Ave Roma: IMPERATOR expansion
Ave Roma: IMPERATOR expansion Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 1 Action location board (the Imperator board)
- 20 Reward tiles
- 5 tokens in the players' colours
- 5 wooden cubes in the players' colours
Setup
Place the Action location board somewhere easily accessible, following the normal setup phase. Shuffle the 20 Reward tiles and form a face-down stack. Then reveal and place one tile per region, following what is indicated on the board according to the number of players. Each player takes the token of their own colour and places their cube on the 0 of the Action track.
Action Progression
Players may have at most one worker on the Imperator Action. When a player chooses this Action, they choose a region and place a token of their colour there, together with the chosen worker. The token shows which player the worker belongs to.
A player may place a worker in any region, as long as one of the conditions below is met:
- No other player occupies that region. Any worker value may be placed on an empty region.
- The region is already occupied by another player. In that case, the active player must place a worker of equal or greater strength. A worker is considered stronger if its value is closest to the value marked on the corresponding tile. On tiles marked with a value of 1 on the left, workers of value 1 are the strongest (so the order, from strongest, is: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). On tiles marked with a value of 5 on the right, workers of value 5 are the strongest. If the active player has placed a stronger worker, then the other player must move their worker to a neighbouring region. The arrows show the possible directions of movement.
The same two rules also apply to the neighbouring region (empty or occupied). If the dislodged worker cannot move to any region under these rules, then that player takes this worker back, and it may be used again in a later round for the Imperator or any other Action. As compensation, the player who was forced out of their original region or off the board moves their cube one space on the Action track at the bottom of the Imperator board. This track will give points at the end of the game.
Note: Imperator is an Action like all the other Actions on the game board. Workers are recovered from this space at the end of the round by the normal rules.
If the Workers Have the Same Value
If the newly placed or dislodged worker has the same value as the one already present in a region, the player with the greater amount of unused influence zone on their cards is considered the stronger. If the tie persists, the player with the stronger political influence wins. If all 3 factors (worker value, influence zone, political influence) are equal when moving into a new region, then the other player is removed from the region as if their worker were weaker.
Important: Players are not allowed to place new workers if the value of the worker, the influence zone and the political influence are all equal to the original occupant. For the new placement of a worker of equal value, superiority in influence zone or in political influence is necessary.
Chain Reaction
It can happen that the active player starts a chain reaction. The player who was removed from a region moves to a new region, where they in turn push out another player, and so on. The two basic rules must be observed in all cases. The final result of a chain reaction is either a player being removed from the Action board (so their worker is recovered and the marker advances on the Action track), or all players being able to occupy a region.
Example: The yellow player attacks the region occupied by the green player. There is a 5 on the reward tile, so a worker of value 4 is stronger than a worker of value 3. The yellow player can occupy the region, and the green player must withdraw. Green attacks the blue player. Their workers have identical values, so the green player wins because they have more unused influence zones on their cards. The blue player takes their worker back, because they cannot attack any neighbouring region.
The green and blue players had to withdraw from their previous regions, so they move their cubes one space on the Action track at the bottom of the Imperator board.
Rewards
As soon as the Action phase is over, under the standard rules when all players have no workers left or have passed, the players receive the Reward tiles corresponding to the regions they have won. A reward can be instant (lightning icon) or usable later in the game. Used Reward tiles are gathered into a discard pile. If the Reward tiles run out, the discard pile is shuffled and a new draw pile is formed.
Instant Rewards (lightning icon)
- Points by current stock: You score points according to your current stock of the resource shown on the tile. Each of these tiles shows a laurel value of 1.
- Political influence: Increase your political influence by 1.
Usable-Once Rewards
- Denarii, basic resources or surplus: When you use this tile, you gain the denarii, basic resources or surplus shown on the tile.
- Propraetor: During the Propraetor action, you may gain an influence zone in the usual way. You may use this tile for 1 influence, or you may combine it with cards.
- Any worker value: When you use this tile, the worker you place will be of any value (1 to 5).
Reward Tile Sheet
Each tile has a value marker in its top corner: a 1 at the top left or a 5 at the top right. The 1 or 5 marks the side that determines the strongest worker, as described in Action Progression. The reverse of every tile shows a sword. The sheet contains 20 reward tiles, listed here left to right, top to bottom:
- Marker 1. Usable once. Gold 10 and silver 5 denarii coins.
- Marker 1. Usable once. Gold 10 denarius coin.
- Marker 5. Usable once. 5 dark grey spheres (basic resource, matching the dark grey instant tile).
- Marker 5. Usable once. 5 green spheres (basic resource, matching the green instant tile).
- Marker 5. Usable once. 5 red spheres (basic resource, matching the red instant tile).
- Marker 1. Usable once. 5 sacks (small bags).
- Marker 1. Instant. Points by current stock of logs (wood), laurel 1.
- Marker 5. Instant. Points by current stock of stone blocks, laurel 1.
- Marker 1. Instant. Points by current stock of the horse (green tile), laurel 1.
- Marker 5. Instant. Points by current stock of the grain (green tile), laurel 1.
- Marker 1. Instant. Points by current stock of the dark lump (red tile), laurel 1.
- Marker 5. Instant. Points by current stock of the meat cut (red tile), laurel 1.
- Marker 1. Instant. Points by current stock of the money bag, laurel 1.
- Marker 5. Instant. Increase political influence by 1 (statue).
- Marker 5. Propraetor tile (banner). See Usable-Once Rewards.
- Marker 1. Any worker value (+/-4 icon). See Usable-Once Rewards.
- Marker 5. Any worker value (+/-4 icon). See Usable-Once Rewards.
- Marker 1. Instant. Points by current stock of the dark grey sphere, laurel 1.
- Marker 5. Instant. Points by current stock of the green sphere, laurel 1.
- Marker 1. Instant. Points by current stock of the red sphere, laurel 1.
Totals: 6 usable-once tiles (items 1 to 6), 10 instant point tiles (items 7 to 13 and 18 to 20), 1 statue tile (item 14), 1 Propraetor tile (item 15) and 2 any-value tiles (items 16 and 17).
Note: The tiles do not print resource names. Resources are identified here by their pictured icons, matched by colour and shape. The resource names are not spelled out in the rules text.
Advanced Game
As an additional action, by using cards with 3 identical icons, a player may immediately gain the reward provided by a region neighbouring the one already occupied by the active player. The Reward tile used stays in place. The Reward tile is also usable if the region is already occupied by another player.
Example: The blue player occupies the zone on the left side. They use 3 cards from the left side of their player board (three identical icons). They then decide to use the Reward tile adjacent to their right. They have 3 stones, so they gain 3 points.