AP Euro has not been taught at my school for nearly a decade, and I’m thrilled to be bringing it back this year. I’ve got a full section of eager students, though I suspect I am more excited than they are.
I have written before about my strong opinions regarding the first day of school. I can’t stand the traditional “syllabus day” and the time spent reviewing rules, policies, and course overviews. All of that can be unpacked later. The first day should be fun, engaging, and meaningful. It should spark some curiosity and set the tone for what will come. First impressions matter!
With that in mind, I decided to design a custom strategy game to kick off AP Euro. I am a fan of board games, and love an opportunity to bring them into the classroom. After developing the game idea, this project become an excuse to teach myself Adobe InDesign as well as some of their other programs. Teachers get a slightly reduced license fee on their creative suite.
The game’s working name is Institutions and Ideologies. It is roughly themed for the first semester of AP Euro, or the Renaissance up through the early Enlightenment. Students play as one of four traditional Institutions or one of four emerging ideologies, vying for influence and domination within Europe.
| Institutions | Ideologies |
| Monarchy Holy Roman Empire Guild System Catholic Church | Protestantism Humanism Capitalism Scientific Method |
Each Institution and Ideology has a unique deck of cards through which students play the game and shape their strategy. These cards allow them to attack other players, make defensive plays, draw cards, or place influence on the map of Europe. The rules are intentionally simple. On their turn, a player may either draw 2 cards or play as many cards as are in their hand. The game lasts until only one player remains standing, or until one player has majority influence in four of the six European regions. You will need sets of small colored manipulatives to represent each player in the game. These will be used as influence and the marker for the health tracker.
The graphical designs in the decks are a little inconsistent and show my learning curve, however the potential is there. I was more focused on testing the game and trying to balance the decks so there was not an obviously overpowered role. A few teachers have helped me play through the game several time to do this. There will be some further refinement (unless the students hate it…) but in its current state, it should do the job of sparking interest in the world early-modern Europe. I also hope some it will be a good review of some AP World material that any students will remember.
In-class variations could involve students explaining significance or context around the cards, or some other similar task. I might task some of my students with creating appendices for each deck which go into the historical context for each card. Some of the rules can also be easily adjusted to make the game go quicker if needed. The directions and all the files for the game are linked below.
If you like this idea and end up playing it, please let me know how it goes. More plays will create more ideas for rules adjustments, new cards or decks, and balancing. There are also other Institutions and Ideologies that could provide new decks. As I get better with InDesign I’ll look to upgrade the visuals of the cards. I admit, I love the energy in the lead-up to the school-year where new ideas take shape and new possibilities stretch out ahead.
Institutions & Ideologies Files
- Monarchy Deck
- Holy Roman Empire Deck
- Catholic Church Deck
- Guild System Deck
- Protestantism Deck
- Humanism Deck
- Capitalism Deck
- Scientific Method Deck
Some of the mechanics of this game were patterned after another card game called Dungeon Mayhem.