Happy Samhain

(this card has been removed)

on facebook

here is our group http://www.facebook.com/groups/254344067944125/

and

here is our page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Empires-and-Generals/271575752874636

10/29/11

almost dun with da huns. it will be a great feeling finally finishing them and getting on to ancient china. working on cards for the next edition. it's going to be awesome.

artwork needed

we need artists! please make a request to have your art on our cards here!

10/27/11

extremely busy days and nights. will be posting more huns later today. worked on items for purchase to streamline your game experience:

boxes for Family Edition
sleeves for individual decks
labeling stickers for sleeves
bumper stickers for your sled
temporary tattoos

we should have the entire family edition up and ready next week for you to order to arrive in time for Christmas.

i was kidding about the tattoos.

or was i?

-pauly

Avery Index Card Sheet #5388

Hopefully I can make as many helpful hints and tips and shortcuts to helping YOU print YOUR OWN cards from home.

Using Avery Index Cards may help you do this.

They stack three per sheet and you can order them online HERE (#5388) to help you.

They have also included a template to organize your "cards". You can download it HERE (template).

It opens up as a Microsoft Word Document but it also opens up as an Open Office Document.

You can take your Microsoft Questions HERE (a blog article I mostly agree with)

If, after reading the above article, you still insist on using Microsoft as anything else other than your operating system, then you can go HERE (template) to set up your template download.

You can download Open Office for FREE HERE (openoffice.org).

I hope Avery and Open Office can make you enjoy the game a little more.

empiresandgenerals.com

thank you mister david pesta for making the site live! woohoo!

Visigoth Mercenary and Scutarius Unaffiliated Cards

a little advanced in years for the decks we are using today, but the visigoths meet the criteria for:

1) i probably won't build an entire visigoth deck
2) i like the way they sound
3) i want a cornucopia of cultures and civilizations to be represented around the decks that i don't build. a little of everything from total history.

Banner Guard Card

here is the first installment of the online editions that are going to be available online only. i discuss this in more detail in the forums.

AJ opens a packet of cards in the mail

10/22/11

adding egyptian card blog today. you should see it in the upper right hand corner soon.

also i might edit some videos to view later.

Card releasing

at the time of this note, i have released the roman republic (all) as well as the egyptian empire non playing cards, general cards, resources and kingdom cards.

coming soon are egyptian empire tactics, strategy and soldier cards.

then here is the plan of work:

fix roman republic online cards
put ancient china deck online
put the huns online

after that, i will be releasing francis hilow artist alternate cards for all the decks.

i also plan to expand the blogs (see roman republic here - [url]http://empiresandgeneralsromanrepublic.blogspot.com/[/url] ) and make one for each empire.

after all of THAT, i will be making a way to get them to you from the home studio HERE so if you don't want to print them from HOME of if you want the uber cool unreleased unaffiliated cards, you can have those too.

Forum Added.

here is where the fun is. This will take the place of any and all Facebook groups, pages, activities, blogs, emails, notes, graffiti, as well as consolidate any and all fan-mail, suspicious packages and luggage not packed by me and not attended by me at all times at the airport.

Game is now playable

For those of you who cannot wait on me to release all four decks of the original online family edition you can start playing now by printing off two or more of every Roman Repubic Card and play Romans vs. Romans.

Soon you will have all four to choose from:

Roman Republic
Egyptian Empire
Ancient China
The Huns

But for now, go ahead and play!

10/12/11

card corrections:

1) added an addendum to "auxila velite" making them harder to kill any soldier.
2) added 2 iron to total cost of siege onager forf addition of strength to a new total of 4 sacrifice.

good news:

roman republic finished and card directory added. the generals still bear the old logo so print them off before i change them. they could be a collectors item someday.

other media:

also, we will be filming today some tidbits and tutorials. wish us the best.

A little social networking goes a long way.

Dear friends, please take the time to visit the "Page" on facebook for E&G at here and also perhaps visit the "Group" on facebook here.

This game is free. And so is the information about it.

10/11/11

a big thank you to my lovely wife jennifer and my brother tim for their gifts on my birthday yesterday. tim brought "the settlers of katan" and jen bought me the new robin hood series by stephen lawhead: "king raven"... yay!

the third and fourth things that i love in life are strategy simulations and history/myth. what an awesome people i have. hopefully these masterpieces will help to improve overall game play dynamics.

it takes a strategic mind to build this game anyway. i'm just grateful that it is me.

