Introduction: Designer Mark McLaughlin and I, unlike years past, no longer reside in the same area of the USA (a great disappointment to us both). I’ve lived about the country during my business career and now retired to a home in Charlotte, NC. Consequently, we try to get-together in-person at least annually and I recently journeyed to Mark’s place in New Hampshire to review gaming matters and Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East (ACME) in particular.

Mark and I played several ACME games during this visit: one-on-one, then the two of us versus NPC (which uses the game’s Solitaire System to control an AI civilization – the NPC almost defeated us both until we combined against it), and the topic of this article, an exciting and entertaining 4 player contest.

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Four veteran wargame grognards with diverse gaming tastes gathered at Mark’s New Hampshire home on a lovely mid-September 2019 day. Mark and I were joined by his local gaming buddies Matthew and Bill, who previously had a blast enjoyably playing Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea (ACIS).

Knowing how to play ACIS made teaching ACME to Bill and Matthew a swift review of but a few minutes. We then chose sides to engage in one of the game’s four player scenarios. 

The medium of this InsideGMT article makes it impossible to detail every play during each Game Phase, the differences between ACIS and ACME, etc. other than what the reader may surmise from this report. Consequently, dear readers, please feel free to submit any questions this report may engender. Future InsideGMT pieces will provide details: for example, an ACME “Meet the Civilizations” series.

The game’s first Epoch was spent with each civilization carving out a sphere of influence on the full ACME map and selecting their Deity. In ACME, there are no disks placed upon a civilization’s Deity card… each Deity’s special ability, if it is able, can be used once each turn. We also chose to play until 6:00PM… a full turn would be wrapped up near that time and a victor determined.

• Mark was Egypt (yellow disks). Homeland block was placed in Memphis with The Goddess of Peace as Deity. The Goddess allows any Fate card other than an Event to be Negated each Card Phase. Those who have played ACIS can readily surmise how useful it can be having a civilization able to negate a subject card at will.
• I was Babylon (red disks). Homeland block was placed in Babylon with The God of the Forge as Deity. This god gains the owning civilization two mina (talents in ACIS) each Acquisition Step. It’s just as nice having money in ACME as it is in ACIS.
• Matthew was the Sea Peoples, which for this scenario has its Homeland block placed in Lydia with The God of the Dead as Deity. This Deity allows the owning civilization, each Draw Phase, to take three cards from the discard pile and keep one of them after playing any revealed Event(s). Consider this the equivalent of ACIS’ Mausoleum.
• Bill became the Medes & Persians. Homeland block was in Persis with the Earth Mother Goddess who would provide him two additional disks each Acquisition Step.

Of course, we all threw various and sundry cards at one another with great mirth and entertainment shared by all, but without lasting consequences until Epoch Two. It was then the four civilizations got truly serious.

With Epoch Two there was realization that Babylon had taken control of almost the entire Tigris-Euphrates Fertile Crescent with Cities in most of the areas it controlled, each generating a VP and 1 disk growth each turn (in ACME, a controlled green Fertile area, whether containing a Camp, Settlement, or City generates growth).

Mark, from the safety of Egypt, decrying the danger of an unopposed Babylon, dashed across the desert with his yellow disks to confront and capture the Babylonian Homeland. However, before he captured Babylon, I played Forsaken by God on his Deity so that when my God of the Forge was captured, there was only loot for Egypt who was then a “godless people” and unable to drag my Deity’s statues back to Memphis. Mark bought back his Deity the next turn.

The following picture of the ACME map captures the Epoch Two situation at that time… when Babylon fell to the godless Egyptians. I had been comfortably in the VP lead until Epoch One’s End of Epoch Event “Irrationalism provokes mass delusions and unrest” was selected, which cost each civilization 1VP for each City it had (guess who had the most Cities?). This was followed by inflicted cards which cost me even more VP.  Heck, I even got the Coinage card awarding me one mina for every two of my Cities only to have it undone when Matthew played Tax Revolt to remove that just gained wealth! Therefore, when Mark seized Babylon, he cut my lead to a single VP and would next turn surpass me.

Matthew expanded his empire to attack the northern section of the Fertile Crescent; but I had some providentially good competition cards to defeat those attacks, each victory earning Babylon loot of a VP and one mina. Both were needed to offset the losses I was sustaining through Mark’s Egyptian depredations.

With Matthew’s Sea Peoples appearing more ascendant, Bill turned on them and played a card to hobble their Deity… so what does Matthew do? He kicks that obviously flawed Deity out of his temple and converts to Monotheism! (A Religious Fate card which Matthew had in hand). The Sea Peoples were then victimized by Barbarian invasions from the Sea and Mountains, which diverted their paying further attention to the Fertile Crescent (causing a sigh of relief from me).

Egypt got similarly diverted by repeated Barbarian invasions from the Desert and Sea. However, as with ACIS, Barbarians can be handled if a civilization has the needed disks with money (mina) and cards, particularly competition cards, to defeat them. Both Matthew and Mark were able to contain and destroy the various Barbarian invaders besetting them.

Bill’s Medes and Persians advanced to the fertile crescent’s borders, but other than playing cards to keep the other civilizations (including me) on their toes, never indulged in direct attacks upon other civilization Cities. As can be seen by the map photo, Bill’s blue disks expanded eastward to the borders of India where he did have to confront and crush Barbarian invaders from the east.

The agreed time limit was reached during Epoch three. During the final turn, Bill was attacked by Barbarians out of the Mountains to endanger seven of his Cities. However, those Barbarians were weakened through the Medes & Persians playing an Earthquake card upon them which allowed Bill to retain all seven Cities for the game win! Congratulations Bill!

We had a grand time playing Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East (ACME).

Hopefully, this article begins to flesh out your perceptions of this fascinating, fun, and exciting game.

There’s more to come regarding ACME.  Watch InsideGMT for it!

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