We started in 2007 with the almost impossible plan to create the largest board game in the world. Both in board size, player count, playing time, the number of components and therefore weight. There is no other game in the word to beat this game by all its numbers combined. The plan was first to make a tribute to our beloved 1980 game Civilization by Francis Tresham (hence the name). But soon we started from scratch and added rules, components, players, etc… Eventually hard work sorted the effect.
The goal was to have the game to be the largest to fit into a normal living room, supporting the largest number of players that could sit at a table, the longest playing time that fits in a single day (13 hours). A real strategy game telling the story of true history. The game is all about civilizations in the region stretching from Britain to India in a time span of 10.000 years, from the Stone Age to the Late Iron Age.
We have spent years and years designing and developing, as it takes quite some effort and stamina to get those people together every time and play the game the whole day. Besides, we had to test it with 5 players, 6 players, 7 players etc… We wouldn’t wanna settle for less.
A nice story is that way before video calling was a thing we have designed this game together, both John Rodriguez and I living on either side of the Atlantic Ocean. It was only a year after the publication that we met each other in real life.
This unique project was released in a limited and numbered edition. A heavy wooden box of 11 kilos at Spiel in Essen in 2015, in a cooperation of 999 Games and Pegasus Spiele. About 8 years after the start of the project. The 3000 numbered copies sold out very quickly and soon there were plans for a follow up. Check out Western Empires for more about that.
Summary Made by Flo: design, Project management, development, creation of testable prototype, testing, writing the rulebook, editing the rulebook, theme development, art direction, production briefing.
Made by Flo
Flo de Haan
Maria Rutgersland 31
1705 MA, Heerhugowaard
Netherlands
KvK/CoC: 37164412