10/8/11

working on

resource icons today to make things a little easier to understand.

also made secondary logo trademark with a .ttf instead of a .jpg

New Logo Idea

Rules - All

Empires and Generals?

You are the true power behind one of the largest empires in your time. The people hang on your every word. The army heeds your every whim. You control the Generals and the Empire in this epic tradable and collectible card game. Take control of the barbarian horde and conquer the existing world, or become the shining beacon of hope and civilization for the glory of the people.

What is it?

Empires and Generals is a Turn Based Strategy Game that takes the shape of a Collectible or Trading Card Game.

You play the game in real life around a table with friends.

The cards are available from the Internet at EmpiresandGenerals.com or other data sources via Shareware.

Empires and Generals is free and you print the cards off yourself on 3x5 Index Cards.

Empires and Generals was Created, Designed, Trademarked and Copyrighted by Pauly Hart.

Empires and Generals desires to be viral. Please copy, share and distribute as many cards as you can.

Object

The object of Empires and Generals is to become the greatest and most powerful Empire. You can do this by gaining Cultural Health or by causing others to lose theirs until the desired level is reached. In a normal game if you gain five Cultural Health or force your opponents to lose five Cultural Health, you will achieve victory.

Game Preparation

Print off the cards!

Each card is formatted to fit onto a 3x5 index card, but you can stretch and fit each .jpg if you want to use "Playing Card" size or 5x7 index cards.

You will find that each deck has it's own unique playing styles, just like each real life empire. Chose one and start building yours.

Players

2-6 players is recommended.

Separate all Resource Cards from Playing Cards. The Resource Cards make up The Supply Pile. Shuffle it and place to your left.

Shuffle the remaining Playing Cards and place next to the supply pile. This is your Playing Deck. Have the player to the left of you cut each deck.

You will have an assortment of Non-Playing Reference Cards that will help you during game play. The most important one is the Cultural Health Card.

Keeping track of Points

The Cultural Health Card is placed to your left with a card on top of it (often Attack Resolution or Game Phase Chart) to keep track of your points. Place the top or bottom edge of the card on the starting middle line to determine your beginning number at 0 Cultural Health.

Table Courtesy

Make sure there is ample room in front of you and to each side.

Keeping snacks on the playing table is discouraged.

No Spitting.

Keep it fun.


Playing Deck


Minimum number of Playing Cards: 25

Maximum number of Playing Cards: 75


Resource (Supply) Deck


There is no minimum or maximum amount of Resource Cards that you may have in your Resource Deck.

You may even choose to go without a Resource Deck.


Build your decks


A balanced deck may include:

6 Non-Playing Cards:

Title Card
Instructions
Game Phase Chart
Play Map
Attack Resolution Card
Cultural Health Chart

29 Playing Cards:

5 General Playing Cards
9 Soldier Playing Cards
5 Kingdom Playing Cards
5 Strategy Playing Cards
5 Tactics Playing Cards

18 Resource Cards


Rarity


In both decks, no more than:

Common: Five of the same

Uncommon: Three of the same

Rare: One of the same

Ultra Rare: Only one total in either of your decks*.

*When an Ultra Rare card comes into play during a game, that card (by exact reference number match) may not be played during the remainder of the game by you or any other player.

Determine Predestination and Game Type


Use the"Empires and Generals" Playing Cards and Resource Cards.​

Choose the Predestination you wish to play.

You may use any of the decks within the given limits of the Predestination you are playing.

1) “Standard”
Any chosen Edition, no Acts of God

2) “Ancient Rumble”
Antiquity only

3) “Peaceful Past”
Antiquity only, no Acts of God

4) “Knights of Valor”
Medieval only

5) “Alone in the Dark”
Medieval only, no Acts of God

6) “Classic”
Antiquity and Medieval, no Great Mysteries

7)  “Classic Peaceful”
Antiquity and Medieval, no Acts of God

8) “Dynasty Variant”
Antiquity and Medieval, no Acts of God, No Unaffiliated

9) “Days Gone By”
Everything before 1910

10) “Is this real life?”
Everything before 1910, no Great Mysteries

10) “Up to date”
Everything before 1910, no Acts of God

11) “Free For All”
Any Card in the Historical Empires and Generals Franchise

12) “No Holds Barred”
Any Released card from any Empires and Generals Game, historical or otherwise, including Spin-offs and Jokes

There are many more varieties that you may play if you wish to do so. It is up to you as long as everyone at the table agrees before playing.

