Moon Empire

**Moon Empire** is one of the four expansion empires from Glorantha: The Gods War Empires board game expansion. It focuses on...

## Strategy

### Faction Strategy

The early game is the best time to focus on your Lunar Cycle Heroquests - other players are generally too short on Power to mess with you, and you do not have enough units on the map to frighten them.

All of your best powers require time to implement properly, and all compete for your attention. If you put off *Enslavement*, *Moonburn*, or *Madness* until near the end of the game, these gifts will have little effect. The most common error a Moon player makes is to try to use all of these gifts. You cannot, at least not in every game, so you must choose between them or seek a balance to build a sensible strategy. If you can get these gifts to all work together, you can execute amazing combinations. Joining Goddess's *Menses* with *Eclipse*, *Enslavement*, and *Madness* can churn through the Cycle quickly while also piling up a store of hostages your enemies will need to ransom.

Even with *Menses*, you may still want to summon your first Selene to start the *Madness* cycle. Sometimes players won't want to spend Power to advance your cycle and you'll find yourself staying at Full Moon for a while, but that's pretty sweet too.

But...getting to this point takes a delicate balancing act. The Crimson Bat is by far the most potent unit in your pool - use his *Mindblast* to bring victory out of defeat, or even completely shut down a weak enemy.

### Gift Strategies

* **Adoption**
	+ Not only a useful escape route, but also good to put a hated enemy in harm's way.
* **Eclipse**
	+ It may seem like a double-edged sword, but in effect it gives you a free Lunar Cycle bump, since you out to be attacking anyway. Of course, reserve your Dying Moon attack for unguarded Shrines. *Adoption* can put you in position for these attacks.
* **Enslavement**
	+ Another reason you should want to attack as often as possible. Every person in your Slave Pen is a Power boost waiting to happen.
* **Madness**
	+ Even if all you do is pay to churn through the Cycles with properly-spaced Selenes, it only costs you 4 Power to earn 3 Power and a rune. Obviously, it is best to take this gift when you are at a Dying or Waxing Half, so that you can benefit from it ASAP.
* **Mindblast**
	+ A terrifying prospect for any foe, and this one is just as good on offense as it is on defense.
* **Moonburn**
	+ Any time you are at Full Moon, watch your enemies scramble and squabble trying to get someone else to pay to knock you off your high horse so that their Temples won't fry. In the meantime, go ahead and fry them.

## Story

Epilogue
*"The sky started to light up as the thing rose up in the sky. On the path below we saw a procession of dancing, twisting folk, dressed in a riot of color. Despite their complex pirouettes, they advanced swiftly. Our chief warrior-woman held up her spear and asked their name and purpose, while I nocked an arrow. The newcomers halted, but spoke no word. The round thing rose higher and became brighter. "The sun has been gone this long age," I whispered to my companion, "what is this thing in the heavens? A replacement? A mockery?" He shook his head. Then we saw them—beings flowing down the shafts of light. First came dozens, then hundreds, then thousands. The dancers began again, faster and faster, while the rest of our soldiers began to scream in psychosis."
—Sandy Petersen*