Imperial (board game)

Imperial

The Imperial playing board
Designer(s)	Mac Gerdts
Publisher(s)	Rio Grande Games PD-Games Eggert-Spiele
Players	2–6
Age range	12 and up
Setup time	10 minutes
Playing time	120 minutes
Random chance	None

Imperial is a German-style board game designed by Mac Gerdts in which the object is to accumulate wealth in the form of bond holdings in successful countries and cash. Players take on the role of international financiers who purchase government bonds in the six pre-World War I empires of Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, and Russia. The principal bondholder of a nation gains control of its government and can order importation or production of armaments and ships; maneuvering of military units; construction of factories; and taxation. During play, an investor card is passed around which allows the purchase of additional bonds. A rondel – a wheel-shaped game mechanism with eight different options – is used to determine the options available to a country. The game box states that it is for 2–6 players, but a developer-supported variant allows play with seven.Imperial 2030 is a follow-up game released in 2009 with similar mechanics.

Imperial was first published in 2006 in Germany. It was then translated into English and exported to the United States. In 2007, Imperial was nominated as a Spiel des Jahres recommended game.

As of 2012, a third version of the game has been released that is somewhat different from the original. There is a 30 mil bond and the notion of a "Swiss Bank" for players not governing a nation.

The players of Imperial are wealthy banking families who surreptitiously control and exploit European governments from behind the scenes. Control of the majority of a country's debt allows the player to control the country's actions. A key element of the game is separating the player's money from each country's treasury. Country's treasuries gain money from taxation, which increases based on how much territory the country controls, and from players buying bonds from that country. Players gain money by earning success bonuses from countries they control, earning 2,000,000 when the investor card they hold is activated, and most importantly from dividends of bonds they've previously purchased. Thus, gaining player money can be a two-step process – one must first buy a country's bonds, then get that money out of the country and into their own pocket by forcing the country to constantly pay interest/dividends on the loaned money. A country only spends money on two other things – importing military units (1M apiece) and building factories (5M apiece), so most money put into a treasury becomes available to pay back to investors. Money left in a country's treasury at the end of the game does not count toward helping any player win.