For Information on 7,8,Mine Click Here

Choose the Game Type you wish to play.

Quick:
Achieve Three points to win the game against all opponents
Lose Three points to lose against all opponents

Normal:
Achieve Five points to win the game against all opponents
Lose Five points to lose against all opponents

Epic:
Achieve Eight points to win the game against all opponents
Lose Eight points to lose against all opponents

Slaugherhouse Version:
Start all Cultural Health Cards at the top line of the Game Play Line. You may not win by gaining Health but must win by defeating all of your opponents. You may play Slaughterhouse version with any of the three Game Types.


Card Mechanics


Shuffle your cards
Let the person on the left cut
Draw seven cards

Someone must go first. this is randomly decided.
If no decision can be made, flip a coin, or use the rock, paper, scissors technique.


Turn Declaration


Player declares whether they will Play (take a turn) or Pass (not take a turn).
If player draws a card, it is assumed that they have begun their turn and not passed.
You cannot Pass if you draw a card.
Player may not Pass twice in a row.
If player Passes a turn, no part of any phase may be accomplished.
You may not split or pick any part of the turn and then pass.

If Player Plays move to 4

If Player Passes move to 5

Map Areas

The Playing Map is divided into nine player zones and one shared zone.

Player Zones - 

1) Draw Pile - Area that Playing Cards are kept. All cards except Reference Cards and Resource (Supply) Cards. This should be kept in the order in which it was shuffled and when you draw, you should draw off of the top without looking at your other cards.

2) Supply Pile - Area that Resource Cards are kept. This should be kept in the order in which it was shuffled and when you draw, you should draw off of the top without looking at your other cards.

3) Cultural Health - The "Score Card" for the game. Place another card on top of it starting at the "Zero" health line (Starting Health). When you reach the most points you win, when you reach the least pointsm you lose.

4) Strategy - One Card dictating the way in which your army operates.

5) Warcamp - Soldiers, Generals, Units that are not in the Battlefield.

6) Kingdom - The items that your Empires possesses that make it unique.

7) Supply Line - What you are able to "Harvest" each turn during Harvest Phase. The cards should be displayed on top of one another with the bottoms showing so as to have a quick overview of what you have each turn.

8) Capitol - One Card dictating the Special Abilities that are not covered by anything else on the map (Markets, Resource Traders or Prisons etc...). These are stacked in the Supply Pile.

9) Discard Pile - The place where dead or discarded cards go. When a card is "removed from game" you do not place the card in the Discard Pile.

Shared Zone

Battlefield - The area where most of the fighting occurs. Units are played usually first into the Warcamp when they are played from the players hand. Waiting one turn, they can be played into the Battlefield. Sometimes a unit will attack from the Battlefield to the opponents Warcamp, See the Attack Resolution Card for more information.

Turn Phases


Draw Phase

On every turn, including on your first, Draw one card, unless otherwise stated on cards.

Harvest Phase

1) Play any resource cards that you may have, placing them in the Resource Area
2) Discard all resources that you wish to "spend." This is the amount you can "spend".
When you chose to "spend" a resource card you must spend all the card.
When you "spend" the card, it is placed in your discard pile.
3) If you play a resource card that says continuous on it, you may harvest it immediately.

Kingdom Phase

1) Play any Kingdom and Strategy Cards available
2) Follow any and all effects printed therein (unless otherwise noted)

Army Phase

There are two types of cards that you may play during the Army Phase. Generals and Soldiers.
Soldiers -

1) Play any Soldier card into Warcamp. Soldiers cannot be played directly into the Battlefield from your hand due to the fatigue from traveling from your hand to the field of play, This is called "Pull".

2) You may use newly played Soldiers Effects at this time.

3) If you have enough resources, you may also use any of the Soldiers Abilities at this time.

4) You may Discard any Soldiers at this time.

Generals -

1) Play any General card into either Warcamp or Battlefield area. Generals do not suffer Pull, unless noted.
2) You may use newly played Generals Effects at this time.
3) If you have enough resources, you may also use any of the Generals Abilities at this time.
4) If needed, you may Discard a General at this time to play another General.

