Empires of the Middle Ages

[1] A number of short scenarios (ranging from four to eight Game Turns equalling one to two centuries) are included as a means to learn the rules.

[1] Empires of the Middle Ages was designed by James Dunnigan and developed by Anthony F. Buccini and Redmond A. Simonsen.

[5] After the demise of SPI, Caledon Software Designs created a DOS computer version of the board game for 1–8 players, published in 1994 under the title Rise of the West.

[2] In Issue 33 of Phoenix, Roger Sandell felt that the main problem of this game was that "it gives little sense of the historical changes taking place in the period it depicts."

It moves reasonably quickly and the eternal problems that beset each nation mean that it is not simply a game of attempting to conquer everything in sight."

"[1] In Issue 23 of Fire & Movement, Rob Land commented, "The game plays well and has been completently play-tested.

This is the kind of product the hobby expects from SPI: original in conception and workable in execution.

It will best suit players who have a good deal of patience and a fair amount of time available for playing, plus some knowledge of the history and an ability to laugh at misfortune.

"[11] In a retrospective review in Issue 3 of SPI's edition of Simulacrum, John Kula noted that designer Jim Dunnigan had originally conceived of this as a computer game.