Board Game Arena

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!
 

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.

I had the same immediate thought! The theme of the game seems to clash with the cheery images and bright colours used. It's giving 'Babys first settler colonialism'.

Similar to games like Puerto Rico and Pax Pamir - both of which I really enjoy - the theme needs to be handled thoughtfully and respectfully.

This game was released in 2014 though - maybe newer games would be more aware of this sort of connotation.

It's still beta.

awesome work.

My guess is, now the game is released it will be fully equipped with end game statistics.

https://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/Pre-release_checklist

Server side
...
You have defined and implemented some meaningful statistics for your game (i.e. total points, point from source A, B, C...)

Finally!!!!

I started to post similar comments about the problematic use of settlers and empires in games from any era.

Then I checked my most recent games played, which include Piraten Kapern, a quick game I enjoy playing. It’s based on pirates. Pirates, the real life ones, bring misery and suffering to many. So, I can’t be a hypocrite and denounce Imperial Settlers while enjoying the fun simplicity of Piraten Kapern.

Modern gaming and modern life are both complex. There are no easy answers. We each have our boundaries and triggers.

Can't wait to settle in some new lands

So cool! Love the game! Any chance on getting solo-mode on this one?

Merfia wrote: ↑20 October 2025, 16:32 So cool! Love the game! Any chance on getting solo-mode on this one?

No plans to bring solo mode yet, sorry
Maybe in future, if the game would be popular on BGA, the development of solo mode would been sponsored, we'll see