Attack Phase

1) You must have a General to attack
2) Move any Soldier or General cards to or from the Warcamp to the Battlefield.
3) Attack using any available Soldier cards or General Cards. You may attack with one card (or group of cards - ban, equip or otherwise) per turn.
4) Push the attacking card forward one inch to show the attack. State your attack.
5) Unless stated otherwise, Defender may choose who blocks the attack. Defender player pushes forward defending unit.

Resolve Phase

1) Finish any effects that are noted on cards.
2) Remove or add Counters if applicable.
3) Discard hand to seven.

Rotation

Rotation moves clockwise.

Repeat

Endgame


Winning


Your Victory is accomplished when:

A) Warlord Victory: Your opponents have run out of Cultural Health (CH)
B) Sissy Victory: Your opponents forfeit or resign
C) Chancellor Victory: You achieve the proper amount of CH to achieve a victory based upon type of game decided.

Once a winner is declared, the game is ended.*

*D) Epic Campaigner Victory: It has been known, on occasion, that when a Chancellor Victory is achieved, other players will continue play to try to achieve a secondary Warlord Victory. The Epic Campaigner Victory results in determining the second place. They realized that they have lost the primary victory, yet are determined to paint the field red with the blood of their enemies.

Unit Numbers

Both cards use "Strength" vs. "Life". You Attack with the number of your strength and defend with the number of your life. When being attacked, You counter-attack/block with your strength as well.

The "Attacker" is the one initiating the battle. The "Defender" is the one who is being attacked.

The number on the left is Strength, the number on the right is Life.
Defender always wins the tie.
For Example - If each card is a 5/6 then neither card wins. A strength of 5 cannot beat a life of 6.

If the attacker has a 7/8 Chariot and the defender has a 5/6 Lancer: The Lancer does not kill the Chariot (5 vs 8) and the Chariot kills the Lancer (7 vs 6). Lancer is discarded, Chariot falls back to spot in battlefield.

Battle Outcome

There are fourteen possible outcomes in any battle. Please see Attack Resolution Card for a quicker breakdown of this list.

Owners Attacker Vs. Opponents Warcamp

1) No Blocker Presented: Lose One Cultural Health (-1 CH)

2) Defender Withdrawal, Removal, Dodge, etc: Defender is taken away from the attack. -1 CH

3) Successful Attack: Attacker kills Defender but Defender does NOT kill attacker -
Discard Defender. -1 CH

4) Double Death: Attacker kills Defender AND Defender kills attacker -
Discard Attacker and Defender. No Cultural Health Lost

5) Counter Attack: Attacker does NOT kill Defender and Defender kills Attacker -
Discard Attacker, No Cultural Health Lost

6) Attacker Withdrawal, Removal, Dodge, etc: Defender is taken away from the attack -
No Cultural Health Lost

7) Double Block: Attacker does NOT kill Defender and Defender does NOT kill Attacker -
No Cultural Health Lost

Owners Attacker Vs. Opponents Battlefield

Rule of thumb: It is typically not possible to take away Cultural Health if a Battle is in the Battlefield.

1) No Blocker Presented - Redirect to Warcamp

2) Defender Withdrawal, Removal, Dodge, etc - Redirect to Warcamp

3) Successful Attack (Attacker kills Defender but Defender does NOT kill attacker) -
Discard Defender.

4) Double Death (Attacker kills Defender AND Defender kills attacker) -
Discard Attacker and Defender.

5) Counter Attack (Attacker does NOT kill Defender and Defender kills Attacker) -
Discard Attacker.

6) Attacker Withdrawal, Removal, Dodge, etc - Defender is taken away from the attack.

7) Double Block (Attacker does NOT kill Defender and Defender does NOT kill Attacker) - Both units remain in battlefield.


Distributing Point Damage and Attack Detail


A) All transferred points are transferred to the opponents total Cultural Health.
The opponent subtracts the amount transferred from his Cultural Health

B) CH is the total number of life that you have before you are defeated as a player.
If you reach zero CH, you lose the game regardless of the any battles outcome.


Special Editions

There are several Editions that will change the rules in Empires and Generals.

