Thane's Games

Empires of Arcana

Ever wanted to send hordes of Infantry, Cavalry, Dragons and Wizards to destroy the towns of your friends? Sure, we all do. But opportunities to crush the civilizations of your friends with Rains of Flaming Death can be hard to come by.

NO LONGER! Thane's Games is proud to present Empires of Arcana, the best conquest and empire boardgame you'll ever play! For 1 to 6 players, Empires of Arcana puts you in command of a scattered alliance of towns, trying to conquer Arcana and build a thriving fantasy empire. Not only will you have to fend off the scheming machinations of your opponents, but Arcana has become overrun with hordes of savage goblins. Goblins love nothing more than destroying the civilizations and armies of players, especially when they can build their underground warrens where castles once stood.

Do you trust your opponent to leave your towns alone while you invade the Warrens that have popped up on your border? Or should you take a few provinces from him first, just to give your towns a little "buffer"? Maybe a Firestorm can wipe out that threatening army. but will you be able to block his retaliation?

Empires of Arcana has a simple set of rules, and fast turn sequences. There are many paths to victory, military and economic. Players will be forced to cooperate at times, to prevent the goblins from completely overrunning the game. The goblins have their own victory conditions, so if the players let them run wild, the goblins will win!

Unlike many such games, you must balance the growth of your empire's finances with the growth of your military, or else your units will disband when its time to pay for their maintenance. There are two resources in the economy - gold and magic. Gold lets players build units and structures, and lets them pay for their army. Magic is required to build some structures, and can be used to cast powerful overland sorceries and combat spells.

The game even supports solo play - you against the goblins. If you want to increase the difficulty, simply give the goblins more warrens at the start of the game.

Empires of Arcana comes with the map, 50 province cards, over 500 counters, gold tokens, magic tokens, rules, a reference sheet, and twenty dice.

Empires of Arcana is currently out of print, due to printer complications and the effort to cut counters out by hand. Thane's Games hopes to reissue it by summer, so keep checking back!