Empires: Age of Discovery & Struggle of Empires Deluxe

The captain squinted, his eyes clouded by salt and the acrid stench of cramped quarters after forty days of swelter. He stared out over the ship’s railing into the never-ending blue, toward the line where sea met sky, beyond which lay the threat of nothingness and starvation for those who sailed too long. A haze began to take shape at the edge of his vision. Was it land, or just one more trick of the eyes? He began to mutter, then suddenly shouted, “If it’s fog, it’s wider than any fog I’ve ever known, and it stands still and heavy on the water. Hard to starboard!” Then came the words everyone aboard had waited weeks to hear: “Land Ahead!”

The deck came alive with a frenzy of activity. The crew returned to their duties with renewed energy. Merchants checked their wares and secured their silver coins. Missionaries prayed, some in near silence, others quite loudly out to the land ahead. Colonists could do little to prepare beyond gathering their courage, ready to establish settlements in hopefully still unsettled lands. Soldiers, knowing of possible inhabitants, loaded their wood-and-steel arquebuses and readied their black-painted swords.

This is the Age of Discovery.

Empires: Age of Discovery is a game set during the time of European exploration of the New World, beginning in the early 16th century. The game is divided into three Ages: the first two consist of three turns each, while the final Age consists of two. Each Age represents approximately a century of European colonial history.
 

Empires: Age of Discovery is a worker-placement game. At the beginning of each turn, players place workers on the board to take advantage of the various actions available. The majority of these workers are Colonists, hardworking folk who are plentiful and can participate in any available event. As the game progresses, players can recruit Specialists who perform the same tasks as Colonists, but bring additional expertise. Captains, for example, have an easier time securing ships and discovering new lands by counting as two workers when assigned to Merchant Shipping and Discovery.

Missionaries convert new believers to Christianity upon landing, securing their needed support and allegiance. Merchants are especially effective at Merchant Shipping, counting as two workers for that action, and earn a one-time $5 bonus upon arriving in the New World. Lastly, through force, Soldiers protect the land claims of their home country and plunder the wealth of the indigenous people of the New World who are unprepared to face a foreign enemy. 

Placing workers represents the allocation of a nation’s people and resources, and the formulation of a colonial strategy. Once all players have placed their available workers on the board, the eight action spaces are resolved one at a time, from top to bottom. Players then carry out the actions associated with their workers.

Next, players collect income from Trade Goods and activate the abilities of eligible Capital cards. At the end of each Age, players score the regions of the New World. After the final turn, additional end-game scoring takes place, and the player with the most Victory Points wins!

Historical Context: The era depicted in Empires: Age of Discovery (early 16th century through the early 18th century) was one in which European countries commissioned explorers to seek out new trade routes and lands in which they could establish colonies. These colonies were often, by force, achieved by driving out or eliminating the local inhabitants. Often referred to as the Age of Exploration as the term Discovery, in this case, is from a very Eurocentric perspective. These lands Europeans encountered were not unknown or uninhabited, but were home to established Indigenous communities.

How to Play

What's in the Box?

Every backer of Empires: Age of Discovery will receive the Upgrade Pack, free of charge, which contains the 5th and 6th player colors (60 Colonist, 20 Builders, 20 Soldiers, 20 Missionaries, 10 Captains, and 10 Merchants), making the game playable with up to 6 players. Four player colors will come in the retail edition of the game.

What's New in this Edition?

In this new edition of Empires: Age of Discovery, we aimed to brighten up the game, improve readability with the components, and provide better clarification for how some of the Capital cards function. The core rules to the game remain unchanged.

The previous Capital building tiles have been updated to cards to improve readability and to allow for a larger space for clarification of the actions on each Capital card. We have also streamlined a few of the Capital actions and/or improved their names.

All of the components have been brightened up and more detail has been included on the game board. We think this give an overall better readability to things.

Finalizing Card Art for Empires: Age of Discovery

In some of the preview images and videos, you will see our placeholder art in the prototype. We are still finalizing our card art for the Capital cards, but below you will see some examples of the final card art by Diego Sanchez:

We expect this art to all be finalized during the campaign and we will share progress of that in Updates throughout the campaign.

