Mega Empires: The Far East – North

From BoardGameGeek:

The Far East - North is an empire-building strategy board game for 3 to 5 players, set in East Asia. In this game, players lead their historic empire as they gain victory points by expanding their population, building cities, trading and developing their knowledge and culture. Notwithstanding its large scope, the game's core mechanics are straightforward and easy to learn. A key element in the game is player interaction as they position themselves on the map board and search for valuable commodities during interactive trading sessions. Gameplay Each player starts the game with a single population token on the board. As the game progresses, population will expand, spread over the board, fight some border conflicts and build cities. Cities bring resources and wealth, expressed in trade cards. The more cities players manage to build on the board, the more trade cards they receive. Trade cards are mainly valuable commodities, but sometimes turn out to be disastrous calamities. Trade Trading is the heart of the game, a social experience where all players interact with each other to optimize the value of their sets of commodities. In addition to the desired commodities, calamities are secretly traded as well, adding an additional layer to the trading dynamics. Once the trading phase has ended, players that end up with a calamity in their hand will suffer its effects. Develop Civilization Advances When the smoke of trading and resolving calamities has settled, players can decide how to spend the wealth gathered through trading. The game includes 45 different advances that can be developed, each of which provides benefits in the game to its holder. For example, Horsemanship enhances movement over land, Urban Planning facilitates city building, and Spiritual Guidance reduces the impact of calamities. The 45 Civilization advances are divided into the categories Arts, Crafts, Science, Civics and Religion, each of which has specific powers. Each advance acquired by a player provides discounts to other advances that can be purchased later in the game, thereby creating a path of strategic decisions. The ultimate advance in the game, The Pinnacle Temple, is only in reach for players who manage both their trading and purchasing strategy very well. Winning the Game The players who have best developed their position on the board whilst avoiding making enemies and defended their empire against natural or civic calamities and stand the test of time, will eventually gather the most victory points and compete for wining the game. New Components and Game Mechanics Mega Empires: The Far East introduces new components and game mechanics compared to Mega Empires: The West (2019), Mega Empires: The East (2021): Rivers are printed features on the map that facilitate movement of tokens along them. Pirate ships are placed on the board at the start of the game. They block ship movement unless tribute is paid, but they can also serve as mercenaries for attack or defense, creating interesting new dynamics on the board. Walls can be placed on the board when acquiring The Great Wall, which prevent opponents from crossing boundaries between areas separated by a wall and thus provide excellent defense to your empire. Events are new effects triggered when moving the turn marker on the A.S.T. They generally apply to all players and introduce various balancing effects. Combining with Mega Empires: The Far East - South Mega Empires: The Far East - North can be combined with its counterpart Mega Empires: The Far East - South (2027) to scale up the game to as many as 10 players! Where North has a strong focus on the land masses of East Asia, South combines the continent, islands and abundant waters in South East Asia, which stimulates movement by ship. Both games were designed as balanced counterparts, albeit with unique characteristics. -description from the designers