44 BCE

44 BCE Rulebook

Table of Contents

Introduction: Goal of the Game

44 BCE is played over 6 rounds (years). Each year, a single player is designated Imperium Maius, and all other players are Suitors.

The Suitors must work together to overthrow the Imperium Maius. Will a Suitor become the new Imperium Maius for the following year, or will the Imperium Maius keep power? In this alternative one-against-all system, players gain Imperium (victory points) throughout the game. The player who has acquired the most Imperium after the 6th year will be declared the first emperor of Rome and will win the game!

Tier 1 political recruits, 1 type (10)
Tier 2 political recruits, 3 types (8 of each)
Tier 3 political recruits, 2 types (5 of each)
Tier 1 military recruits, 1 type (10)
Tier 2 military recruits, 3 types (8 of each)
Tier 3 military recruits, 2 types (5 of each)
Tier 1 social recruits, 1 type (10)
Tier 2 social recruits, 3 types (8 of each)
Tier 3 social recruits, 2 types (5 of each)
Tier 2 Lictor recruits, 1 type (8)
Loyalty (40)
Senate tiles (3)
Reference Sheets (2): Recruits / Structures
Phase marker (1)
Game board (1)
Player boards (5)
Denarii (40)
Era I structures (9), Era II structures (9), Era III structures (9), Statue structures (16)
Architects (70), 14 per player
Political allegiance tiles (10), Military allegiance tiles (10), Social allegiance tiles (10)
Imperium Maius tile (1)
Political influence (20), Military influence (20), Social influence (20), Support influence (30)
Player screens (5)

Warning! Choking hazard. Not for children under 3 years. Contains small parts. Colors and contents may vary from those shown.

Game Setup

Game board. Place the game board in the center of the table.

Allegiance tiles. Depending on the number of players, choose the allegiance tiles with the following letters in their lower left corner. Sort the chosen allegiance tiles into 6 piles by matching their letters. Remove the rest from the game.

2-3 players: A to F
4 players: C to H
5 players: E to J

Each pile must contain 3 allegiance tiles (1 of each type: political, military and social). Place the piles in alphabetical order along the timeline, on the spaces provided for the years. The first pile goes on Era I, Year XLIII. Continue filling the timeline by placing the piles in alphabetical order from left to right. (The illustrated example is for a 4-player game.)

Recruit cards. Sort the recruits into separate piles of identical cards. A recruit's tier is shown by the number of stars on its flag.

Randomly remove one tier 2 pile and one tier 3 pile of recruits in each of the 3 fields of the game. Do not remove the Lictor recruit pile.

With 2-3 players, now remove 2 cards from each pile of recruits (including the Lictors) from the game. With 4 players, remove only 1 card from each pile of recruits. With 5 players, do not remove any cards.

Place the tier 1 recruit piles for each field on the appropriate row of the 1st column of the game board. Repeat this process for the tier 2 piles in the 2nd column and the tier 3 piles in the 3rd column, including the Lictor pile. Place the tier 3 piles in the 4th column.

Resource limit! All resources are a hard limit, with the exception of Loyalty. If a resource runs out, it cannot be collected. This is only likely for recruits!

If Loyalty runs out, each player who is able to must immediately return 1 Loyalty from their Collegium (described later) to the game board. Those players gain 1 Imperium.

Senate tiles. Randomly choose 1 Senate tile. Place it face up on the Senate space of the game board. Remove the remaining Senate tiles from the game.

Phase marker. Place the phase marker on the construction phase icon of the game board.

Structure tiles. Sort the structure tiles by era and statues into 4 piles. Depending on the number of players, randomly choose the following number of structure tiles in each pile. Remove the rest from the game.

2-3 players: 4 of each
4 players: 5 of each
5 players: 6 of each

Place each selected Era I structure face up on the board, matching the phase icon of the structure tile to the phase icon of the board. Place each Era II structure face up on a space under Era II of the board. Place each Era III structure face up on a space under Era III of the board. Place each statue face up on a space of the statue section of the board.

Influence, Loyalty and Denarii. Place all influence cubes near the game board (political, military, social, support). Place all Loyalty and Denarii on the game board.

