Out of Asia
A Variant for History of the World
from Declination, 1, #2, p 1


For those of you who don't like playing two factions in the normal two- or three-player game as published in the History of the World rule book, Declination presents the following variant. The standard rules are essentially unchanged. However, play is limited to Asian Empires only. By restricting the game to a limited geographical area, there is still plenty of contact and conflict between civilizations without forcing players to control two factions.

Rules for Out of Asia

1. General

1.1 USE OF STANDARD RULES: Except as specified in the following rules for Out of Asia, the standard History of the World rules apply.
1.2 NUMBER OF PLAYERS: Out of Asia is for two or three players only. Each player plays only one color (faction).

2. Prepare to Play

2.1 EVENTS: Discard from the game all the purple (Kingdom and Migrant) Event cards. Also, discard the olive-green Mayan and Anglo-Saxon Event cards. Standard rules apply to the white Event card (Sumeria). However, instead of sorting the remaining Event cards into nine piles, sort them by color into eight piles.
2.2 PLAYER HAND: Each player randomly draws one card from each pile to form his hand of eight Event cards.
2.3 EMPIRE CARDS: Discard from the game all Empire cards for Empires whose starting Lands are not in the Middle East, China, India, South-East Asia, Eurasia, or Nippon. Sort and shuffle the remaining Empire cards per the standard rules.

3. Placement Restrictions

3.1 LAND RESTRICTIONS: Armies may be placed in Lands in only the following Areas: Middle East, China, India, South-East Asia, Eurasia, and Nippon. Obviously, this also means that Capitals, Cities, or Monuments may be built inside only these Areas, and that Victory Points and Resource symbols may be claimed for only these Areas.
3.2 SEA RESTRICTIONS: Fleets may be placed in only the following Seas: Black Sea, Eastern Mediterranean, North Sea, Sea of Japan, Bay of Bengal, South China Sea, and Red Sea. Victory Points may be claimed for only these Seas.
3.3 OCEAN RESTRICTIONS: Fleets may not be placed in any Ocean.
3.4 BARREN LANDS: The only Barren Lands in play are Siberia, Syrian Desert, and Plateau of Tibet. "Barbarian" attacks (specified by Event card) may be made out of only the above three Barren Lands.


From Our Readers...
from Declination, 1, #3, p 8

Several readers of the April 94 issue of Declination wrote in saying that since there are only two Asian Empires in Epoch VII, a three-player version of Out of Asia cannot be played to conclusion. The easiest way to solve this problem is to end the game at the finish of Epoch VI. Another alternative is to move the "Mughals" card from the Epoch-VI to the Epoch-VII deck, with the Mughals playing first in Epoch VII. In this case, cards should be drawn blindly (out of an envelope, for example) and hidden from the other players so the card backs do not reveal any information. Rick Heli, one of our readers, points out that a good four-person game of Out of Asia can also be played if the game ends at the conclusion of Epoch VI. Apologies from your somnolent editor. Another reader, Michael Tsuk, suggests that the "Trade Bonus" Event card should be eliminated from the two-person version of Out of Asia since the card does not really operate as intended with only two players in the game.


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