In the Shadow of the Emperor — How to Play, and Why It's a Gem

This week's older board game gem is In the Shadow of the Emperor, from 2004. Position your nobles so as to influence who becomes the new emperor, and reap the rewards! Over the course of 40 years, the emperor and nobles will age and new ones will appear, making for a dynamic dynasty.

Even though the game isn't that complicated, I found it can be a difficult game to learn, so I took great care (and length) in how I taught it. I wanted to be thorough for anyone using this video to learn how to play. Feel free to jump to the "Why It's a Gem" chapter if you just want my thoughts on it.

In an attempt to keep the video's length manageable, I was a ruthless editor. Apologies if any of the cuts seem disruptive.

00:00 Intro
03:29 Setup, Goals
10:10 Phase 4: Actions
18:03 Phase 5: New Electors
21:56 Phase 6: Elect Emperor
26:20 Phases 7-8: Emperor Bonus, End of Round
27:09 Phases 1-3: Income, Ageing, Descendants
30:23 Why It's a Gem

(The rules explanation starts in Phase 4 because Phases 1-3 in the first round are taken care of in setup. The game explanation makes most sense starting there, too, in my opinion.)


Board Gems is a weekly video series highlighting board games that aren't talked about much any more. Maybe they're a bit old, maybe they didn't make a big splash when they came out. For whatever reason, they're not in the hobby zeitgeist any more. But they're still great games today.