Notably the first one is the Act of God Expansion. The rules for that are here -http://empiresandgenerals.blogspot.com/2013/07/act-of-god-expansion-rules.html

Follow the rules depicted in the Edition.

The Roman Republic

Here is the card list soon to be uploaded for the Roman Republic

Rome Republic

Generals

Pompey

Flavius Aetius
Julius Caesar
Scipio Africanus
Spartacus

Soldier

Auxila Velite
Equite
Gladiator
Siege Onager
Praetorian
Legionnaire
Triarii
Hastati
Principes

Strategy

Augustus System*
Polybian System*
Citizenship
Theft of Greece
Decimatio

Tactics

Supreme Logistics
Quincunx Formation
Roman Walls
Roots of Romulus
Crucifixion

Kingdom

The Senate*
The Caesar*
Tax Farming
Colosseum Games
Puppet Governors

Specialty Resource

Sicily
Mediterranean Sea
Corsica
Balearic Islands
Hispania
Sardinia

Mediterranean Hills

(also pictured are some Unaffiliated Cards that can be printed and added to your deck later)

10/2/11 - aftermath

thank you everyone for coming to the event and for the birthday cards and wishes! a big thanks to melinda for being a great friend. i guess you always were!

10/2/11 playing pouches

making pouches today that can be quad folded on 8 1/2 x 11 (regular letter) paper to hold a stack of around 60 3 x 5 cards if you print them out at home.

one day i should create printing instructions.

looking forward to people coming over later to play.

"VAHOOOO" - einstein from the movie IQ

10/1/11 - an example of play

Example of play

One day Jennifer and Pauly set down to play a tutorial game. Here are the first several turns in the game.

Jennifer Vs. Pauly

The setup

Jennifer and Pauly sit down and decide to play a game of Empires and Generals.

This ought to be fun.

Jennifer has opened The Huns deck and Pauly chooses the Roman Republic.

They don't have much time tonight so they decide on a quick game.

The first one to score three points wins or the first one to lose three points loses.

This is pretty easy with just two players.

It gets happier with a big group. Lots of fun.

Ok, so they both shuffle and cut each others decks before they begin.

They set up their decks with a draw pile and a supply pile.

To begin, they both draw seven cards.

Jen draws six resource cards from the supply pile and one playing card from the draw pile.

Pauly draws five resource cards and two playing cards.

Pauly and Jen decide that Jen will go first because Pauly is a really cool guy and Jennifer threatened him with not cooking for him for a week. Oh. no that didn't happen.

Jen's first turn

Declaration of play

Jen declares that she will play this turn. She better. Skipping the first turn is kinda silly.

Draw Phase

Jen draws one card from any pile to begin her turn.

Jen drew a card from the draw pile.

Harvest Phase

Jen plays her resource cards. She has Caspian Sea, Gobi Desert, Outer Mongolia and Armenian Highlands.

This gives her two water, two food and two iron per turn if she decides to keep them in play.

These are the regular effects that the cards give per turn.

If she decided to discard a card, she would receive a resource bonus for that turn but would not be able to use it again. The card would be discarded and unusable in the future. That would kinda be dumb, so she keeps em for now.

Kingdom Phase

Jen has no Kingdom or Strategy Cards that she wants to play at this time. As a matter of fact, she doesn't have any at all. Poor Jen.

Army Phase

Jen can't afford to put anything down right now (or doesn't want to discard any resources to do so).

Attack Phase

Nope!

Resolve Phase

She's all good. Nothing lost. Nothing gained. But it's still just the first turn.

Pauly's first turn

Declaration of play

Pauly declares that he will play this turn. Oh yeah. Bring it on!

Draw Phase

Pauly draws a resource card. Most defiantly.

Harvest Phase

Pauly plays Iberia, Mediterranean Sea and Mediterranean Hills.

Kingdom Phase

He skips the Kingdom Phase. No Kingdom cards or Strategy Cards.

Army Phase

Pauly plays Conscript into the Warcamp. The cost is two unaffiliated resources with a one strength and a three life.

Attack Phase

No attack this turn. No one may attack on the first turn, and besides, the Conscript can't enter the Battlefield or attack without a General anyway.

Resolve Phase

Pauly is done.

Jen's Second Turn

Declaration of play

Jen is gonna play!

Draw Phase

Jen draws Carpathian Mountains out of the Supply Deck and...

