Imperium Horizons Review: Heavy Deck Building Done Right

Imperium Horizons is the biggest and most polished entry in the series, with the best rulebook, best components, and most civilizations. It's also the most complex and most expensive. If you can handle that, this is where I'd start.

What Is This Game?

Imperium Horizons is a civilization-building deck builder where you guide one of history's great empires from its early days through its transformation into a dominant force. 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 difficult decisions every turn.

The game includes fourteen asymmetric civilizations: the Abbasids, Aksumites, Cultists, Gupta, Inuit, Japanese, Magyars, Martians, Mayans, Polynesians, Sassanids, Taino, Tang, and Wagadou. Each one plays completely differently, with unique cards, strategies, and thematic flavor built into the design.

Imperium Horizons is a standalone game, but it's fully compatible with its sibling titles, Imperium Classics and Imperium Legends, so you can mix and match civilizations across boxes. Horizons also includes a new trade module that adds economic intrigue to gameplay, and like the other games, its card market can be used with any title in the series.

If you want to see the Imperium system in action, here's my rules teach and playthrough of Imperium Classics (the core mechanics are identical):

What Works

The addictive "one more turn" feeling is just as strong here as it is in Classics and Legends. The decision space is crunchy and satisfying. Your next move is rarely obvious, and you're constantly weighing multiple viable options. Skilled players will consistently outperform weaker ones, and that strategic depth keeps me coming back.

The solo mode remains exceptional. Every civilization has its own bot designed to emulate how that faction would play in human hands. They stay true to each civilization's identity and offer a real challenge at higher difficulty levels. Six difficulty settings let you scale the experience to your skill level.

What sets Horizons apart is the quality-of-life improvements. The rulebook is far superior to Classics and Legends. It's well-organized, easy to reference, and makes learning the game much smoother. The components are also the best in the series. You get a player area organizer that the other boxes lack, and the solo bot information comes on dedicated cards rather than buried in the rulebook. These seem like small things, but they make a noticeable difference during play.

The civilizations here are the most complex of the three boxes. If you found Classics or Legends too light, Horizons will satisfy. My favorite from this box is the Mayans. They let you use a lot of exhaust tokens on your turn, which means you often get the longest, most action-packed turns in the game. They're also the most historically interesting civilization in this set to me.

After 50+ plays across the Imperium series, I still reach for this box regularly. That says everything.

What Doesn't

This is a long game. Even solo, with rules you know well, expect two to two and a half hours from setup to teardown. Add in any rules lookups and it runs longer. I rarely finish in one sitting. I'll play a few hands, take a break, and come back later to finish.

Setup is reasonably quick once you know what you're doing, but teardown is tedious. You need to sort all the individual civilization decks back out, and there are a lot of card stacks to organize.

Horizons advertises fourteen civilizations, but there's a catch. Six of them (the Abbasids, Aksumites, Gupta, Sassanids, Tang, and Wagadou) require the included Trade Routes expansion to play. That expansion increases complexity, and frankly, the base game is already as complex as I want it to be. If you skip the expansion like I do, you're left with eight playable civilizations, the same number as Classics or Legends.

Thematically, this is the least compelling box for me. Classics has the Greeks and Romans. Legends has the Egyptians and Atlantians. Horizons has the Abbasids and Magyars. The civilizations here still play great, but I imagine fewer people are drawn to their history compared to the more famous empires in the other boxes.

Play time scales linearly with player count, which makes three or four-player games drag significantly. I've permanently removed the three and four-player cards from my box. When I have a larger group, I reach for something else.

Price is also a factor. Horizons costs nearly double what Classics or Legends cost. You get more content and better components, but it's a significant jump.

One more thing: scoring by hand is tedious given how many point sources exist. I use this scoring app every game and strongly recommend it.

Replayability

Very high. Even without the Trade Routes expansion, you have eight civilizations with completely distinct playstyles and strategies. Add the expansion and that number jumps to fourteen. You can pit each one against every bot, and even after many plays, I still enjoy revisiting favorites to refine my approach.

If you own Imperium Classics or Imperium Legends, the replayability increases further. Mixing civilizations across boxes and swapping card markets keeps things fresh for a long time.

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.

That said, if I had to do it all over again, I'd start with Horizons. The better rulebook, dedicated bot cards, and improved components make learning and playing the game smoother. You just need to be ready for the higher complexity and price.

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

Who Should Play This

Imperium Horizons is ideal for solo gamers, fans of heavy strategy games, deck builder enthusiasts, and anyone who loves the civilization-building genre. If you've played Classics or Legends and want even more complexity and variety, this delivers.

Skip it if you want something light or fast. If your game nights usually involve three or four players, this isn't the right choice. The play time simply doesn't work well for larger groups. And if price is a concern, Classics or Legends offer similar experiences at a lower cost.

Final Verdict

Imperium Horizons is the most polished and most complex game in the series. The rulebook, components, and bot cards are all significant upgrades over Classics and Legends. The civilizations are less thematically compelling to me, and the price is steep, but the gameplay remains outstanding. If you want the best version of the Imperium system and don't mind the higher barrier to entry, start here.