Player Setup

Each player chooses a character and receives the following items:

a player screen
a player board
14 architects (of their color)
5 Denarii

Each player places 1 of their architects on the "0" of the Imperium track in the upper left corner of the game board as their Imperium score marker. The 13 remaining architects of each player form their architect supply.

Imperium Maius setup. Give the player with the nicest Roman nose: the 3 allegiance tiles of Era I from the timeline of the game board and the Imperium Maius tile. Place them in front of the player board as shown.

Player board: introduction. The player screen has play aids on the back. It can be placed under the player board for easier reference.

Recruits must be played in their field.
Only support influence can be played on the character symbols of other Suitors.
Any influence can be played as charisma.
Unplayed cards are placed face down. Unplayed influence is placed on your character symbol.
Spent cards are placed in your Collegium next to (not on) your player board.

Anatomy of a Structure

Title.
Imperium value. Imperium gained during the end-of-game scoring.
Activation phase. Icon showing where a structure is placed on the game board, and the phase in which it can be activated.
Cost. Number of Denarii required to build the structure.
Effect. The benefit a player gains by activating a structure. A structure can only be activated once per year, during its activation phase!
Era / Statue designation.

Structures with an immediate effect (lightning bolt) are only activated once, when the structure is built.

See the structure play aid for more details on each effect.

Anatomy of Recruits

Title.
Field. One of the 3 divisions to which a recruit is assigned. A recruit can only be played in its field. Lictors are not assigned to a field and can be played in any field. (Political, Military, Social.)
Tier. A rating shown by the number of stars on a flag.
Cost. The influence and loyalty required to enlist a recruit. Any type of influence can be spent to satisfy the cost of a gray cube.
Authority. A value determining the outcome during the resolution phase. Authority is shown by a circle with a value, or by ambition receiving a support influence. Not all recruits necessarily have authority.
Ambition. A space with a value. Not all recruits have ambition, while some recruits can have up to 2 ambition spaces. Each ambition can accept 1 support influence during the resolution phase. If this happens, the value of that ambition becomes authority.
Ability. The effect a recruit provides during the resolution phase after support and loyalty are resolved, unless otherwise noted. Abilities cannot be transferred to another player. (Support Influence and Loyalty are resolved, unless otherwise noted.)

See the card play aid for more details on each ability.

Overview of Play

44 BCE is played over 6 years of Roman history. Each year, a single player is designated Imperium Maius (IM). All other players are designated Suitors.

The IM opposes the Suitors united as a collective. The allegiance tiles represent the IM's control over the 3 fields of Roman power: Political, Military, Social.

The Suitors' objective is to defeat the IM's authority in at least 2 fields. The Suitors negotiate together a strategy to defeat the IM. However, agreements made between the Suitors are not binding!

If the group of Suitors wins at least 2 allegiance tiles from the IM, one of the Suitors will be designated IM for the following year. Otherwise, the IM remains in place.

Each year is composed of 9 ordered phases. The phase marker moves clockwise along the game board, stopping at each phase.

After the interruption phase of the 6th year, there is one last construction phase before the end-of-game scoring. The player with the most Imperium after the end-of-game scoring will be crowned first emperor of Rome and win the game of 44 BCE!

The Imperium Maius is abbreviated IM throughout the rulebook.

Each year has 9 phases:

Construction - Players spend Denarii to build structures.
Production - Players collect influence from their structures.
Enlistment - Players spend influence and loyalty to enlist recruits.
Discard - Players must not exceed their resource limit.
IM Commitment - The IM hides their player board and plays recruits, loyalty and influence.
Suitor Negotiation - Suitors negotiate to gain control of at least 2 of the IM's fields.
Suitor Commitment - Suitors hide their player boards and play recruits, loyalty and influence.
Resolution - Control of each field and the designation of the IM for the next year are awarded to players.
Interruption - Players receive their income, put away their pieces and begin the next year.

Construction Phase

Players build structures to develop their strategy. Structures also let players gain Imperium during end-of-game scoring.

