Imperium is a science fiction board wargame designed by Marc W. Miller, and published in 1977 by the Conflict Game Company and Game Designers' Workshop (GDW). It features asymmetrical forces, each of the two sides having its unique set of constraints. developed by Frank Chadwick and John Harshman, and published in 1977 by the Conflict Game Company and GDW.
GDW published a second edition with minor differences in 1990.
A third edition, Imperium, 3rd Millennium, was published in 2001 by Avalanche Press. This new release had new graphics and changed rules. The game was nominated for four Origins Awards in 2002.
The original game was republished in 2004 as part of Far Future Enterprises Traveller: The Classic Games, Games 1-6+.
Game play
Game play consists of a series of wars fought between the two players until one player completely conquers the map (or the other player concedes). A single war may be fought over an evening, but a "Campaign" of multiple wars can take several weeks to complete. Starting positions for each new war are determined by the outcome of the last war, modified by rules for events during peacetime. Each war consists of a sequence of turns with alternating player-turns, each consisting of multiple phases. Each turn represents a period of two years. The game includes an economic system in which the units on each side are produced and maintained. The Terran income is based on what type of world the player currently possesses, and whether it is connected by friendly jump paths to Sol. The Imperial income on the other hand has a fixed budget, but an increment for each connected outpost and world.
Each player turn begins with an economics phase. The player then performs movement and combat, followed by the opposing player's reaction movement and combat phase, and finally the second movement and combat phases. Then the other player repeats the same sequence and the turn ends.
In Issue 29 of the British wargaming magazine Perfidious Albion, Charles Vasey and Geoffrey Barnard discussed this game. Vasey commented, "I was agreeably surprised by this game, it really hangs together as a story. It present both sides with different targets. The constant effect of the action off the board keeps things hopping." Barnard replied, "In a way this game manages to cover well the whole range of combat, from tactical through strategic to galactic, including economics and certain political considerations." Vasey concluded, "A fine game ... man the laser beams and summon my flagship." Barnard concluded, " The game could go on for a very long time ... The game is therefore probably best played as a continuing saga, where you record the positions at the end of each war/peace cycle and start your next war from that point."
In Issue 84 of Campaign, Don Lowry noted the open-ended structure of the length of games, writing, "At the end of each game, a die is rolled to determine the length of the peace before the next war begins, repatriation of forces, territorial exchanges, interwar income, postwar production, interwar attrition, interwar production, interwar colonization and redistribution of forces."
In Issue 11 of The Wargamer, Hugh Baldwin liked the wide variety of options available to each player, writing, "A nice feature of the counter mix is the very wide variety of unit types for both the Terran and the Imperial player, ranging from Scouts, Destroyers, Missile Boats and four types of Cruisers ... to Dreadnoughts and Battleships, and including auxiliaries such as Transports and Tankers." Baldwin concluded, "The overall result is a clean, fast moving, but very convincing game."
In the September 1978 edition of Dragon (Issue 18), Dave Minch was ambivalent about the game. He liked the straightforward rules, saying, "It is a medium sized game of no great complexity which demands strategic attention and can be in doubt to the end. It is simple in many respects and has some excellent solutions to design problems which work well." However, Minch found the production values of the game components to be poor — the counters were too thin and not cut well, and the map contained errors. He also wanted more historical background to explain the setting of the game. Minch concluded, "Imperium has good points and bad, the good ahead by a slim margin. I think it’s worth your time since it shows a real regard for science fiction among the designers."
In the December 1979 -January 1980 edition of White Dwarf (Issue #16), Colin Reynolds gave the game a rating of 9 out of 10, saying, "The whole is extremely well produced, boxed, with a colourful map and large, clear counters and simple, clear-cut rules. Imperium is, without exception, the best game of its kind I have seen to date, and is a valuable addition to any gamer's library."
In the inaugural edition of Ares Magazine (March 1980), David Ritchie gave Imperium a better than average rating of 8 out of 9, saying, "This is either a serendipitous design or a cold-blooded development of a classic. Nicely conceived and beautifully executed. A moderately complex game, playable in a few hours.".
In the 1980 book The Complete Book of Wargames, game designer Jon Freeman called the game's presentation "flawless", and said of the game, "While not wildly original, the rationale is suitable and appealing." He noted that "At both the strategic and tactical levels, players have almost a surfeit of options." Freeman concluded by giving an Overall Evaluation of "Very Good", saying, "It's marvelous fun and challenging, too. Hard to beat."
In a retrospective review that appeared in Warning Order 33 years after the game's original publication, Matt Irsik called Imperium "still regarded as one of the best sci-fi games of all time." Irsik noted, "There are a dozen strategies about what to buy for your fleet and how they will be used, which gives this game good replay value." Irsik concluded, "Although this can be a long game and you can go through several wars, it is in my opinion, one of the best sci-fi based games out there and fun to play."
Other reviews and commentary
- 1981 Games 100 in Games
- 1982 Games 100 in Games
- Strategy Plus
- Moves #37, p16-17
Foreign-language versions
- The second edition of the game was published in Swedish by Äventyrsspel under the name Empire (1990). The name change was to avoid possible confusion with Stjärnornas krig Imperium, another Äventyrsspel product released at the time, a module for their line of Swedish-language translations of WEG's Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game. This created the ironic situation that they switched from a title immediately understandable to Swedes to another foreign-language title much less so. (While "Imperium" is the Swedish word for "Empire", "Empire" is not a Swedish word).
- A German edition was produced in 1990 by Fantasy Productions
- there were also translations into Japanese, Chinese, and Portuguese