OUR REVIEW

POWER IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE

AUGUSTUS

Senators and Provinces

In this game players embody representatives of Augustus, the first Roman emperor, and their objective is to uphold the already existing institutions and establishments in the provinces of the empire.

To achieve those goals players must try to win senators for their side and also to take control of provinces. This is done by acquiring cards representing senators and provinces, using legions to convince senators or occupy provinces.

Let me say at the start, that an extremely positive feature of this game is the fact that you can explain it to someone who did not play it yet within five minutes.

Unfortunately, the case is different if nobody is at the table who is familiar with the game; in that case, the reading of the rather confusing rules will take some time. At first glance, the rules seem well structured but while reading them you will find out that you will have to cross-read to and fro between different sections of the rules to understand them properly.

When you open the box you find the following components:

88 Objectives cards, 50 Legions, represented by red man markers, 23 Mobilization tokens, 12 victory points tiles (in the rules they are called Rewards), 1 Cloth bag and 1 Score pad for marking the scores at the end of the game.

The objective cards are shuffled face-down and each player is dealt six objective cards at the start of the game; from those six cards you choose three and display them open-faced on the table. Each player is also given seven legions.

There are two kinds of objective cards: Provinces and Senators. Each card shows a number of symbols in a column on its left side; legions are placed on those symbols.

23 mobilization markers are put into the cloth bag. Those mobilization markers show symbols – „2 Crossed Swords“, „Shield“, „Chariot”, “Catapult”, “Pennant/Standard”, “Dagger” and “Joker”. As to numbers – there are six markers for „2 Crossed Swords“, five markers for „Shield“, four markers for „Chariot”, three markers for “Catapult”, two markers for “Pennant/Standard”, one marker for “Dagger” and two markers for “Joker”.  

Finally, you place five more objective cards into an open display row onto the table, and the Reward tiles are laid out, sorted by kind and number, the remaining objective cards are stacked for a draw pile.

The mechanisms of the game itself are simple, short and easy to understand:

One player is selected to be the first active player; this player takes the bag and starts the game by drawing a mobilization marker from the bag and displays it. If any of the players, including the active player himself, has that symbol on one of his three objective cards, he may put a legion on that symbol, but does not have to do so. Then the active player draws another marker and all can place a legion, if applicable, that is, any player who has an empty symbol of a drawn mobilization marker on one of his cards can place a legion there. When all symbols on an objective card are occupied by a legion this objective is complete; the owner of this card calls “Ave Caesar” to indicate that he has completed an objective card.

This interrupts the drawing of mobilization markers from the bag by the active player. The player who completed a card places this card into his display above the ones that are not yet complete. The completed card earns him victory points at the end of the game and usually also an instant single-use or permanent effect. The legions from the completed card go back into stock of their owner. Then the player chooses a new objective card from the display of five open cards on the table and adds it to his two incomplete cards. The display in the middle is replenished from the draw pile with a new objective card, so that the next player has again the choice of five objective cards.

It may happen, and actually does happen quite often, that two or more players complete objective cards at the same time; then the number on the objective card decides the order in which players choose a new card or, if applicable, choose one of the Reward tiles. The objective cards are numbered from 1 to 88 and the player with the lowest number on his completed card is the first one to implement the completion actions.

When you have all seven legions placed on your objective cards and could not yet complete one of them, you can, but need not, – in case a symbol is drawn that is yet empty on one of your cards - relocate one of your legions to this symbols.

Should the active player draw a joker from the bag, each player can place a legion on an empty symbol of his choice on his cards. The active player now hands the bag to his neighbor on the right, who now puts all markers drawn so far back into the bag and starts to draw mobilization markers out of the bag.

The aim of the game is to be the first player to complete seven objective cards; when a player manages this, the game ends and all players who might have completed a card, too, at that point can acquire, if possible, Reward tiles according to the numbers on their completed objective cards.

The special abilities of the objective cards are covering a wide range and are very different. Some are applied instantly and only once when an objective card is completed; others offer a permanent advantage, yet others even have negative results for other players. For instance, you could be given additional legions or might be able to place legions on your remaining objective cards or you might be able to take an additional objective card or you could relocate all legions on your card, which often results in completion of another objective card.

