Ave Roma
Ave Roma Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Summary
During this game, you are competing for wealth in ancient Rome. The game lasts for several rounds. Each round consists of three phases. In the first phase, you can send workers to various action locations, so their efforts can increase your supplies and your influence. These workers are not yours to keep, however. In the second phase, you recruit a new set of workers. In the third phase, the strength of these new workers is assessed, and playing order is established for the next round. The winner is the player with the most points at the end of the game.
Components
- 25 white workers (5 of each, numbered 1-5)
- 5 double-sided player boards
- 30 area cards
- 30 war cards
- 30 building cards
- 30 patron cards
- 1 double-sided area scoring card
- denarius coins (30 pcs of 1, 15 pcs of 5 and 5 pcs of 10 denominations)
- 1 game board
- 1 endgame scoring aid
- 5 area influence markers (brown cubes)
- 15 large tokens
- 25 cubes
- 40 small tokens
- 80 markers, 16 in each of the 5 player colours (yellow, green, blue, red and black)
Stickers: Before the first game, apply the stickers to the 2 flat areas of the white cylinders! Take care to put the same number on both sides!
Setup
-
Sort the cards into decks by colour. Some cards have a number at the bottom which indicates the recommended number of players. Remove the unneeded cards from each deck and put them back into the box. If there is no number, the card can be used in every game. Form a draw deck from each colour, and place them in an easily accessible place next to the board. Reveal 5 cards of each colour and place them into the indicated locations on the game board.
Note: You can vary the number of cards you play with in order to adjust the length of the game. If you would like a longer game, feel free to ignore the recommended player numbers and include whichever cards you wish. If you would like a shorter game, feel free to use less cards. However, we recommend that you still use a minimum of 15 cards of each colour.
-
Deal to each player:
- 1 player board
- 5 workers with values 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
- all markers in the player's chosen colour (8 small tokens, 3 large tokens, 5 cubes)
- 3 denarius coins
Arrange the play area as shown in the example. Make sure to leave space on both sides of your player board. You receive 2 surplus and 2 pieces of each resource type that are valued at 2 denarius (as shown on your player board). All other resources and political influence start at 0. Mark these using the small tokens.
-
Form a bank with the remaining coins.
-
Place a brown cube on the 0 space (shield icon) on each area in the centre.
-
Place the scoring card with the corresponding player number next to the central board.
On the top right corner of each side of the card, there is an indication of its correct use. One side is used for 2-3 players, the other for 4-5 players.
-
Place a large token on the 0 space on the scoring track, and another on the start space on the Colosseum, indicated by a red arrow.
-
Finally draw and set an initial playing order using the last large token for each player. Alternatively, you can decide a playing order by ranking each players' likeness to a Roman senator.
Start the game!
The Game Board
Before going into the detailed rules, let's look at the main components of the game. Knowing the definitions and the game elements will make understanding the rest of the rules much easier.
First, let's look at the game board. This is the main site for gameplay. It's where we find the 8 main action locations, where you can send your workers, and this is where the cards enter into play.
Action locations
8 colour coded action locations can be found on the main board and an additional one on the player board. On the game board, there are 5 player action slots for each location, and 4 additional ones on the player boards for training of workers. Some slots contains a notation, indicating it can be used only for and above certain player numbers (3 players, 4 players, 5 players).
The 8 action locations on the game board are:
- Quaestor
- Aedilis
- Mercator
- Aedificator
- Legatus
- Propraetor
- Roma
- Senatus
Workers
In the game, the workers are represented by numbered tokens. They are numbered from 1 to 5. This value indicates what they can do in each action location.
Player order
The player order markers situated at the bottom of the board play an important role in the game. Your actions will be carried out in this player order, while you will recruit new workers in reverse player order. Player order will be decided at the end of each round by the total strength of your workers.
Areas and area influence
There are 5 areas on the game board. Each has its own area card. Throughout the game, you can increase your influence in each area in order to gain points at the end of the game. There are 2 tracks next to each card. The grey track marks the influence of each player. The brown track indicates the maximum points that can be scored for each area at the end of the game. You can gain influence in all of the 5 areas using one of your cubes. During the game, you can gain influence in any of the 5 areas. You may only have 1 influence marker in each area, and area influence can only be increased, not rearranged or withdrawn. Only 1 marker can occupy each space on the grey track. If you land on an already occupied space, then you must move your marker down to the next available empty space. The unused influence is lost.
