Games - Imperium

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	Games - Imperium

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Imperium is a science fiction board wargame that was published in 1977 by the Conflict Game Company and GDW. It was designed by Marc W. Miller and developed by Frank Chadwick and John Harshman. The game came in a cardboard box illustrated with a space battle on the exterior. It included a cardboard-mounted, folding map of a local region of the Milky Way galaxy, a set of rules and charts, and the 352 counters representing the various spacecraft, ground units, and markers, and a six-sided dice.

A new edition of this game, Imperium, 3rd Millennium, was published in 2001 by Avalanche Press. This new release had improved graphics and updated rules. In 2002, I3M was nominated for four Origins Awards.

Description

This is a two-player game that simulated a conflict between the emerging Terran (human) Confederation and an immense and ancient alien empire, the Imperium. The Sun and nearby stars lie at the extreme edge of this alien space-faring civilization, and the humans struggle to expand against this powerful state.

This setting is the conflict between Earth the First Imperium in the history of the Traveller Universe from the Traveller role-playing game. The rules, locations and technologies are based on concepts from Traveller, and even some seemingly arbitrary rules are based on the hstory of the Traveller Universe. For example in the first edition the Imperial player was prevented from building fighters (F) and Carriers (CV) until after the Terran player had done so, this represented the "historical" inertia of the Imperium to recognise the Terran threat. While the game is to many players just a great stand alone wargame it also allows Traveller fans to play out what is known as the first Intersellar War, the conflict that in official traveller history lead the First Imperium (or Ziru Sirka) being replaced by the Second Imperium (or Rule of Man).

The fold-out map depicts a nearby region of the galaxy that includes important nearby stars as well hyperspace jump routes between them. This sector forms a single province within the Imperium. The map is printed on a dark background and is overlaid by a hex grid. Each hex represents a half parsec, which would require about 1.7 years to traverse travelling at the speed of light. Along the edges of the map are tracks for marking turns and tallying resources. The map includes a number of commonly known stars, such as Alpha Centauri, Procyon, Sirius, Epsilon Indi, and Altair, as well as a considerable number with more exotic names. Only dozen of the stars have naturally habitable planets, although many more have planetary systems with outpost-capable worlds.

The game includes a variety of ship types, ranging in size from the small scouts and fighters to the mighty battleships. The ship counters are blue for the Terrans and red for the Imperium. Each counter includes a set of ratings, the ship type, and a silhouette. The combat ratings gave the Beam weapon combat factor, the Missile factor, and the Screen factor. Beam weapons were for close range combat, while missiles were fired at long range. Typically a beam weapon was slightly more effective than missiles, and Terrans had better beam weapon ratings while the Imperium favored missiles. Ships with a black silhouette could perform a jump between stars, while a white silhouette could only remain in orbit.

The following ship types are available for production: Scout, destroyer, several different types of cruisers, dreadnaught, improved dreadnaught, battleship, monitor, missile boat, mother ship (similar to an aircraft carrier), fighter, transport and tanker.

The available jump routes can significantly hinder the movement of a side's forces. Certain star systems act as bottle-necks, and can be used by each side as a defensive front. Two of the stars do not allow refueling, so tankers are required to leave these sites. Ships are allowed to move at sub-light speeds across the hex map, and so can move directly from star to star without following the jump routes. However the movement rate of these ships is only one hex per turn.

Game play

The game consisted of a sequence of turns with alternating player-turns, each consisting of multiple phases. Each turn represented a period of two years. The game included an economic system in which the units on each side were produced and maintained. The Terran income was based on what type of world the player currently possessed, and whether it was connected by friendly jump paths to Sol. The Imperial income had a fixed budget, but an increment for each connected outpost and world.

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