Then there are permanent effects, too, in the guise of exchange symbols. For instance, the exchange symbol for “Shield = Catapult”. This allows you every time when a shield is drawn to place a legion on a catapult instead of a shield, if you want to, or vice versa.

Victory points are scored by the completed target cards, but there are additional possibilities to acquire victory points. Objective cards usually offer a given number of points; sometimes the cards are marked with a question mark, because they give you a number of points for a given symbol on all completed cards, sometimes up to a maximum of points.

And then, besides those standard victory points, there are the Reward tiles, which also give victory points. Two of those Reward tiles are migrating tiles. One of those reward tiles shows Gold, the other Grain. The first player to complete an objective card showing gold or grain takes the corresponding Reward tile. As soon as another player has completed the same number of cards showing that symbol he takes the tile, and of course also if someone completes an additional card with that symbol. SO a tie in gold or grain symbols is sufficient to acquire the tile.

The other Reward tiles are tiles for special scorings. There are five Reward tiles for different numbers of completed objective cards. You can only take such a tile at the moment you complete the number of such cards, you cannot take it later. The other five Reward tiles show different conditions that you must meet to acquire such a tile, for instance, three completed senator cards. You must carefully consider the right moment to take such a tile and also which tile you want to acquire, because each player may only take one tile for conditions of completed objective cards and one tile for the number of completed cards. If you decide too early to take such a tile you might throw away valuable points; if leave it too late the tile might have been taken by another player or the game might end suddenly without you having taken any tile at all.

Augustus is definitely not a game providing very deep strategy levels. I have heard it called by many a tactical Bingo Clone, but that is unfair to the game, because for that the game offers too many tactical and even some, albeit slight, strategic possibilities. Of course, a lot of what you can due in a game depends on which symbols are drawn. But as you know the distribution of symbols and include them in your tactical considerations and your choice of replacement objective cards you can definitely influence the course of the game and your own chances in the game.

The game was one of three games nominates for “Spiel des Jahres 2013” in Germany and was awarded “Spiele Hit für Familien” by Österreichische Spiele Akademie.

The relatively short duration of 15 to 30 minutes predestines the game for an ideal end-of-the-evening game of an enjoyable games evening.

So, to summarize – if you are looking for a beautiful, nice, simple yet interesting family game which is mainly chance-driven, but not dominated by chance, then you should take a look at Augustus. The game works without problems and very well, too, with the maximum number of players given, which is six players, and is an ideal game for the casual player or for a person that rarely plays board or card games. But, on the other hand, it is fun, too, for an experienced player, and, as already mentioned, ideally suited to rounding off an evening of games.

For all those players I can recommend to buy to game without in any case.

But players, who dot appreciate games with a high element of chance or luck, should be advised against acquisition of this game, as it can happen of course, that in some games, despite the tactical options mentioned, there is no chance to win for a player.

The rules hold all the necessary information, seems well-structured at first glance, but provide a few obstacles in the course of reading them.

All in all, Augustus gives off a strong flavor of Bingo, but the tactical aspect is high enough to provide interesting fun in playing; especially the consideration which Reward tiles to acquire and when to do so demands a small but neat strategic and tactical finesse.

Players: 2-5

Age: 8+

Time: 30+

Designer: Paolo Mori

Artist: Vincent Dutrait

Price: ca. 25 Euro

Publisher: Hurrican 2013

Web: www.hurrucangames.com

Genre: Placement, collecting

Users: For families

Version: multi

Rules: de en fr it nl  + gr ru

In-game text: no

Comments:

Relatively short duration

Ideal end-of-evening game

Strong flavor of Bingo

Nice design and components

Compares to:

Bingo

Other editions:

Several in different languages

My rating: 6

Maria Schranz:

A family game in the truest sense of the word, albeit with lots of chance, but tactics, too, especially when targeting reward tiles, well suited to the casual gamer and for rounding off an evening of games.

Chance (pink): 3

Tactic (turquoise): 1

Strategy (blue): 1

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 0

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 1

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0