Pledge Levels

$116 — Empires: Age of Discovery (MSRP $154.99) is a 2-4 player (up to 6 players with the Kickstarter edition) worker placement game designed by Glenn Drover. Each Kickstarter edition of the game will include all 6 player colors. Shipping will be collected in the post-campaign pledge manager. (See below)

$98 — Struggle of Empires Deluxe Edition (MSRP $129.99) is a grand empire building game designed by Martin Wallace with straightforward rules for 2 to 7 players. Shipping will be collected in the post-campaign pledge manager. (See below)

$205 — Empires: Age of Discovery + Struggle of Empires Deluxe Edition (Combined MSRP $284.98) includes the Kickstarter edition of Empires: Age of Discovery (the Kickstarter edition of the game includes all 6 player colors) and the reprint of Struggle of Empires Deluxe Edition. Shipping will be collected in the post-campaign pledge manager. (See below)

116 $ – „Empires: Age of Discovery“ Deutsche Ausgabe (UVP 154,99 $) ist ein Worker-Placement-Spiel von Glenn Drover für 2 bis 4 Spieler (mit der Kickstarter-Edition für bis zu 6 Spieler). Jede Kickstarter-Edition des Spiels enthält alle 6 Spielerfarben. Die Versandkosten werden nach Abschluss der Kampagne im Pledge-Manager abgerechnet (siehe unten).

Add-Ons

The following add-ons are available during this campaign and will also be available in the post-campaign pledge manager:

$18 — Empires: Age of Discovery Metal Coins (MSRP $24.99)
This set of metal coins features 100 metal doubloons (50 gold, 50 silver) that can be used with Empires: Age of Discovery or any game of that era for a thematic experience. Note: One set of metal coins should suffice for Empires: Age of Discovery as the punchboard coins are 60 silver and 52 gold.

$15 — Struggle of Empires Deluxe Metal Coins (MSRP $19.99)
This set features 60 metal coins (50 value-1, 10 value-5) that can be used with Struggle of Empires Deluxe Edition for a thematic experience. 

$15 — Struggle of Empires Deluxe Unrest Counters (MSRP $19.99)
This set of 100 resin chips has high-quality decals inset on both sides of each counter. The set includes 9 value-0, 72 value-1, 9 value-2, and 10 value-5 and are upgrades to punchboard counters in the game.

Struggle of Empires Deluxe Edition

Struggle of Empires Deluxe Edition is set in the eighteenth century: an age of discovery and sail, a period of colonization and the beginnings of industrialization, and also a time of almost constant warfare in Europe and its far-flung colonies.

You will lead one of the seven major European powers of that time and direct its military, economic, and political development to compete with your rival major powers. You will forge alliances, build armies and fleets, establish colonies, improve your economy, wage war, and manage unrest among your citizenry.

Choose whether to expand your influence in Europe or take control of colonies in the Americas, Africa, and the Far East. If well made, your choices will guide you to victory in the upcoming Struggle of Empires!

The game is played across three major Wars, each lasting for five or six rounds of play depending on the number of players. Each War begins with the formation of two grand alliances of the major powers and represents a period of approximately two decades.

During each round, players take two actions, along with any number of available free actions. At the end of each War, players score Victory Points based on their relative control in 11 scoring regions across Europe and the colonies. Military units can capture or defend control markers, but they do not represent control of a region on their own. Success depends on balancing military strength with economic priorities.

Players can also use a variety of tiles and tokens representing local alliances, trade, special abilities, improvements, military tactics, and covert operations. These provide important economic, military, and political advantages, and making effective use of them is essential to success.

Gold is essential throughout the game. Players can always raise money through taxation, but doing so increases unrest among their citizens. If unrest grows too high, the consequences can be severe, potentially leading to the collapse of a nation!

Historical Context: The era depicted in Struggle of Empires was one in which the barbarous transatlantic slave trade was prominent — centered on what became known as the Gold Coast in western Africa. It has been called one of the greatest tragedies in the history of humanity in terms of scale and duration, and is often regarded as the first known instance of globalization. In the game, this system is referred to as Gold Coast Commerce.

Read more about it in this blog post on BoardGameGeek.com.

The full 6-player playthrough can be viewed here. 

Designers & Artists

Glenn Drover — Glenn Drover is a game designer from Chicago, IL who has designed Empires: Age of Discovery (originally Age of Empires III) and Railways of the World among other titles. Drover was one of the early pioneers of the 'worker placement' mechanic, which later became a staple in many Euro-style board games, notably demonstrated in Empires: Age of Discovery.