Starting with the Suitor to the left of the IM, turns proceed clockwise until all players pass.

On your turn, choose 1 of the following actions: Build a structure, Activate a structure, or Pass.

Build a structure. Choose any structure with an available space. Spend the number of Denarii shown in the lower left corner of that structure. Move an architect from your architect supply onto that structure space. You are now the owner of that structure.

You can only build each era structure once. Only a Forum, a Castrum, a Villa and a Temple can accept multiple Architects of the same player.

You must have an architect in your architect supply to build a structure.

Structure spaces labeled IV or V are only available with that number of players or more.

Era structures with an immediate effect (lightning bolt) are only activated when they are built.

Statue structures are only activated during the end-of-game scoring.

Activate a structure. Choose a structure that you own in the construction phase on the game board and activate its effect. You can only activate each structure you own once per phase.

You cannot activate a structure with an immediate effect. These structures are only activated once, immediately when they are built.

If you wish, indicate that you have activated a structure by laying your architect on its side until the end of the phase.

Pass. Once you have passed, you cannot take any more actions during this phase.

"My hair is white, but I am still strong." - Agrippa

Production Phase

Players collect resources that they will use later.

Starting with the Suitor to the left of the IM, turns proceed clockwise. On your turn, perform the following two actions in order:

Collect natural influence
Activate structures

1. Collect natural influence. Collect 1 political influence, 1 military, 1 social and 2 support. Every player always collects this influence!

2. Activate structures. Activate all structures that you own in the production phase of the game board. You may choose the order of activation.

"Leave us the fishing rod, Great General, to us, sovereigns of Pharos and Canopus. Your domains are cities, kings and continents." - Cleopatra

Enlistment Phase

Players enlist recruits from the game board onto their player board. Recruits will be played later to contribute authority and effects in their field. Authority will determine control of each field and which player will be designated IM the following year.

Starting with the Suitor to the left of the IM, turns proceed clockwise until all players pass. On your turn, choose 1 of the following actions: Enlist a recruit, Activate a structure, or Pass.

Enlist a recruit. Choose 1 recruit from the supply to enlist. Spend the influence and loyalty cost shown at the bottom of the card. Take this recruit and place it face up on your player board in the appropriate field.

Lictors are not assigned to a specific field. Once enlisted, place them face up in your storage.

Recruit abilities are not activated at this time.

Example: The cost to enlist the Equester is 2 Social Influence, 1 Influence of any type (gray cube) and 1 Loyalty.

Activate a structure. Choose a structure that you own located in the enlistment phase of the game board and activate it. Remember that you can only activate each structure that you own once per phase.

Pass. Once you have passed, you cannot take any more actions during this phase.

Discard Phase

Players must limit their total of cards and cubes (recruits, loyalty and influence). The resources a player keeps can be used later.

This limit includes both face-up and face-down cards. Denarii, allegiance tiles and cards in your Collegium do not count toward this limit.

Your combined total of cards and cubes cannot exceed 7, unless otherwise increased.

Starting with the Suitor to the left of the IM, turns proceed clockwise. On your turn, complete the following actions in order:

Activate structures
Check your limit

1. Activate structures. Activate all structures that you own in the discard phase of the game board. This can increase your limit.

2. Check your limit. Count all cards and influence on your player board. Repeatedly choose one of the following options until your limit is reached:

Move a card to your Collegium. If you move a face-down card to your Collegium, it is not revealed.
Return an influence to the supply.

Collegium reminder! Cards and allegiance tiles in your Collegium cannot be revealed before the end-of-game scoring.

"We write our names in the sand; and then the waves come and wash them away." - Augustus

IM Commitment Phase

The IM hides all cards and influence on their player board using their screen. Allegiance tiles remain in front of the player screen. The IM now decides the best way to keep control of each of the fields. By playing and supporting recruits, the IM aims to have more authority than all the Suitors combined in 2 of the individual fields.

Only authority, not ambition, is counted during the resolution phase!

