Imperial Settlers: Empire State of Mind

[yfimc]

What a thematically weird game. Even with accepting the imperial colonial theme, what a strange set of countries to choose. Ancient Egypt and Classical or Feudal Japan. Might as well lean into the anachronisms all the way and add 80's Americans.

Agreed. This game conflates vastly different forms of political organization and expansion under a single, loaded term ("imperialism") to create a false moral equivalence.

[Elliot K]

This is one of my favorite games of all time! So psyched to see it on BGA.

I agree with other posters that the name is unfortunate and weird. I assume it's called "Settlers" in an attempt to get on the Settlers of Catan bandwagon? No idea about the "imperial" part - there's nothing especially imperial about the game. Yes, you're building cards in your tableau, but the theme is pretty weak.

Also the Japanese art isn't very authentic, and I don't know why off brand Mongols got passed off as "barbarians."

[René2284]

It's always disappointing when BGA adapts games with colonialist themes. It's 2025, let's move on. Colonialism is so overused in board games, it would be nice to stop advertising games that focus on such themes and promote ones that are more original, creative and fun.
If you think there's nothing wrong with this game, please look into history told by someone else who isn't white.

[G_R_A_G]

Nearly choked on my coffee as I opened BGA to see a big top-page banner for "Imperial Settlers," if only because it's the sort of title I would come up with as an exaggerated joke to describe Eurogame tropes as on-the-nose as possible.

Very amusing to look at the choices of empires, too: you have Barbarians (which just meant "not Romans"), Romans, and two other types of Barbarians: Egyptians (who were as ancient-history to the Romans as the Romans are to us) and Japan, for some reason! We'll just kind of ignore that, back around then, China would have been the only part of Asia even sort of approaching "empire" status, while the Japanese islands would have been effectively just kind of cavemen living there.

[Cyborgs Gaming]

cool, a game that I already know

[Krispe157]

It must be so awful to constantly live in a state of being offended. It's a game. A good one at that. Why are board gamers so easily offended? It's crazy.

Would you not be offended if *, and then someone else made a game about it? And then sold that game so they could make money off it? And glorified * as jolly gallavanters to help make the game palatable and "fun"? All while other * were * every day?

Except literally none of that has anything to do with this game. Your whataboutism doesn't apply here buddy. This is a card game about settling lands. Every country in the WORLD is "guilty" of colonialization. It's a part of life. This game doesn't take ANY of the negative aspects of that and is literally just a chill game about discovering new lands. Spirit Island (which is an amazing game) is constantly praised for "destroying the colonisers," but as soon as something that does the opposite comes into play, everyone loses their freaking minds. The fact that you would equate this to something as awful as the examples you gave is absurd and should honestly get you banned from posting on forums. What a disgusting comment and comparison that has nothing to do with what I said or any relevance to the game itself.

[Warpspider]

While I appreciate the creativity and strategy that go into many board games, I find myself troubled by the tone and framing of this one. The language of “discovering new lands,” “expanding empire,” and “crushing everyone” evokes the history—and ongoing reality—of settler colonialism and violence against Indigenous peoples.

Even when presented playfully, these narratives can unintentionally normalize or trivialize the suffering and displacement that empire-building has caused and continues to cause, from the Americas to Israel's genocide in Gaza today. I believe our hobby can be both imaginative and responsible—celebrating clever design while remaining sensitive to the stories we tell and the histories we echo.

I don’t mean this as an attack on the designer or publisher, but as an invitation for reflection about the messages we celebrate in our gaming culture, and how we might reimagine such themes in ways that acknowledge or subvert those harmful legacies.

Agreed- this is gross and honestly seeing it on the BGA homepage makes me want to cancel my subscription.

It's bad enough that the colonial mindset is almost everywhere in boardgames (as Yaiir and JohnnyCyclops mentioned) - from Puerto Rico to the settlers of Catan, to the galactic colonization projects of Race for the Galaxy or The Crew. But the presentation of this game really takes it a step further, not just placing the player in a colonial role but explicitly glorifying the imperial project. There is real, deep violence not only in the project of sending colonial soldiers to peaceful lands, not only in defining all "others" as "enemies" because "the land is too small" (and you only think it's small because of all your mining and plantations to extract "precious resources"), but especially in universalizing the impulse of imperial expansion. Who are the "barbarians" that are trying to build an empire??? The native peoples of lands colonized by Europeans (or the Egyptians, for that matter) did not have the same imperial desires as the Ancient Romans or feudal, early modern Japan (or modern, industrial Japan). Acting like everyone is just naturally a ravenous conqueror is a way of granting innocence to people who historically and currently assault diverse lands and cultures. The insult added to injury is the cartoon lettering and jolly colonist superimposed on a bucolic colonial town, erasing the people and ecosystems that have been and continue to be attacked by colonialism today. Like I said, gross.

"the galactic colonization projects of Race for the Galaxy"

Race embodies many types of development and factions, as far as the games does without having factions: rebels rising against tyranny, Imperial warlords, alien researchers, traders etc. Saying it's all somehow "galactic colonization" seems a very big stretch.

Also, *

*moderator edit: please do not attack other players in the comments. If there is something inappropriate, you should instead flag this for moderation.

[SickeDuck]

großartig!!

[bamb1n0]

Spirit Island (which is an amazing game) is constantly praised for "destroying the colonisers," but as soon as something that does the opposite comes into play, everyone loses their freaking minds.

Doing the opposite of something praised would tend to generate the opposite of praise...a game about colonizing the destroyers does sound pretty neat, though. Blood Rage?

[slangg01]

Hear ye, hear ye! Gather round as your Imperial Settlers are venturing to newly discovered lands. They will craft new buildings to strengthen their economy, carve mines and plough fields to gather precious resources, and build barracks and training grounds to train soldiers. All of that to realize that this new land is far too small for everybody. And then the battle begins...
 
In Imperial Settlers, you lead one of four factions: Barbarians, Egyptians, Japanese, or Romans. Your goal is to expand your empire far and wide and stop your opponents from doing the same.
 
This card game is played over 5 rounds during which you take various actions to explore new lands, construct buildings, trade goods and resources, and conquer enemies with one objective in mind: crush everyone and rule the world! Scratch that sorry… with one objective in mind: to score victory points and win bragging rights!
 
In Imperial Settlers, the factions all have different capacities making each game unique when you try different ones. But they have one thing in common: they all gather under one link:
https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=imperialsettlers
 
A token of our gratitude goes to Ignacy Trzewiczek, the game designer, and Portal Games for blessing us with this game that won multiple awards. We could not wait to have it on BGA, so bravo to KuWizard for bringing it to life!
 
That's your Monday release,
Until next time, settle in, conquer boldly and as always... take care and play fair!
 

Love this game , its great it's finally come to BGA