type to ease quick identification), description of what it does, and those captivating biblical quotes from Mark McLaughlin’s research, each appropriate to the card, which can lend such a fun element to play. During play testing, we’d occasionally read that card’s quote, in as “basso-profundo” voice possible, before inflicting it, for good or ill, upon the player receiving its effect(s). Ah the mirth or woe that could entail! This InsideGMT article series presents the cards of Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East as a kind of Compendium. For more regarding this second of GMTâ’ Ancient Civs series, the first being Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea GMT Games – Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea (ACIS) go to GMT Games – Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East (ACME) for a variety of associated material, including Mark Mahaffey’s beautiful rendition of ACME’s mapboard, replays, introductions to the game’s seventeen Civilizations, and other items of readers will hopefully find of interest. During a turn of ACME, Cards are played in Civilization sequence after disks are deployed on the map, just as with ACIS. Each Civilization can have a maximum of six cards in its hand. These are divided into several different types of cards, their titles color-coded, which is how this article series’ chapters are structured: Great Person, Competition/Trade/Resource cards, various Regular cards (for benefit or to inflict grief, call it “the will of the gods” upon another Civilization: these comprise the bulk of the deck), Religion, Event, and, of course, Deity Cards. ACME, unlike ACIS, does not have Wonders for Civilizations to build. Religion and Deity cards, which add much to this game’s atmosphere, are unique to ACME. With that, let’s commence this review with its Chapter One The “Great Person” Cards of ACME, Part 1: Great Person Investment cards. Each increment of these articles include one or more general Design Notes from Mark & Chris!

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What is a “Great Person” Card? These are 30 cards representing salient personages, generally by overall type rather than an historically specific individual, who could occasionally impose their will (or simply their remarkable presence) upon one or more of the game’s Civilizations. Among these are five Great Persons who are also Investment cards. Investment cards allow a Civilization to take some of its disks, place them on the Investment card, and then reap a benefit by expending a disk as the card specifies. A challenge in playing Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East well is determining how many of your 50 disks to allocate to Investment cards. Tie up too many, and you may lack disks for desired empire building expansion upon the map, creating Cities for 3 disks each (worth one victory point) and/or conducting victorious Competitions. Choices, choices, eh? Here are the ACME Great Person cards who are also Investment cards: Master Scribe: Readers familiar with Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea’s Great Library Wonder or the Academy of Science Investment card will notice functional similarity between them and the Master Scribe. Play a disk from this card and draw three cards from the deck, check them out, keep one of your choice. However, any revealed Must Play Event card(s) must first be played, replaced, and the player gets to select one of the three non-Event cards for the Civilization’s hand. The Master Scribe’s card selection does not override a Civilization’s maximum card hand limit of six cards. Philosopher King: This Great Person Investment card takes three of your precious disks out of Supply but you’ll get them back over the course of three ensuing Acquisition Steps along with a mina with each of them! Not a bad deal, eh? Giver of Laws: This is a dual-purpose Investment as well as Negate card! It gives the owner two opportunities to negate a Civilization’s Fate Card play, ah, but when to use its great power? During a memorable play test game with designer Mark McLaughlin, Mark would sucker the player possessing Giver of Laws into wasting the last disk on this card to negate an evil Fate card while withholding another, even more nasty Fate card to inflict on that Civilization when the victim’s ability to negate with Giver of Laws was no more. When you have this card, consider it a kind of “double barrel shotgun” of negate opportunities. When to use one of those negate barrels is an important decision: is THIS the card to negate or is an even worse one in the offing? COMBINATION INVESTMENT & COMPETITION CARDS: Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East has two of these. ACME Competitions, which represent resolution of rivalries between two or more Civilizations in a given Area (so rivalry represents more than just military conflict) do not employ dice! For an explanation with examples of how Competitions are resolved in this game, see: Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East (ACME) Example of Play Part 3 of 3: Reckoning Phase with Additional Examples of Competition – Inside GMT blog and its predecessor Part 2 of 3. Breeder of Stallions: When funded with four disks out of your Civilization’s Supply, this card provides an ability to reinforce four Land Area Competitions. Each disk of your color removed from this card converts into a white Allied disk which could make the difference between victory and defeat. Master Armorer: This Great Person’s four Investment disks can be removed, in lieu of losing disks during a Competition, up to twice for a given area. Unlike Breeder of Stallions, this card’s benefit is good for either a Land or Sea Competition. When your Civilization does not have a mina or card to exchange in lieu of losing a disk during a Competition resolution; the Master Armorer could save the day. It should be noted these two Great Person Competition Investment cards could be used together in combination to smite thine enemy! Coming up: Part 2 of this article series — Chapter One: The Great Person Competition Cards!

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Next Articles:

“It’s All in the Cards”: A Compendium of Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East’s Cards: Chapter One, Part Two – Great Person Competition Cards

“It’s All in the Cards”: A Compendium of Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East’s Cards: Chapter One, Part Three – Great Person “Spy” Cards

“It’s All in the Cards”: A Compendium of Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East’s Cards: Chapter One, Part Four – Great Person “Power, Money (Mina) & VP” Cards

“It’s All in the Cards”: A Compendium of Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East’s Cards: Chapter One, Part Five – Great Person “Negate” Cards

“It’s All in the Cards”: A Compendium of Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East’s Cards: Chapter Two, Part One – Competition Cards

“It’s All in the Cards”: A Compendium of Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East’s Cards: Chapter Two, Part Two – Trade Cards

“It’s All in the Cards”: A Compendium of Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East’s Cards: Chapter Two, Part Three – Resource Cards

“It’s All in the Cards”: A Compendium of Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East’s Cards: Chapter Three, Part One – Disasters Both Natural & Manmade