Time of Wars review

About Time of Wars: Eastern Europe 1590 - 1660, from BoardGameGeek:

Time of Wars is a multiplayer card driven game. Players are on the head of five superpowers in Eastern Europe – the Polish – Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Tsardom of Russia, the Ottoman Empire, the Kingdom of Sweden and the Holy Roman Empire. Minor states are also present – Denmark, Brandenburg, Moldova, Wallachia, Transylvania and Crimean Khanate. The game covers the turn of XVI and XVII centuries. The period was rich in famous characters (rulers and commanders) and critical events – for example the Time of Troubles in the Tsardom, the Thirty Years War in the Reich, Swedish “Deluge” in the Commonwealth. All these and much more are smoothly incorporated during gameplay. The heart of the game are five decks of cards – one for each superpower. During gameplay there is a lot of interaction between players. They can declare wars or make alliances as effect of secret negotiations. Won battles and wars are important, but players must take care about condition of their own states as well. In the game are shown factors like economy, domestic policy, military level and religion. All of them can affect specified players' actions. The game has a lot of options for each player and each state has its own problems and advantages. Despite this the gameplay is extremely well balanced. There are 5 scenarios. The main scenario is for 5 players. Four shorter scenarios are for 2 or 3 players.