History of the Ancient Seas -Kickstarter Bundle: Hellas, Dies Irae, Mare Nostrum

The Mediterranean Sea in ancient times. Images of magnificent coasts to be explored and legendary civilizations that rose to power come to mind.

The game series “History of the Ancient Seas” is the ultimate journey through these exciting times. Build new fleets in your city to explore unknown lands, conquer islands and build a great empire.

“History of the Ancient Seas” is a series of three independent games that share the same rules mechanics. They are played in highly interactive micro-impulses.

Your goal is to become the leading empire in the known world. To achieve this, you will need to build armies and fleets to increase your military might, expand trade routes, conquer islands and provinces, develop your military skills, economic efficiency and culture, while always keeping an eye on the wealth, happiness and stability of your people. The game is played in highly interactive micro-impulses. The heart of the game system is the action cycle: here the players choose one of the eight possible actions. Actions chosen by a player can’t be chosen subsequently by the next player. The number of possible actions is limited each turn.

War or peace: That is your decision! You can expand your empire by leading your people to war! But war is costly and the outcome is uncertain. You can lead your empire to the golden age of civilization by keeping the peace and bringing stability and wealth to your people without following the path of war. Offer terms to aggressive enemies to distract or delay them, but always be prepared to defend your empire.

You will move your wooden playing pieces across the beautifully illustrated map from the center of the Hellenistic world to the shores of Persia in the east and the sandy beaches of Sicily in the west to expand your trade network and increase your trading status.

In HELLAS, the first installment in the “History of the Ancient Seas” game series, you will lead one of two great City States - Athens or Sparta. HELLAS is a two player game!

You will move your 3D wooden playing pieces (representing fleets and legions) across the map from the center of the Hellenistic world to the shores of Persia in the east and to the sandy beaches of Sicily in the west to expand your trade net. Be the first who starts an expedition to conquer Sicily, the granary of the Mediterranean Sea. Or head east to conquer the islands in the Aegean Sea and land your troops on the rich coast of the Persian Empire.

The heart of the game is the "action cycle". An action chosen by a player can't be chosen by the other player in his upcoming segment. And each action can only be chosen a limited number of times each turn. There is always more you need to do than you can actually do.

In DIES IRAE, the second installment in the “History of the Ancient Seas” game series, you will lead one of the great Empires like: The Greek City States, Egypt or Persia. DIES IRAE is a three player game!

The challenge in a three player game is that gamers face a constant two versus one constellation. All three players have to fight eventually on two fronts at the same time and have to keep a close eye on both opponents. The worst case is that two of them are in an armistice which means they could both focus on you. Each player should avoid this situation at all costs.

 Which god will help their people the most in the struggle of dominancy in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea?

In MARE NOSTRUM, the third and final installment in the “History of the Ancient Seas”game series, you will lead one of the great Empires: The Roman Empire, the Mighty Seafarers of Carthage, the Greek City States, Egypt or Persia. MARE NOSTRUM is a five player game (there is an optional rule for 4 players).

You will move your 3D wooden figurines (representing fleets and legions) across a beautiful illustrated map from the Hellenistic main land and islands to the shores of Persia in the east and the northern part of the mighty empire of the Pharaos to expand your trade network and increase your trading status. The Romans and the sons of Carthage will try to conquer first Iberia.

The playing surface is huge: 44 by 34 inches (120x 84 cm). The map reaches from the Iberic half island in the west to the Anatolian mountains in the east and Gallia in the north to the Nile Delta in the south.

New in this chapter of the game series is, that each power has unique properties that players must use wisely to achieve advantage over their opponents.  Players rather don't want to refuse an armistice offered by the Romans. The Persian units strike first when in battle and the Greek have a very efficient fleet. Fighting the War Elephants of Carthage may cause panic in the ranks of the enemy and the Egyptians might refuse any combat they like.