The points available in each area are determined by how high the brown marker is on the brown track at the end of the game. All area cards on the board can be used twice. When you use a card for the second time, you gain that card and the brown marker for that area moves up one space on the brown track.
Scoring the areas
At the end of the game, points are scored for area influence as shown on the area scoring card next to the game board. Brown markers indicate the maximum points that can be gained from an area.
Scoring track
The scoring track can be found around the edge of the board. This is where you keep track of all the points scored during and at the end of the game.
Player Boards
On your player boards, you manage your supplies, your political influence, and there is also room for a special, extra action. The surrounding area near the player board is also important. Please take care to keep it neat.
Some cards can be used to gain a reward. (In the advanced game, all cards can be used.) Store your usable cards at the left hand side of your player board.
You don't lose any used up cards, these are moved to the right side of the player boards.
Basic resources
Wood, stone, livestock, wheat, ore, wine. All resources are tracked on your own player board. The amount of each resource is tracked with the small tokens. The maximum amount that can be stored of each resource is 3. The top row indicates 3 of a resource, the bottom row indicates 0.
The purchase and sale price of each resource is found on your own player boards under each resource row. All boards have a unique price arrangement. At all times, only the resource prices found on your own player board apply to you.
Surplus
Surplus is a special resource that may be used to support wars and to increase political influence. Gained surplus cannot be resold or exchanged for other resources. The maximum surplus that can be stored is 7.
Storage rules
If you gain some of a resource above your maximum storing capacity, then for each additional resource gained:
- you may gain a surplus OR
- you may receive its value in coins (price is indicated on your boards).
If you gain more than one, you can mix both rewards. If the surplus storage is full, you can only take money. If you gain surplus by any other means during the game and your surplus storage is full, you gain nothing.
Money
Legal currency in this game is the denarius. The amount of money available is not limited. In the unlikely event of the money running out, any item may be used as a substitute.
Training action
This is the action location for worker training, which is only available on your player board.
Active patrons
Place for your active patrons.
Political influence
This is where you track your political influence. The first 5 spaces all unlock a card slot which can be used to activate your patrons. In addition, you gain points at the end of the game based on how high you climbed up the political ladder. You can gain a maximum of 30 points if you reach the last space before the end of the game.
Cards
Area cards
You can collect or buy resources from the area cards. For certain actions, you will need to place workers whose value is equal to or higher than the value next to the area card.
Set bonus: With the area cards you may collect resource fragments. Every time you are able to collect 2 identical fragments, you gain 1 resource. The resource always depends on the fragment's type.
- 2 black fragments give you a black resource (wood or stone).
- 2 green fragments give you a green resource (livestock or wheat).
- 2 red fragments give you a red resource (ore or wine).
- 2 multicolored fragments give you a basic resource of your choice (wood, stone, livestock, wheat, ore, wine).
Building and war cards
One type of building and war cards give you instant points, the other type allows you to increase your area influence.
Gains: Can be points, area influence, or both.
Set bonuses: Collecting sets of the building, war, and area cards will allow you to access different bonuses. You can find the details in the Actions section.
Patron cards
Patron cards give you points at the end of the game, and in addition, if active will modify one of your 8 actions. (A collection of used icons is given in the annex.)
Each patron card shows a price, an end game points value, and an action modifier for when it's active.
Passive patrons
Passive patrons are kept next to your player board. There is no limit to the number of passive patrons you may have. During the game, the abilities related to the actions of passive patrons are inactive. At the end of the game, however, passive patrons give you points in the same way as active patrons.
Active patrons
Active patrons will modify certain actions when they are carried out. Active patrons are placed under your player board, in the unlocked card slots. You unlock the card slots for by moving up the first 5 spaces on the political influence track. At any time, you may have a maximum of 5 active patrons. Active patrons always modify the actions contained on them when the action is carried out.
Card icons
All cards contain an icon in the top left corner. This may be an amphora, a sword or a lion. At the end of the game you can gain points from these via the right patron cards, they also play an important role in the advanced game.
Prices
The price of an action or card may include: wood, stone, livestock, wheat, ore, wine; any chosen resource; any resource of a given colour (black, green or red); surplus; money.
