Thursday, March 29, 2007

My Thoughts on Conquest of the Empire

I know that I am somewhat late and I don’t want any wise cracks, but I just now got around to getting Conquest of the Empire. I have yet to play, but would like to.

I played CoE back in the 80s while in college. I was too poor to have my own set, but I managed to get in several games with friends. I was all too happy to see Eagle Games put out the new version and overall, I am quite pleased with it. But there is something that bothers me and it was on my mind all day at work. When I got home I searched around on the net to see if anyone else had mentioned it, but I could not find any such evidence. How about my local gaming compadres?

This is what concerns me: As far as I can tell, there is no reason that I would want to buy cavalry or catapults over infantry. They cost more and are less effective. Maybe if they had some kind of special use, but if they do I cannot seem to find it. Did I miss something here? This REALLY bugged me today. I was so happy with the new changes in CoE2. The senate thing was cool. I like the alliance thing and the influence markers are great. So what happened with the battles? Could I have had too much Peach Fresca when I was reading the rules? Could I have accidentally been sent the unfinished proto-type rules in some kind of a quality control error?

Please tell me your thought on this. There MUST be a reason to spend the Roman Citizens hard earned taxes on cavalry and catapults. If my worst suspicions turn out to be true, then I hope you will allow me to share with you some proposed house rules that may remedy the situation. I would like to know your feedback.

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5 Comments:

At 10:55 PM, March 29, 2007, Blogger Ben said...

I don't have the revised CoE1 rulebook available, but I know in CoE2 three sides of each die are ship, cavalry, and catapult. I think there are two infantry sides and a blank (miss) as well. If you have any of these types of units in your army, you hit on their matching sides of each die rolled. So, the more diverse your army, the better chance you have of scoring hits.

 
At 11:45 PM, March 29, 2007, Blogger Carlos said...

Ok, I think I see your point. I should have played before coming to any conclusions. You are saying that having a well balanced army increases the probablility of hits. So all of the benefits of combined arms are neatly abstarcted into the system. There is therefore no need to try to muddy up the waters by adding in additional stuff. Keep it simple. Thanks, Ben!

Now when will we get a chance to test this?

 
At 8:36 AM, March 30, 2007, Blogger Rob said...

Carlos, I tried CoE2 at Ben's a few weeks back, and was pleasantly pleased. So sign me up. And yes, I don't remember the actual die, but the more diverse the attacking army is, the more hits you can score on the opponent.

No wisecracks here.

 
At 10:18 AM, March 30, 2007, Blogger Ben said...

I think a 5-player game would be niiiice!

 
At 8:47 PM, April 02, 2007, Blogger Carlos said...

I will try to set up a game. Perhaps we could do my house again if no one has any objections. I need to get my wife and young ones to my sister-in-laws house. Any ideas?

 

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