In my opinion this article belongs to Midwinter and it´s numerous versions (really a good game concept), but a small clarification on the topic of (the) Ashes of Empire(TM): the game from Microsoft/Microprose was not Ashes of Empire, it was Age of Empire (TM)
original game design 1982 by Mike William Costello from Nottingham, UK (for Oric, Spectrum and other home computers, I was one of his german programmers for Commodore). (The) Ashes of Empire is a space conflict game in a galaxy of 22 worlds. Lenin from the Eastern Democratic Union against Earth with the Western Trading Alliance. Historians see the idea of the Nato strategy east vs. west
1984 redesign as postal game by Harald Topf (it´s me) for up to 8 players within a galaxy of 36 to 40 worlds by turning the galactic map by 90 degree clockwise (the conflict changes more north to south instead of east to west)
1992 Boardgame (The) Ashes of Empire appears (earlier than Mike Singleton´s Midwinter IV)
1998 Card Game Evolution of the stars (playing in the Ashes galaxy) appears
1999 Card game (The) Ashes of Empire appears
On any questions feel free to ask me, Harald Topf, h.topf@cspp.com as Mike C. died some years ago or look at http://www.spieleautorenzunft.de/autorenprofile/member/256.html Bonn, Germany, 88.76.19.205 (talk) 20:45, 16 November 2011 (UTC)