As the Imperium Maius, you may perform as many of the following actions as you wish:

Play cards
Play support influence
Play charisma
Store resources

This phase ends when the IM has finished taking actions. When this happens, the IM can no longer make changes to their player board. These commitments remain hidden until the resolution phase.

Play cards. Place any number of cards face up in any field. Recruits can only be played in the field assigned to them. Lictors and loyalty can be played in any field. Recruits receive support influence in the order in which they are played (see additional details in the Suitor Commitment phase).

Example: Augustus plays a Praetor in politics. The Praetor has 2 ambitions. Each ambition space needs 1 support influence to be converted into authority.

Play support influence. Place any number of support influence on the first of the cards you play. Only support influence can be played in this way. Support influence is necessary to convert ambition into authority! Authority is necessary to control a field. Only authority is counted during the resolution phase!

Example: Augustus plays 2 support influence in politics. The Praetor now contributes 2 authority in the political field during the resolution phase.

Play charisma. Place any number of influence on the charisma icons under the appropriate field. Charisma can be played even if no recruit is played, or if no support is provided. Charisma serves to break ties during the resolution phase. You can place any type of influence as charisma.

Example: Augustus plays 1 charisma in politics and in military. Any influence can be played as charisma.

Store resources. Place all cards and influence that you do not play in your storage area. Cards are stored face down. Stored cards and influence can be used during a later year; however, stored cards and influence still count toward your discard limit. Stored cards can only be revealed when they are played during a commitment phase.

Example: Augustus stores 1 card and 1 influence. They can be used later.

"I will be a good politician. Even if it kills me. Or if it kills someone else, for that matter." - Mark Antony

Suitor Negotiation Phase

The Suitors negotiate a strategy to take control of at least 2 of the IM's fields. Note that Suitors will not be allowed to directly support their own recruits! Instead, they will have to support the recruits of others in order to convert ambition into authority. This phase ends when negotiations are finished.

The Imperium Maius cannot change or reveal their commitments!

Negotiation rules.

Negotiation takes place with the player screens laid flat.
Agreements made are never binding.
Private negotiations are not allowed.
Players cannot trade or barter resources.
Suitors cannot change the state (face up or face down) of their cards.
You may tell the other Suitors what your face-down cards are, but you may not show them.
The IM cannot take part in negotiations.
The IM cannot make changes to their player board.
When the Suitor negotiation phase ends, all communication must cease.

Authors' note: As a Suitor, you must cooperate selectively. You are all collectively trying to take control of at least 2 fields. However, you may also be in direct competition with the other Suitors for support influence, allegiance tiles, and to be designated Imperium Maius.

When taking part in negotiations, each Suitor should consider the following:

Which fields will you collectively try to control?
Which recruits will be played?
Who will play these recruits?
Who will play the support influence for these recruits?
Will someone have to play charisma to break ties?
Who will receive allegiance tiles?
Who will be designated Imperium Maius for the next year?

"The greatest obstacles to changes in our traditional roles seem to lie not in the visible world of conscious intention, but in the dark realm of the unconscious." - Octavian

Suitor Commitment Phase

Each Suitor hides all cards and influence on their player board using their player screen. The Suitors now decide how to carry out their plan and take control of the IM's individual fields. Will they keep their word, or will individual interests prevail?

This phase ends when all Suitors have finished their actions. Then, the Suitors can no longer make changes to their player boards.

As a Suitor, you may perform as many of the following actions as you wish: Play cards, Play support influence, Play charisma and Store resources.

Play cards. Suitors play cards in the same way as the IM. Additional details on how to play cards are below.

Order of recruits played. Recruits accept support influence in the order in which they are stacked, starting with the topmost recruit.

Example: Because of the order played, the Legionary will accept support influence before the Centurion. This means that if only 1 support influence is deployed for Mark Antony, the Centurion will provide no authority to Mark Antony during the resolution phase.

Play loyalty. Loyalty can be played in any field. Each loyalty provides you (as a Suitor) 1 support influence from the supply in that field. Each loyalty provides the IM 2 support influence from the supply in that field.

