Z-Man GamesZ-Man Games History of the World

I played an older version a long time ago and this version is inferior.In terms of the aesthetic, it is much worse because they've replaced era-specific looking units with standardized pawn pieces. What this means is when you're in later epochs as the Spaniards attacking older empires instead of having musketeers taking on knights and spearmen, you simply have red pawns attacking other red pawns. There is no other reason for this other than it must have been cheaper to produce the game.In regards to the mechanics, they have also made this worse. The mechanics which were already attacker-favored are now even more so with an unnecessarily clunky siege mechanic that has been added to the game. What this means is that interesting decisions that existed in the older game such as whether or not to fortify a bottleneck or capital city are now pointless because the attacking advantage guarantees it will be wiped out in the next turn or epoch. It also makes the mechanics unnecessarily more complicated while adding very little to the game.Other minor complaints include having to assemble cheap cardboard fortifications pieces instead of prefabricated metal ones, less flavor description on the empire cards, and a subtle change to the map aesthetic which is more washed out and cartoony looking.My biggest complaint is the choice to use a single type of piece which removes the enjoyable narrative element of seeing primitive units survive on the map throughout the ages. With the cheap universal piece they've decided to use (pawns), it is now impossible to tell how long pieces have been on the map. Not to mention that era-specific units look better as a historical game than simple geometric shapes crowding a map without differentiation.The original game was great when I was younger because I didn't know much about history and I felt this hands-on experience gave me a good scope of the different eras of history. When I later would read about some of these empires, I had a map in my mind to place what I was reading. That might still be possible to some extent with this version but it's effectiveness and enjoyment has been reduced.

This game has a surprising amount of depth for such an easy to learn game. Everything is very streamlined, combat takes only a few seconds, and there is a built-in game mechanism to help players in last place catch up to first place. This keeps every game competitive for all players until the very last turn. Great game!

I was excited to get this for my history buff son, we must have spend an hour trying to figure out the rules, it's so confusing and we are college educated adults, best I can tell is it's kind of like risk.

Great Game. So much fun to play. Awesome if you are a bit of a history nerd. Well balanced and just enjoyable.Packaging is neat, well organized, and easy to set up. Shipping from amazon was excellent as always.

Some mechanics you probably wouldn't see in a more modern boardgame, but I favorite from highschool. Doesn't disappoint