History of the World (board game) the number of armies it gets, its capital or starting location in parentheses, and the seas it can navigate in parentheses. Each epoch there is a minor empire and a kingdom that can be played as event cards, and these are listed at the bottom of the epoch. History of the World (board game) History of the World (often abbreviated HotW) is a board game designed by Ragnar Brothers and originally published in 1991. It is played by up to six different players in seven different epochs; each player playing a different empire in each epoch. The first edition of
Board game Board game A board game is a tabletop game that involves counters or moved or placed on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Some games are based on pure strategy, but many contain an element of chance; and some are purely chance, with no element of skill. Games usually have a goal that a player aims to achieve. Early board games represented a battle between two armies, and most modern board games are still based on defeating opponents in terms of counters, winning position, or accrual of points. There are many varieties of board games.