Example: Because Mark Antony played a Loyalty in the political field, his Quaestor is assured of receiving a support influence. If another Suitor plays a support influence for Mark Antony in the political field, his Loyalty will have no effect. However, if this does not happen, his Loyalty will place 1 support influence from the supply on his Quaestor.

Play support influence. Place any number of support influence on the symbols of the other Suitors.

As a Suitor, you cannot place support influence directly on your own recruits or on the IM's symbol.

This support influence is placed on the recruits of other Suitors during the resolution phase. If this happens, the ambition of those recruits will convert into authority. You will collect loyalty as a reward! Gaining loyalty will be explained in more detail in the resolution phase.

Example: Mark Antony plays 1 support for Brutus and 2 supports for Agrippa in the political field. He also plays 1 support for Agrippa in the military field.

Play charisma. Suitors play charisma in the same way as the IM.

Store resources. Suitors store resources in the same way as the IM.

Remember to hide your player board at the beginning of the Suitor commitment phase! No agreement is binding!

Resolution Phase

All players simultaneously reveal their player boards and determine the following: Do the IM or the Suitors control each field? Who receives the allegiance tile for each field? Which player is designated IM for the following year?

No changes to the recruits, loyalty or influence played are allowed during this phase!

Resolve field control. Resolve the political field first. Perform steps 1 to 6 in order before resolving the next field.

Suitors deploy support influence
IM places support influence
Activate loyalty
Activate recruits
Tally authority
Award a field allegiance tile

Once the political field is resolved, repeat steps 1 to 6 for the military field. Then repeat steps 1 to 6 again for the social field.

Designate the Imperium Maius and activate structures. Once all fields are resolved, a single player is designated as IM for the following year. Finally, each player activates all era structures that they own in the resolution phase of the game board.

Each step of the resolution phase is explained in detail on the following pages.

"By all means we shall have to fly; however, not with our feet, but with our hands." - Marcus Junius Brutus

1. Suitors Deploy Support Influence

If you have ambition in this field, check the support influence played by all other Suitors on your character symbol.

Support influence is deployed by another Suitor onto your ambition. The ambition is fed 1 space at a time from the support influence promised on the other Suitors' player boards. Physically place 1 support influence on your ambition from your character symbol on the other Suitor's player board.

No matter how much support influence the other Suitor played, only 1 support influence is deployed at a time.

If several Suitors play support influence on your character symbol, then deployment priority is determined as follows:

Compare the support influence played by the competing Suitors on your character symbol in this field. The player with the most support influence played deploys first.
In case of a tie, compare the charisma of the competing Suitors in the field concerned. The player with the most charisma played deploys first.
If the tie persists, the Suitor closest to the left of the IM deploys first.

Repeat this process until all support influence is deployed, or no ambition remains. Return to the supply any support influence that could not be deployed.

Each ambition can only accept one support influence.

Recruits receive support influence in reverse order of play. The recruit played at the top of a field receives support influence first. Ambition is filled from top to bottom for each recruit. You must fill all the ambition on a recruit before filling the next recruit.

When you deploy a support influence, you immediately collect 1 loyalty for each support influence you deploy. Any loyalty collected this way is placed in front of that field on your player board.

Example: Mark Antony has 2 ambitions in the political field. Agrippa and Brutus both played a support influence for Mark Antony. Agrippa deploys support influence A on the Senator. He deploys first because he played more support influence for Mark Antony in the political field. Brutus deploys support influence B on the Quaestor. He deploys next because now Agrippa and Brutus are tied in support influence played for Mark Antony in the political field, but Brutus has more charisma in this field. Agrippa's remaining support influence C is returned to the supply, because Mark Antony has no more political ambition. Agrippa and Brutus both collect 1 loyalty D, because they each deployed 1 support influence.

2. IM Places Support Influence

The IM places the support influence played to fulfill their ambition in this field. The IM never collects loyalty for placing support influence.

3. Activate Loyalty

Loyalty places a support influence from the supply on your next ambition in the played field.

Each loyalty places 1 support influence for Suitors and 2 support influence for the IM. This support influence fills the ambition of your recruits in the order described previously.

Any support influence that cannot be placed is returned to the supply.