João Tereso — João is a graphic designer and artist from Portugal with a Bachelor’s degree in Design and a background in UI/UX, which has given him a particular interest in visual systems and information design. He is the artist and graphic designer for both Empires: Age of Discovery and Struggle of Empires Deluxe Edition.

Diego Sanchez — Diego is a graphic designer and artist from São Paulo, Brazil who has provided additional illustrations for Empires: Age of Discovery.

Martin Wallace — Martin is a game designer from Manchester, England and currently lives in Australia after living several years in New Zealand. Martin started gaming in his teens with titles from SPI and Avalon Hill, and also played Dungeons & Dragons when he was a student. Wallace worked at Games Workshop and then started designing games in the early 1990s. 

International Editions

Empires: Age of Discovery is offered in two different language editions as pledge levels in this campaign — English & German. We are working with Skellig Games for a German edition of Empires: Age of Discovery. (See the Pledge Levels above)

We are working with Key Studio for a Chinese edition of Empires: Age of Discovery.

We are working with DeltaVision for a Hungarian edition of Empires: Age of Discovery.

We do not currently have a language partner for Empires: Age of Discovery in Spanish, French, Korean, or Polish. 

Retail Backers

We love local game stores and enjoy supporting them worldwide by offering our games to retailers through our PIP program! If you are interested in carrying Eagle-Gryphon games and products, please click the link below to submit your info to our Sales Dept.

Terms & Conditions

By pledging to this project, you acknowledge that the final look, materials, and content of the rewards (and the project) are subject to change and may differ from what is presented while this Kickstarter campaign is active. All artwork is subject to change. These terms and conditions apply specifically to this project.

NOTE: If you are pledging from within the EU or UK, you will be assessed VAT as required by your country in the post-campaign pledge manager. Backers within the United States will be charged sales tax in states where we have met the required sales threshold.

Refund Policy

All pledges can be refunded in full up to 13 days after the end of the Kickstarter campaign. In addition, if any part of your order cannot be delivered, we will reimburse you for the full cost of this component of your order, regardless of the date. If you apply for a refund more than 13 days after the end of the Kickstarter, we will only be able to refund 80% of your pledge. The difference is the amount of the unrecoverable costs and fees paid to process your order through Kickstarter, credit card processing, and the pledge manager.

NOTE: Once the games have shipped from China toward our fulfillment centers, refunds may no longer be available. Any purchases made in the post-campaign pledge manager are also subject to this refund policy. 

Shipping & Fulfillment

Pledge Manager

Shipping & Fulfillment

Are You New to Kickstarter?

Welcome to our campaign. It’s easy to back a copy of Empires: Age of Discovery!

Step 1) Choose your Pledge Level

Kickstarter is the first step in the process. Here, you can choose the Pledge Level that is right for you. Simply click on the pledge level that you prefer, and then follow the prompts. This reserves (but does not complete) a copy of Empires: Age of Discovery for you. You will be able to add additional items to your pledge in the post-campaign pledge manager. This Kickstarter campaign will end on November 6th, 2026.

Step 2) Complete your Pledge in the Gamefound Pledge Manager

On or around November 24th, 2026, our post-campaign pledge manager will open on Gamefound.com. We will send you a link to log in to your pledge in Gamefound.com. If you have never logged in to Gamefound before, you will be asked to create a password. Then you will be able to add additional items to your pledge (if you want), enter your shipping address, and complete the checkout process. It is in the pledge manager that you will pay for the shipping fees and any applicable taxes for your region. You must complete your pledge in the pledge manager, or else we won’t know where to ship your game! Note: We recommend that you use the same email address for both Kickstarter and Gamefound to avoid issues locating your pledge.

Step 3) We Produce and Deliver Your Game to You!

The Gamefound pledge manager will close in late January, and by that time, production of the games will already be underway! Once the pledge manager closes, we export your pledge information as well as your shipping information to the appropriate fulfillment center for your region. Once production is complete, the games will ship from our manufacturer to our fulfillment centers around the world. Once there, they will be packaged and shipped out to you!

During the entire process, we will send out periodic updates and reminders about deadlines. If you ever have any questions about your pledge, the best way to contact us is to email us at kickstarter@eagle-gryphon.com.