The Romans - The Ragnar Brothers' Final Game

I'm in the same spot. First off: Rome! Hell, yeah. I'll play almost anything Rome.

The Romans traces the history of the Roman Empire from its inception as a small Italian Kingdom, through its development and expansion as a Republic and thence to the full blown Empire that dominated the classical world. Enemies mount challenges throughout the game and ultimately the barbarian invasions drive deep into the Empire with Rome itself as their target.

Traces the path of history! I'm on board. This will be like Sword of Rome, a game I love but rarely get a chance to play.

But this is not just a game of conquest. Senators grapple for power in the buildings of the capital and players will score victory points by developments through the game.

Hrm. Sounds kind of like the one Rome game I never really liked: Glory to Rome. Plus Lords of Waterdeep, which isn't bad, but which I already own.

Players start with four Senators and their number increases through the game as five buildings come into play. These Senators can be placed in the various buildings to gain promotions, recruit legions, take revenue and build cities, fortifications and fleets, gain victory points, and a whole lot more. Alternatively, the Senators flip to become Generals which the player then deploy with armies on their own map board to expand the Kingdom, Republic and Empire.

Even more Lords... but they become Generals! So you balance between keeping your senators home to gain VPs in town or sending them out to defend the Republic/Empire. This sounds like Republic of Rome, another game I loved but sold because it never (and I mean NEVER) got played.

Players make a range of decisions as there are multiple scoring opportunities and routes to victory.

I like this.

Game play is speedy and at time simultaneous.

I like this.

The fortune of dice rolling is mitigated by the sharing of many rolls and players who fall behind in the game will benefit from three recovery mechanisms that ensure the game remains tightly balanced until the dramatic climax of the game.

Uh... wait. That sounds like way too much of a patch job ("Euro players won't like dice! We need to tack on obvious workarounds so they won't simply reject it!")

This is the third quantum game from the Ragnar Brothers and gives players a unique opportunity for each to experience the thrilling rise of Roman power. The game also builds upon the auto-player mechanisms which have been a feature of the solo rules in their recent games.

Haven't played their other games, so nothing to compare it to in that respect. I'm still intrigued.

Trajan featured the ability to turn your pieces into generals/armies for a map at the top part of the board. In fact, if I squint reading this description I can see Trajan in it. I enjoy Trajan but I'd never dream of calling it anything other than an optimization/point salad, just one with thematic trappings that I like and an inability to pinpoint the "super optimum point strategy" at any given time.

I'll look into this one as well, but just from a light reading this won't likely be a Dudes on a Map game, at least not as we know them.

ubarose wrote: Ragnar Brothers did History of the World, Promised Land & Angola. So they have serious DoaM and Wargame cred. But they also did Fire & Axe, DRCongo, and some other totally euro type games.

Oh, right. Always wanted to try Angola, but never got to it.

Sort of off topic -- but, if you like Rome, I can't recommend Prof. Mary Beard's (from Cambridge) excellent history of Rome --- SPQR enough. Just an excellent book.

Yep. Read it. It's solid.

Jackwraith wrote:

ubarose wrote: Ragnar Brothers did History of the World, Promised Land & Angola. So they have serious DoaM and Wargame cred. But they also did Fire & Axe, DRCongo, and some other totally euro type games.

Oh, right. Always wanted to try Angola, but never got to it.

Top 10 game for me.