Harvest Phase

...plays it in her supply line on TOP of the other cards already played. This gives her 1 more food, water and iron. Mmm. Good card.

Jen also plays Abandoned village which states that she can gain four resources immediately this turn. Cool. She chooses to make these four resources Iron.

Kingdom Phase

Skips...

Army Phase

...and plays Attila. Woah. Attila costs seven Iron to play and is a General with a ten strength and an eight life. She places him directly into the Battlefield.

Attack Phase

Jen attacks! Hi-Yaaaaaa!

She is attacking FROM the Battlefield TO the Warcamp. This means that Pauly can either choose to block with his conscript or just take the hit to his cultural health. Well, this isn't acceptable.

Pauly blocks with the Conscript. This is Attila with a 10/8 against the 1/3 of the Conscript. Attila attacks 10 against the Conscripts 3 and the Conscripts 1 is Block/Counter-attacking with a 1 against Attila with an 8. There is no way that the Conscript is going to win this one and NO way that he will do any damage to Attila.

There are arrows showing which way the attack goes. Attila shows the 10 with an arrow up and when you line up the cards, you see that the 3 of the conscript is opposite it.

Attila is able to kill the Conscript, but the Conscript is NOT able to kill Attila. The defending card is the loser. The block was unsuccessful. The unit dies. Attila has a successful attack.

Pauly then Discards the Conscript and takes a look at the Attack Resolution Card. It shows that under option three, Pauly loses a Cultural Health. Pauly takes his Cultural Health counter one space down.

He is at -1 while Jen is sitting pretty at 0.

It is a sad day in Rome while the Huns rejoice.

Resolve Phase

Jen is tired of humiliating Pauly and calls it a turn whilst Attila stays in the Battlefield mocking all my attempts at a happy day.

Pauly's second turn

Declaration of play

Pauly declares that he will play.

Draw Phase

Pauly draws from the draw pile. He draws a really cool card... but can't play it and...

Resolve Phase

Resolves his turn.

Jen's third turn

Declaration of play

Jen declares that she will play this turn. Hooray!

Draw Phase

Jen drew a card from the draw pile and gets a really good card.

Attack Phase

and attacks Pauly again with Attila.

Pauly has no tactics cards to counter and takes the hit. He is now at -2. One more point and he will be out.

Resolve Phase

The rest of the game...

And as Jennifer resolves her turn they go back and forth for several minutes until the tides turn and Pauly seems to be on top but then Jen smashes him and wins the game.

The game took around twelve turns each to play and was around 20 minutes long.

Quite fun actually.

They are glad they played, and, even though Pauly lost in the end, there was a good chance that later that day they would play again and the tables would be turned.

Card Teasers

oatmeal cream pie toast.

10/1/11 the story concluded.

part three: and DOIT we did.

the games led to the infamous "alpha tests" which eventually led to the beta tests.

boy tim and david and aj had some patience with me.

they would come over one week and play and we would make changes and then the next time we played i would have completely rewritten the cards. lol. poor guys.

oh well, the joys of being a tester.

but they hung in there.

we ate little ceasers pizza. of course. little pharoahs had gone out of business (rimshot)...

and we talked about how all the cards needed THIS, or how you should never be able to do THAT... that type of thing.

so after a long while i made these changes, got my buddy francis hillow to make us a bunch of artwork and then we just kept working along until most of the kinks were fed out as chum to the sea-wolves of dissidence.

we got some artwork from a local fellow and moved some items on the card around until it is mainly what you have today.

i thought about patents but rejected that idea... even though i could easily get four of them. i think that just MAKING the game was what was the most fun thing. i didn't want to KILL my investors with the $10,000 that we might have spent getting patents.

so in the end we just copyrighted the whole mess and trademarked the name and the logo and then set out what we were born to do.

play.

and here we are.

tomorrow my wife plans to throw me my fortieth birthday party and i plan on releasing my game into the great wild of the public.

i know that my game will be a success. it's gonna happen. i only hope that her pineapple upside-down cake lands on all the right plates.

-pauly b hart... right from the start.

