Imperium Classics Review: Deep Solo Civilization Building

Imperium Classics is one of my favorite games of all time. It's a deeply strategic, historically rich civilization builder with the best solo mode I've ever played. Just be ready to clear your schedule.

What Is This Game?

Imperium Classics is a civilization-building deck builder where you guide one of history's great empires from its early days as a fledgling state through its transformation into a dominant empire. You'll conquer lands, develop your culture, and race to accumulate the most victory points before the game ends, all while managing a tight hand of cards and navigating genuinely difficult decisions every single turn.

The game includes eight asymmetric civilizations: the Carthaginians, Celts, Greeks, Macedonians, Persians, Romans, Scythians, and Vikings. Each one plays completely differently, with unique cards, strategies, and historical flavor baked into the design.

Imperium Classics is a standalone game, but it's fully compatible with its sibling titles, Imperium Legends and Imperium Horizons, so you can mix and match civilizations across boxes if you want even more variety.

If you want to see the game in action, here's my rules teach and playthrough:

What Works

No game gives me that "one more turn" feeling like Imperium Classics. The decision space is genuinely crunchy. Your next move is rarely obvious, and you're constantly weighing multiple viable options. This isn't a game where you autopilot through turns. It rewards careful planning, and a skilled player will consistently outperform a weaker one.

The solo mode is exceptional. Each civilization has its own bot, and the bots are designed to emulate how that faction would play in the hands of a human opponent. They're true to each civilization's identity and surprisingly challenging once you ramp up the difficulty. Speaking of which, the game offers six difficulty levels, so whether you're learning or looking for a brutal challenge, you can scale it to fit.

What really sets this game apart is how well the mechanics capture the historical feel of each civilization. The Romans, for example, are aggressive and militaristic. Your primary strategy revolves around capturing regions through combat. Then, when you reach your Julius Caesar card, you transition from a "barbarian" state into a full empire. It mirrors the actual arc of Roman history. The Greeks, on the other hand, advance into empire status faster than anyone else, reflecting how rapidly Greek civilization developed in real life. Every faction feels historically grounded while also playing in a mechanically distinct way. It's rare for a game to nail both theme and strategy this well.

After 50+ plays across the Imperium series, I keep coming back. That says everything.

What Doesn't

This is a long game. Even solo, with rules you know well, you're looking at two to two and a half hours from setup to teardown. Throw in any rules lookups and it stretches further. I usually don't finish in one sitting. I'll play a few hands, step away, and come back later to wrap up.

Setup is actually pretty quick once you're familiar with the game, but teardown can be tedious. You need to separate all the individual civilization decks again, and there are a lot of different card stacks to sort through.

The rulebook that comes with Classics is really bad. It's poorly organized, hard to reference, and makes learning the game more frustrating than it needs to be. My advice: print off a copy of the Imperium Horizons rulebook and use that instead. It's a massive improvement and works perfectly fine for Classics.

The length issue compounds with more players. Play time scales linearly with player count, which makes three or four-player games painfully long. I've permanently removed the three and four-player cards from my box. If I'm sitting down with a larger group, this is never the game I'd choose.

One other note: scoring by hand would be a chore given how many different point sources there are. I use this scoring app for every game and highly recommend it.

Replayability

Insanely high. There are eight civilizations in this box alone, each with a completely different playstyle and strategic identity. You can play each one against every other bot, and even after dozens of plays, I still find myself returning to favorites just to refine my approach.

Once you've exhausted Classics, or just want more variety, you can pick up Imperium Legends or Imperium Horizons and expand your pool of civilizations even further. The system has enormous staying power.

Which One to Start With: Classics, Legends, or Horizons?

If you're new to the series, your starting point depends on how much complexity you want.

Classics features the most famous civilizations in history: Greeks, Romans, Persians, Vikings. I think this makes for the most immediately compelling theme. It's also the simplest and least complex of the three boxes, making it the best entry point for most players.

Legends steps up the complexity and introduces eight new civilizations, including some that don't exist in real history (like the Arthurians and Atlantians) alongside historical favorites like the Egyptians. If you want a bit more crunch and don't mind fictional factions, Legends is a great second box or an alternative starting point for experienced gamers.

Horizons is the largest and most complex. It includes fourteen civilizations, the best rulebook of the bunch, improved components, and an expansion that pushes complexity even higher. Start here only if you're confident you want a heavier experience from day one.

You can check out my reviews of Imperium Legends and Imperium Horizons for deeper dives on each.

Who Should Play This

Imperium Classics is ideal for solo gamers, fans of medium-heavy to heavy strategy games, deck builder enthusiasts, and anyone who loves the civilization-building genre. If you want meaningful decisions, historical immersion, and a game that rewards repeated plays, this delivers.

Skip it if you're looking for something light or quick. And if your game nights typically involve three or four players, this probably isn't the right fit. The play time just doesn't scale well for larger groups.

Final Verdict

Imperium Classics is one of my favorite games of all time. The strategic depth, historical authenticity, and exceptional solo mode make it a standout in my collection. It's not for everyone, and the length and complexity are real barriers, but for the right player, this is as good as civilization-building gets.