Mound Builders

About this board game

Mound Builders is a solitaire States of Siege game for 1 player, designed to be played in about 60 minutes. You represent the two largest pre-Columbian mound-building cultures of eastern North America: the earlier Hopewell culture and the later Mississippian culture that derived from it.

Beginning before the time of Christ and continuing toward the arrival of European colonists in the 17th century, your empire expands across a map of North America. You extend your control over the various chiefdoms you encounter, incorporating them into your economic and religious sphere.

Your domain may grow and shrink throughout the game, but this is not simply a story of armies advancing and retreating. In Mound Builders, changing control represents the rise and decline of culture, religious ideology, and an economic way of life. These foundations face pressure from competing ideologies and lifestyles as well as hostile armies.

• Play a solitaire States of Siege game focused on cultural expansion.
• Represent the Hopewell and Mississippian mound-building cultures.
• Expand across North America and incorporate chiefdoms into your empire.
• Strive to preserve your heartland and capital at Cahokia.

Your goal is to spread Mound Builder culture and amass as many chiefdoms as possible. Rival native powers eventually rise against you, while the smallpox-ridden Spanish arrive late in the game to drive your empire back toward its Mississippi River heartland.

The struggle reaches its ultimate crisis at Cahokia, Illinois, near modern St. Louis, where your vast capital city can be extinguished. Created by Charles S. Roberts Award-winning designers Wes Erni and Ben Madison at Victory Point Games, Mound Builders presents a sweeping historical contest over culture, religion, economy, and survival.