Pax Pamir
Pax Pamir is an interactive historical game about politics and power in nineteenth century Afghanistan from the designer of John Company and Root.
In the game, players will work in coalitions to build a new state after the collapse of the Durrani Empire. However, only a single player can win. As your coalition becomes powerful, former allies will turn to espionage and political subterfuge in an effort to secure their personal dominance.
In Pax Pamir, players assume the role of nineteenth century Afghan leaders attempting to forge a new state after the collapse of the Durrani Empire. Western histories often call this period "The Great Game" because of the role played by the Europeans who attempted to use central Asia as a theater for their own rivalries. In this game, those empires are viewed strictly from the perspective of the Afghans who sought to manipulate the interloping ferengi (foreigners) for their own purposes.
In terms of game play, Pax Pamir is a pretty straightforward tableau builder. Players spend most of their turns purchasing cards from a central market, then playing those cards in front of them in a single row called a court. Playing cards adds units to the game's map and grants access to additional actions that can be taken to disrupt other players and influence the course of the game. That last point is worth emphasizing. Though everyone is building their own row of cards, the game offers many ways for players to interfere with each other directly and indirectly.
To survive, players will organize into coalitions. Throughout the game, the dominance of the different coalitions will be evaluated by the players when a special card, called a "Dominance Check", is resolved. If a single coalition has a commanding lead during one of these checks, those players loyal to that coalition will receive victory points based on their influence in their coalition. However, if Afghanistan remains fragmented during one of these checks, players instead will receive victory points based on their personal power base. After each Dominance Check, victory is checked and the game will be partially reset, offering players a fresh attempt to realize their ambitions.
The game ends when a single player is able to achieve a lead of four or more victory points or after the fourth and final Dominance Check is resolved.
Reviews and Articles About Pax Pamir
Editor reviews
Stands just below the best Pax game (imo, of course), Renaissance, but is still an incredible experience. The alliance and negotiation elements are one of the bigger departures from the other Pax games, as well as the openness of the map and such. The production on this game...
User reviews
Maybe he'll make a version that entails the US thirty years from now.
craniac wrote: I had Pax and sold it, and now I'll never have it. So I bought Greenland, which is a detailed, weird game that I hope to solo. So I'll get this as a Pax substitute.
Maybe he'll make a version that entails the US thirty years from now.
Craniac,
If you want another copy of Pax Porfiriana, then there might be hope. I've read that they're releasing a deluxe Spanish version of it with a mounted gaming board and wooden chits; perhaps, they're following with a deluxe English version?
The Great Game is one of my favourite topics!
It's based on the Pax system, but Cole did the work on this one.
I've been following it on BGG for a long time, and I'm excited to see it go to print. The Great Game is a really interesting theme to me, and I enjoy the Pax system a lot. Autobuy for me.
If the deluxe Porfiriana makes it into English, I might upgrade.
Not Sure wrote:
If the deluxe Porfiriana makes it into English, I might upgrade.
I can almost say with some certainty it will. I told Phil last year that I had sold all the copies of Pax, and how I was kicking myself. He said worry not, that I will get another chance with a English deluxe version. Of course, things can change, but it sound like it is in the works.
I hope that they will produce an English deluxe version of Pax Porfiriana. For that, my wish list of features would include a point tracker for player prestige points, a double-sided game board, large tarot sized cards, some repro gold peso coins, a sombrero, a bandoleer, and a bottle of top shelf tequila.
www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/2050329/ano...ia-space-biff-review
This is wild. It is substantially changed and I didn't realize it. If you've played a pax game, you'll know this is big deal:
"To put it gently, victory in the original Pax Pamir was difficult. The game could conclude within thirty minutes or three hours, for one thing. For another, the appearance of a topple card — which, when purchased, set into motion a potential bid for victory — tended to drag the game to a halt as everybody counted up, well, everything. Your spies, roads, tribes, and armies all contributed at different times, dependent on the current “climate” of Afghanistan. And I’m not talking about weather. I’m talking about the current tone of the Great Game. During an Intelligence War, a chieftain needed a bunch of spies to win, whereas during Political Fragmentation it was tribes who ruled the day. Every piece on the table mattered, and holding a card that could change the climate at the last minute was often the key to success.
That’s all been stripped out of Pax Pamir’s second edition. And along with it, both the game’s most complicated tabulations and a significant chunk of its appeal.
Dominance checks — the fancy new word for a topple — no longer have anything to do with climate. Instead, they’re almost entirely focused on imperial superiority. During a check, if an empire has deployed four more roads and/or armies than either of their foes, then that empire is dominant. Every chieftain loyal to that empire now scores points according to their influence. So if Russia has endless miles of roads and hordes of armies, the player who sucked up to them most comprehensively will earn more points than those who didn’t hire enough patriots, assassinate national enemies, or send enough rugs to the governor’s wife. And in the event that no empire emerges supreme, the chieftain fielding the most spies and tribes will earn the points. As in life, so in art."
I... have no idea how I feel about this. It was sort of the signature of the original design...? Anyway, I have an open mind about the whole thing but this is pretty radical.
There's been an overall redefinition of "who am I" in the game, which was pretty nebulous in 1st Edition but in 2nd firmly places you in the "Afghan up-and-comer struggling for control".
Based on Werhle's evolution of game design chops since the 1st edition, I'm expecting it to be better. But in true Pax fashion, I'm hedging my bets and holding onto the 1st Edition as well.
(also: strong necro powers here. Just a few days short of a four-year gap in posts.)
www.kickstarter.com/projects/1243243962/...dition/posts/2397897
It was a bit better with the "Nation Building" rules from memory, which was the step towards this new edition - you play for points at the topples rather than the outright win.
I quite like Porf at 2.
They were also pretty out of steam in this video and dawdled way more than they usually do (I generally like heavy cardboard a lot).
Hey Sax, do you want to use your mod powers to fix up the title on this thread? It was barely a "Phil Eklund" game to begin with, and this second edition is completely not. It's sort of a confusing anachronism now.