Do not activate any loyalty collected while deploying support influence for the moment, only played loyalty is activated!

Example: Cleopatra played a support influence A that will be deployed to satisfy Mark Antony's political ambition. Consequently, the loyalty played by Mark Antony has no effect. No support influence is deployed for Agrippa's political ambition. Consequently, the loyalty will place a support influence from the supply to satisfy 1 political ambition on his Praetor B. This gives Agrippa's Praetor 1 authority.

4. Activate Recruits

Activate the ability of each recruit played in that field, from the top to the bottom of the stack. Abilities are always activated for recruits that have not received support influence.

See the card reference for more details on each ability.

Examples: When activated, Cliens places 1 support influence from the supply on your next ambition in your social field. When activated, you collect 1 support influence from the Centurion into your storage.

5. Tally Authority

Each player totals their authority in this field. The IM also includes any authority provided by the allegiance tile located in front of that field on their player board.

Example: Augustus as IM has a total of 5 authority in the political field. The Consul's ambition is converted into 3 authority because it was filled with a support influence. The Senator's ambition was not satisfied; consequently, he contributes only 1 authority. The Proconsul contributes 1 authority.

6. Award a Field Allegiance Tile

Compare the IM's authority to the combined authority of all the Suitors in this field.

In case of a tie, compare the IM's charisma to the combined charisma of the Suitors in this field. If the tie persists, the IM wins.

If the IM has more authority (or wins a tie):

Award the allegiance tile of this field to the IM.
In addition, the IM collects 1 Denarius.

If the Suitors have more authority (or win the tie):

Award the allegiance tile of this field to the Suitor with the most authority in this field.
If the Suitors are tied, compare the charisma of the tied Suitors in this field.
If the tie persists, the Suitor closest to the left of the IM wins.
Any Suitor who has at least 1 loyalty placed in front of this field on their player board collects 1 Denarius. A Suitor can never collect more than one Denarius per field this way!

Example: Augustus as IM has 2 authority in the political field. The Suitors have a combined total of 2 authority in the political field. The Suitors take control of the political field because they are tied with the IM in authority, but have a higher total charisma in the political field.

Which Suitor receives the allegiance tile? Mark Antony and Agrippa each contribute 1 authority in the political field. Agrippa receives the Proconsul allegiance tile, because he generated more charisma than Mark Antony in the political field.

Cleopatra collects 1 Denarius because the Suitors control the field, and she collected a loyalty for deploying a support influence on Mark Antony's Quaestor.

Designate the IM and Activate Era Structures

After resolving control of the 3 fields, designate the IM by following these steps:

If the IM received 2 or more allegiance tiles, they keep control.
If the Suitors received 2 or more allegiance tiles, award the IM tile to the Suitor with the most total authority (the 3 fields combined).
If the Suitors are tied, compare the total charisma of the tied Suitors across the 3 fields.
If the tie persists, the Suitor closest to the left of the IM wins.

When a Suitor obtains the IM tile, that player chooses to collect 1 Denarius or to gain 6 Imperium!

Example: Augustus is the IM in the current year. After resolving the 3 fields, the Suitors received 2 allegiance tiles (political and social). As a result, a Suitor is designated IM for the following year. Mark Antony is designated IM because he contributed 2 total authority while Agrippa and Cleopatra contributed only 1 authority each. Mark Antony was a Suitor when he received the IM tile; he chooses either to collect 1 Denarius or to gain 6 Imperium.

Activate structures. Starting with the Suitor to the left of the IM, each player activates all era structures that they own in the resolution phase of the game board. They can activate the structures in any order. Once all players have activated their era structures, this phase ends.

Interruption Phase

Player maintenance. All players simultaneously perform each of the following actions:

Collect 1 Denarius, unless you have the most architects in play on the game board (or are tied for the most architects).
Return any influence that is not in your storage to the supply.
Move all cards you played and all allegiance tiles awarded to you to your Collegium.

Example: Mark Antony's loyalty collected during the resolution phase remains face up and is moved to his storage. The Collegium, Denarii and Architect supply of Mark Antony are kept next to, and NOT on, his player board.

