OUR REVIEW

PROFIT OUT OF DESTRUCTION

RUHM FÜR ROM

FIRE SALE

Lookout Games, publishers of games now considered epoch-making like "Bohnanza" or "Agricola", present the German version of "Glory to Rome" (the original was published in 2005 by Cambridge Games Factory), set in Imperial Rome after the great fire of 64 AD. Each player tries to build the city anew, nonetheless pursuing goals of their own since everyone wants to get the most valuable buildings, most of the riches as well as attract the best customers for their temples and stores.

Although Lookout Games announce “Glory to Rome” on their website under board games, it is in fact a card-based game. Every player gets a play-sheet, containing vital information and storage-space for the cards. Then all 144 Order cards are being shuffled thoroughly and everyone is dealt four of them plus one Senator Card. Five cards seems to be intended as a rule-of-thumb hand limit, although it may and will be exceeded from time to time; more on that later. Each card is used in several ways in the game. It serves both as a "patron" or "client", but also as money, building or raw material / resource.

The randomly selected starting player decides whether to play a “leader” card or better to wait for one round and reflect. Reflecting allows the player to fill his hand to the hand limit or to draw a face-down card or take an additional Senator card. This may often result in exceeding the hand limit – the rules do not ask to discard cards in that case, though. If the starting player chose this action, the round ends immediately and the left neighbor becomes the new starting player.

Playing a "leader" card triggers a somewhat longer round. The starting player chooses a card or a senator from his hand to perform the leader-action. The possible leader-actions (6 different roles) are conveniently detailed on the player sheets, on which the players also place their money, clients, building materials and finished buildings.

Once the leader-action was taken, the other players in seating order decide whether they want to follow the leader and would thus perform the same action, or prefer to reflect / think, in other words pass and draw additional cards in that round.

The leader-action offers 6 different roles.

As a Patron you hire clients who help you in later rounds to perform the follow-the-leader-action – if this client matches the current round’s leader.

As a Merchant you may put one card from your raw material stock into your Vault. Try to move the most valuable cards there, because each card’s imprinted value counts as a victory point at the end, on the other hand, one should also have more cards of any sort than the other players to get the Merchant Bonus.

The number of cards that can be moved to the Clientele or Vault spaces is limited by the current Influence value (initially 2 points). Thus you may have 2 clients and 2 cards (of whatever coin value) in the Vault at the start of the game. More Influence is gained by completion of a building. For this one needs Architects and Craftsmen. Both perform similar activities. They lay foundations (put a card onto a building site in order to start a new building) or add building materials to an already started building. Architects take the cards in question from the stockpile, Craftsmen draw from the player's hand. By the way, buildings outside the city walls (special cards) are more expensive.

The stockpile is replenished by Laborers and by Legionaries. Laborers take a card from the Pool (the discard pile, so to speak), Legionaries, however, take from the Pool and steal from the hands of the neighbors (if they hold cards specified by the Legionary’s player).

Senators can be used to take on any role. You can also use two cards of the same kind to take on a different role instead (e.g. 2 patrons make 1 legionnaire).

The buildings that need to be set up are each to be built of one kind of material (e.g. bricks). There are cheap ones and there are more expensive buildings (and therefore more valuable concerning victory points). For the cheaper ones less building material is needed, but they also yield less Influence (and eventually victory points), the completion of the more valuable buildings generally takes longer, but you gain more Influence. Many finished buildings yield additional benefits (e.g. more Influence or special actions), some of them directly upon completion of the building, others can be used from this point on in each round. These special benefits should be looked at thoroughly at any rate – there is an appendix to the rules dealing with these functions extensively, because the printed text on the cards is too short and may lead to confusion.

There are several ways to end the game – for example by completion of a certain building (Catacomb) or when the draw deck is exhausted. If a player is clearly in the lead, players may also decide to give up on his behalf. Then count the victory points – Influence and the points’ value of cards in the Vaults (and some other bonuses, e.g. from buildings or tasks fulfilled) are added, the highest grand total wins.

"Glory of Rome" is a challenging strategy game, there are, however, chance elements as well, your strategy being influenced by the cards you have on your hand or which may still be in the draw deck. The multiple options of using Order cards (as a role card, or as a resource card etc.) make the game very interesting, but probably rather complicated for beginners and inexperienced players. The game is designed for 2 – 5 people. Three is probably the ideal number of players, since some actions may take very long to perform in their entirety (for example when employing a lot of clients as well as using all of your buildings’ benefits).

The designers’ suggested playing time of 60+ minutes was exceeded in every test game. Two player games lasted about two and a half hours; three player games lasted three hours. The suggested age (12+) seems justified, taking into account the rather long playing time and the game’s complexity.

The rules are well stated and easy to understand, the playing sheets are helpful as well, because of the summary of possible roles and actions provided there. This edition of “Glory to Rome” provides also an expert version (additional cards).

An error has crept into the illustrations or was intentionally added – the Senator cards show a female senator, which was absolutely out of the question in ancient Rome. Anyway, "Glory to Rome," can equally be enjoyed by players of any sex.

Martina & Martin Lhotzky, Marcus Steinwender

Players: 2-5

Age: 12+

Time: 120+

Designer: Carl Chudyk

Artist: Ed Carter

Price: ca. 20 Euro

Publisher: Lookout Games 2011

Web: www.lookout-games.de

Genre: Kartenlegespiel

Users: With friends

Version: de

Rules: de en

In-game text: ja

Comments:

Very attractive multiple functions of the cards

A few games will be necessary to get acquainted with the cards

Very nice and fun to play

Compares to:

Revolte in Rom, Ohne Furcht und Adel

Other editions:

Glory to Rome, Cambridge Games Factory

My rating: 5

Martina, Martin & Markus:

Glory to Rome offers a challenging tactical game with a nonetheless high factor of chance, which plays best with three players.

Chance (pink): 2

Tactic (turquoise): 2

Strategy (blue): 2

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 0

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 2

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0