About the game:
Imperial Fever: Great Power Competition in the Late 19th Century is a deckbuilding game for three to four players that recreates great power competition in the period between 1881 and 1915. Players will vie for world dominance as they take on the roles of the United Kingdom, France, the Central Empires (Germany and Austria-Hungary), and the Emergent Powers (the USA and Japan). These powers compete across several interlinked domains, including the naval arms race, military expansion and diplomacy in Europe, power projection in key international theaters, and colonial expansion. This was an era in which the race for hegemony became an end in itself, with entire peoples and national industries consumed by petty competition, eventually resulting in colonial exploitation and the outbreak of WW1. This game does not excuse or glorify the behavior of the player factions but rather seeks to present and understand the perverse incentives that drove them to act in this way.
The game features a unique approach to this complex and important period of world history, including the following innovative aspects:
- A deckbuilding mechanism that will allow players to pursue different strategies and model escalation of global competition.
- A variety of other mechanics, including area majority, push your luck, tug of war, technology tracks, and set collection.
- Competition between players in different areas: national prestige, military power, naval dominance, colonial expansion, and key strategic areas.
- International tensions that may culminate in the outbreak of the First World War.
- A wide range of political agendas that will allow players to choose among different paths to victory.
- A rich Event deck that poses additional challenges to players, ranging from international conflicts to political mishaps at home.
- The influence of non-player powers such as Russia, China, Holland, Belgium, Spain, and Portugal.
- The full game is playable in under four hours, once players are reasonably familiar with the rules.