Game board preparation. Place the allegiance tiles of the next year in front of the IM's player board. If no allegiance tiles remain on the game board, begin the end-of-game scoring.

If you are starting Era 2 or Era 3, move all structures of that era to their appropriate phase section on the game board. The architects stay on the game board and are not returned to your architect supply.

Example: Mark Antony was designated IM. Mark Antony receives the allegiance tiles of the following year and places them in front of his player board.

End-of-Game Scoring

Final construction phase. After the interruption phase of the year 28 BCE, play one full construction phase. Then begin the end-of-game scoring.

End-of-game scoring.

Collegium allegiance tiles. You gain the Imperium shown in the upper right corner of each allegiance tile.
Senate bonus. You gain 3 Imperium for each pair of allegiance tiles in your Collegium that matches the Senate tile.
Collegium lictors/loyalty. You gain 1 Imperium for each Lictor and/or loyalty in your Collegium.
Structures. You gain the Imperium shown in the upper right corner of each structure that you own.
Collegium authority/ambition. In your Collegium, total the authority and ambition value of your recruits in each field. You gain a number of Imperium equal to double the lowest total. Do not include your allegiance tiles or your Lictors in the total!
Statue bonus. Activate each statue structure that you own. You gain Imperium for each of their effects.
Denarii. You gain 1 Imperium for each Denarius.

Example: The political field total is 3, the social field total is 5, and the military field total is 2. The military field has the lowest total with 2. Therefore, you gain 4 Imperium.

Declare the Emperor of Rome! The player with the most Imperium after the end-of-game scoring is declared the first emperor of Rome! In case of a tie, the player with the most authority and ambition value in their Collegium wins. If the tie persists, the player with the most remaining influence wins.

Two-Player Variant

Two-player rule changes.

Each player chooses a character. Choose 1 additional character to be a shared Suitor.
Set up the game and play as for a 3-player game.
Only players can be designated IM. The shared Suitor is never designated IM.
The player designated as Suitor will control all the actions of the shared Suitor.
The play order for Suitors is unimportant. The Suitor can decide the order of their actions.
The shared Suitor always wins the final resolution of ties between Suitors.
If the shared Suitor is designated IM, no reward is given. Instead, the other Suitor is designated IM (without bonus).
When the shared Suitor is transferred between players, all recruits, loyalty, influence, Denarii and architects in the possession of the shared Suitor are also transferred.
The shared Suitor cannot win the game. During the end-of-game scoring, count only the Imperium total of each player to determine the winner.

Icon Reference

The icon reference page lists these icons (the icon graphics themselves are not transcribed): Ambition; Architect; Authority; Card; Charisma; Collect or gain; Conditional effect of a structure; Any type of influence; Imperium; Immediate effect; Imperium Maius; Loyalty; Move an architect; Place from the supply; Recruit contributing 0 authority; Recruit tier 1; Recruit tier 2; Recruit tier 3; Military recruit; Political recruit; Social recruit; Resource limit; Suitors; Exchange.

Glossary

Activate - Receive the benefit of a structure effect or a card ability.
Allegiance tile - Field-specific tile that contributes authority and/or charisma to the Imperium Maius. Allegiance tiles earn Imperium during the end-of-game scoring.
Ambition - A space with a value on a recruit flag. Each ambition can accept 1 support influence during the resolution phase. When this happens, the value of that ambition converts to authority.
Architect - Player-specific markers on the game board. Architects are placed to designate ownership of a structure.
Architect supply - Unplayed architects next to each player's board.
Authority - A value that players contribute to a field during the resolution phase. Authority determines control of the field and the designation of the IM. Authority cannot accept support influence.
Award - Receive an allegiance tile or the Imperium Maius tile.
Build - Spend Denarii to move an architect from the architect supply to an available structure space.
Charisma - Resolves ties during the resolution phase. Charisma can be generated by influence, cards, or allegiance tiles.
Collect - Move resources from the supply to the storage area.
Collegium - Location of recruits, loyalty and allegiance tiles used during the end-of-game scoring. Collegiums are private and separate from player boards.