Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East provides ten (10!) Trade cards… not cards the players trade with one another, but cards representing the Ancient World’s commercial environment and the forces which effected it.
Please note cards are generally played sequentially by Civilization after the Deployment Phase which places disks upon the map. For an explanation and example of game Phases leading up to the Card Phase, see: Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East (ACME) Example of Play Part 1 of 3: Game Set-Up through Growth Phase – Inside GMT blog As to the Card Phase itself, see: Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East (ACME) Example of Play Part 2 of 3: Card Phase through Competition Phase – Inside GMT blog
Most Trade cards convey a benefit to the Civilization playing it, as well as, in some cases, to other Civilizations who could share in their largesse. There are some Trade cards which can inflict disadvantageous trades to one or more victim civilizations. So, with no further ado, here they are:
Trade Fleets: This is a fine card to have as it permits placing three of your civilization’s disks, one to an area, in any Sea Areas on the map… regardless of whether it’s occupied by your or any other civilization’s or Barbarian disks.
This means you can Star Trek like “beam” a disk into a section of the map far distant from your home turf: for example, the far-eastern located Indus Valley civilization placing one of its disks into the Egyptian Sea. Yikes! Imagine the response a Mediterranean civilization rival could have to that? Furthermore, the card can place your disk at a card specified site to reap an additional mina for one of the following-described Trade cards.
There are other regular cards in the ACME deck which allow a civilization to “materialize” one or more disks anywhere on the map: Land or Sea. This is the first of these we’ll encounter. More to come in future articles.
Trade Cards for Various Points of the Compass: These five cards are similar in effect – Barbarian Trade, Sea Route to Ophir, Sea Route to Tarsish , Trade from the East, and Desert Caravans.
Each of these awards the card player two mina with the possibility of a third mina if the player has at least one disk in a qualifying area. For example, with Sea Route to Ophir “…every civilization (including yours) that occupies one or more of the following Sea areas (or a land area bordering any of them) gains 1 mina: Red, Reed or Arabian Sea or the Upper, Middle or Lower Gulf.”
As can be seen with the map image color-highlighting effected “trigger areas”, playing this Trade card can be a good way to make a game’s other players just a bit beholding to the card player’s civilization… at least for a while, eh?
That’s because in Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East, having wealth… in this case in the form of “mina”, is a kind of “get out of jail free” counter to some of the evils that may befall a civilization and/or provide welcome benefit. A mina may be expended to negate a disk loss inflicted through an opponent’s card play or during resolution of a Competition. It can also be used to help build a civilization’s Temple or, at the end of an Epoch, traded at a rate of 3 mina for 1 Victory Point. The Ancient World lesson ACME imparts carries over to our own present day: “it’s nice to have money!” and these Trade cards can provide a bunch!
Trading House: The value of this card depends on how many civilizations are in a particular game and the positioning of your own civilization’s disks. In a two or three civilization game; this card may be better used to offset a disk loss (like a mina does) or as a resource to build a Temple. A particular game’s circumstances when deciding how/when to play this card should point to the best course.
Trade Embargo: This is a kind of “evil brother” to the Trading House card. Instead of the benefit of gaining a mina for each subject trigger; this card inflicts upon the victim civilization the unsavory choice of losing a mina, disk, or VP for each triggering civilization it is adjacent to. In a six-civilization game, this can be a most irksome card to the victim.
Wharves & Bridges: This is the second “evil brother” to the Trading House card. In this case each victim civilization, and there could be FIVE of them in a six-civilization game, has the choice of either giving up a mina or consent to swap one of their disks for that the card player’s.
Local Trade Flourishes: Here’s one of the few ACME cards which allows the card player, after getting a mina for playing the card (always nice!), to reward any color of disks upon the map… those of a civilization, including the player’s own, or even black colored Barbarian disks! It allows the selected color to place a disk each of its color into two adjacent Land areas already containing at least one of its disks. This, of course, is subject to the game’s stacking limits.
Closing Remark by ACME Game Developer Fred Schachter: Please pose any question or request for additional information regarding this article using InsideGMT’s feature for conveying such. Coming up next article will be the Resource cards of Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East!
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