Seeds of Empire

Seeds of Empire is the seventeenth volume in Red Sash Games’ Lace Wars series of hex-and-counter war games. An EXPANSION (not a stand alone game), it continues from where the base game, Dreams of Empire, left off. Dreams of Empire was set in India during the 1730s and 1740s and featured the First Carnatic War between the British and French. Seeds of Empire covers the Second Carnatic War in the 1750s. However, both include 'sandbox' scenarios that allow the players to explore the general state of things at the time, when India was convulsed with multiple wars between powerful native kingdoms. Dreams of Empire only covered South India. Seeds of Empire adds the entirety of Central India.

The Lace Wars system is Operational in scale (that is, above the level of battles and below the level of grand strategy). Game play is similar to most other board war games, with armies marching across a gridded map, trying to stay supplied as they manoeuvre, looking for that decisive battle. In Lace Wars you are typically a theatre commander, working with whatever you have been given (usually not enough) and trying to earn Prestige for yourself, regardless of which nation actually wins the war. Dreams of Empire and Seeds of Empire are slightly different because instead of serving a single nation you are in effect a 'condottiere' serving a variety of kingdoms over the span of several years of confused conflict.