Description
Imperium is a two-player game simulating a series of conflicts between the emerging Terran (human) Confederation and an immense and ancient alien empire, the Imperium. The Sun and nearby stars lie at the extreme edge of this alien space-faring civilization, and the Terrans struggle to survive and expand against this powerful state. While the Terran player is in control of the entire Confederation military, the Imperial player represents a low-ranking provincial governor on the frontier, who is forced to petition the central government for reinforcements and is occasionally subject to its meddling.
When Imperium was published in 1977, its scenario was not connected to any other game. GDW published Traveller in the same year, but Traveller was at that point a system for running adventures in a generic science fiction setting, with no established background. However, as the company constructed the Third Imperium as the default setting for Traveller, the situation in Imperium was retconned into the Traveller Imperium's history; it became the First Interstellar War, the first of many wars leading to the overthrow of the Vilani Grand Empire of Stars (Ziru Sirka) by the Terran Confederation and the establishment of the Rule of Man.
The fold-out map depicts a nearby region of the Galaxy that includes important nearby stars as well as hyperspace jump routes between them. This sector forms a single province within the Imperium. The map is printed on a dark background and is overlaid by a hex grid. Each hex represents a half parsec, which would require about 1.8 years to traverse traveling at 90% the speed of light. Along the edges of the map are tracks for marking turns and tallying resources. The map includes a number of commonly-known stars, such as Alpha Centauri, Procyon, Sirius, Epsilon Indi, and Altair, as well as a considerable number with more exotic names (mostly taken from the Sumerian language). Only a dozen stars have naturally-habitable planets, although many more have planetary systems with outpost-capable worlds.
The game includes a variety of ship types, ranging in size from the small scouts and fighters to the mighty battleships. The ship counters are blue for the Terrans and red for the Imperium. Each counter includes a set of ratings, the ship type, and a silhouette. The combat ratings give the Beam weapon combat factor, the Missile factor, and the Screen factor. Beam weapons are for close range combat, while missiles are best fired at long range. Typically a beam weapon is slightly more effective than missiles, and Terrans have better beam weapon ratings while the Imperium favors missiles. Ships with a black silhouette can perform a jump between stars, while a white silhouette can only remain in orbit.
The following ship types are available for production: Scout, destroyer, several different types of cruisers, dreadnaught, improved dreadnaught, battleship, monitor, missile boat, mother ship (similar to an aircraft carrier), fighter, transport and tanker.
The available jump routes can significantly hinder the movement of a side's forces. Certain star systems act as bottle-necks, and can be used by each side as a defensive front. Two of the stars do not allow refueling, so tankers are required to leave these sites. Ships (excepting fighters and missile boats) are allowed to move at sub-light speeds across the hex map, and so can move directly from star to star without following the jump routes. However the movement rate of these ships is only one hex per turn.
Read more about this topic: Imperium (board Game)
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