10/1/11 - the story cont...

part two: was the word, and the word was DOIT.

here i am with a bunch of cool ideas but not one whit of idea on how to tie it all together.

i have lots of info and intel but no way to work it.

so i strive.

attack. defense. abilities. effects. these were obvious. points. health. artwork. rarity... etc... all had been borrowed/absorbed from every CCG/TCG i had ever seen and played in my entire life.

granted CCG's are not that old. magic the gathering, pokemon, yu-gi-oh, redemption, legend of five rings, warlord, netrunner, 7th sea... as well as some new digital ones online: elements the game, urban rivals, alteil have all been getting a lot of work recently. these games are exciting and wonderful and you should at least go check out some of the ones that are online.

if you like chess: elements the game, if you like checkers: urban rivals.

but i digress.

i wanted to make my game NOT fantasy based... NOT sci-fi based... NOT for entertainment purposes only. i wanted people to learn something. to KNOW something that they didn't know before. i experienced the joy of that... why shouldn't others?

so i stuck with the four i chose and i made the cards and got my lovely wife, jennifer to play-test with me.

and it was awful. more like an advanced game of dice. so i refined. took out several elements and added others...

and it was still awful.

i kept working until one day i believed that we had come across something that might look like fun.

so i called my brother, tim hart and my buddy, david pesta and got them involved.

and eventually called my buddy andrew johnson as well as a couple of other people. and we played and played and they beat me everytime.

things were fun.

10/1/11 - the story thus far...

part one: in the beginning:

i seem to remember something like june of 2010 i was punching thru the internet looking at cool things on stumbleupon.com and came across the interesting item of the terra cotta army created in ancient china.

i thought this was really interesting and decided to look into it.

lo and behold i discovered a piece of history that i did not know existed. and so i began to investigate it further.

two days later, after reading so much ancient chinese history and watching several movies about that time (including "hero" with jet li), i decided to create the game.

as a player and lover of trading and collectible card games (TCG and CCG from hereon out), i was shocked and dismayed that no one had taken the time to make one from ACTUAL EARTH HISTORY. little did i know that the history channel had already taken this step, but i was not to find this out until a year later... eh.

so off i went. making all sorts of cards with all sorts of civilizations. high and low from the byzantines to the celts to the east india trading company. hee hee. yeah. i consider that a civilization. and it was fun and it was good. but i was getting NOWHERE.

until one night at village inn i decided to bring it to a focus. i divided up all of earth history into neat little compartments and months later categorized them down until i had around the top 64 or so of the biggest ones from all epochs of history.

wow this was a big dream.

so i said: "ok. what were the most well known?" popping out my trusty globe from my back pocket i noticed that Egypt, China and Rome were all still on it. and weren't they around back then too? hmmm.

so i decided on those three. but the earliest versions of them. and who better to round it all together than one the worst terror of all history? the huns. not to mention that the huns were a very strong factor in china and rome. i thought this was grand.

so i had my four beginning "empires" as i had come to call them. huns, rome, egypt and china.

well even this proved to be a chunk.

do you know how hard it is to find out about the huns WITHOUT the MONGOLS getting in the way?

so i called history professors and teachers and... no one was available. i turned to wikipedia and google and the internet to guide me on my way.

i was not disappointed.

i had to decide on times for these empires. i chose early. that way if i wanted to make... say... the roman EMPIRE as opposed to the roman REPUBLIC i could later... finding focal points like the death of julias ceaser lent well to this phase. the huns wasn't all that hard. they were absorbed after atilla and scattered to the wind. china hung on the balance of pre-unity before the great qin and egypt before the hyksos decimation.

oh. is this over your head? yeah i was for me too.

i was a noob in a shark tank.

i learned what my cousin daniel eudaly had been learning at college. history is as convoluted as the people who write history make it out to be. and me, with no formal training had to wade thru the slough with only willpower.

but it was ok.

in the end i came out with the timeframe and some really cool discoveries. like... the giza pyramids line up with orions belt and that the chinese invented the flamethrower around 900 b.c.

whaaaaat?

well that's what i dug up, so i went with it.

and thus Empires and Generals was born.

but even that was a gargantuan proposal. i tried a myriad of names but someone had already taken them. sid meier had capitalized on the word "civilization" and i needed something of my own.

yay.

oh. and also because Generals and Empires is GAE. and my game ain't GAY. lol. i meant that in a totally 90's slang way. (ahem).

so i had a premise, an idea, a form and a name... now to work the mechanics...