Sometimes only one chieftain will be propping up a lonely contending empire. Remember, though, that you aren’t directly aligned with any one side. If one side is strong enough - and we’re only counting armies and roads here - then that side wins. But instead of adding new stuff to your court, buying it launches a contest between the three empires. This is a dominance card, purchasable like any other. They’re all in the cards, so to speak, waiting for you to snap them up and put them to good use.įour times per game, a special card appears in the market. Even the very actions you’ll be using to move those armies or tax your opponents. Tribes for exerting political control over a region.

By adding these cards to your court, you gain new - well, everything.

There’s a market of cards to buy from, filled with troops and spies and economic incentives and the occasional event to either bury or use to your advantage. Winning a war in Pax Pamir is a unique process, recognizable to veterans of the Pax Series but entirely opaque to those who have yet to be initiated. Your court is a place of constant motion.

And although I’ve written about Pax Pamir three times before, Cole Wehrle’s official second edition is different enough that it warrants an entirely new treatment. The Great Game, in other words, except played by its middlemen rather than its kings and queens. Perhaps even aspirations that might be realized by aiding the right empire at the right moment. Scouting, navigation of local customs and courtly procedure, information and advice - the lay of the land, both literally and figuratively. Instead, you’re a tribal chieftain, the local hotshot these empires must rely upon to achieve their aims. The twist is that none of those competing agendas are your own. Three sides, three agendas, one tract of land standing at their intersection. Speaking of which, here comes Russia: expanding rapidly, voraciously hungry, hoping to consolidate their frontier. There’s Britain, looking to unite local warlords into a buffer state against its rivals. Here’s Afghanistan, its dynasty peeling at the edges. Pax Pamir is one of those historical games that doesn’t demand you perfectly understand its context before you play.

Forge empires graveyard