Gameplay
The game is played in rounds, which consist of the following phases: Action phase (A) > Refill phase (B) > Setting turn order phase (C)
Action phase (A)
In the action phase, the players place their workers on the chosen action in the current player order. In each turn, the active player (beginning with the starting player) can choose to:
- Place 1 worker: You may place a worker on one of the available action slots in any of the action locations and carry out the associated action. OR
- Pass: You may pass if you cannot use any more workers, or if you do not want to use any more workers. After passing, you cannot carry out any more actions in the current round, even if you have workers left. All unused workers will stay with you for the next round. When you pass, you score 1 point for each unused worker.
When the active player has completed their turn, either by taking an action or passing, play passes to the next player in turn order. When all players have passed, the action phase (A) is over.
Note: The number of available action slots at each location can vary based on the number of players. At some locations, only 4/3/2 action slots are used in 4/3/2 player games. The available actions are listed in a separate section (see Actions).
Example: The player plays a worker valued at 5 on the Quaestor action slot. Here, he/she receives coins equal to double the value of the worker, so he/she receives 10 denarius from the bank (see the Actions section for detailed action breakdowns).
Refill phase (B)
Check the Aedificator, Legatus and Senatus action locations. If you didn't create an empty space on one of these, put the card furthest to the right ("1-5" place) back in the box. Then move the remaining cards in the direction of the arrow and fill up the empty spaces. Finally fill the still remaining empty spaces from the corresponding draw decks so that there is again 5 buyable cards in each action location.
Then for the remainder of this phase, the players regain workers in reverse player order.
Starting with the last player all players can choose from 2 possible choices:
- To pick up all workers from an action location, so that after this, he/she will have 5 or less workers.
- To pick up some workers from an action location, so that he/she will have 5 workers at the end. If more workers are available at a location then the number needed to fill up the player's workers to 5, then that player may choose which workers to take.
The refill phase is over, once all players have 5 workers again.
Example: The action locations contain the following workers: Aedilis: 3, 3, 2; Quaestor: 4, 5, 4; Propraetor: 2, 1, 5; and Legatus: a 1 valued worker.
The green player chooses the Aedilis location. He/she has no available workers yet, so according to the rules he/she must take all 3 workers here. He/she takes the 3, 3 and 2 valued workers. When it's his/her turn again, only the Quaestor and Legatus actions remain. He/she chooses the Quaestor. Normally he/she would have to take all workers at a location, but because he/she already has 3 workers, he/she can choose which 2 to pick up in order to fill his/her worker supply back up to 5. He/she chooses the two 4 valued workers. So he/she starts the next turn with the following workers: 2, 3, 3, 4, 4.
If in the second turn he/she had chosen the Legatus instead, with the value 1 worker, then his/her 5th worker would have been the one that remains on the board after the other player has made her choices.
Setting turn order phase (C)
Add up the numbers shown on your workers. This sum will set the player order for the next action and refill phases. The player with the lowest sum will be first in the order, the highest will take last place. The other players will go in ascending order in between them. In case of equality between two or more players, place the markers on the spaces in the former order and reverse the order (those that were behind will come forward, those that were in front will be moved back). Once a new turn order is set, a new round starts.
Example: Current player order: blue, yellow, green. The worker values are as follows: blue: 2+2+3+5+5=17; yellow: 1+3+4+4+5=17; green: 1+1+2+3+4=11. As the green player has the lowest total, green will be the first player in the new round. Yellow and blue are tied, so the former turn order between them is reversed. Hence the new player order: green, blue, yellow.
Game End
The game can end in two ways:
- During action phase (A) at least one area card cannot be refilled. In this case, play the action phase as normal, but particular parts of action locations and patron cards that would normally use the area card in the now empty space do not work (gaining and buying of resources from area cards). In addition, you must pay 2 denarius in the empty card slots at the end of your action (see Moving the area cards). If you cannot pay the price, you cannot use the action location.
- At the start of the refill phase (B) the Aedificator, Legatus and Senatus action locations cannot be refilled completely with new cards. In this case the refill phase does not have to be completed. No new round is started, the game ends instantly.
At the end of the game in player order all of you have an extra action. The extra action can be any of the actions and you use an imaginary worker (1-5). There is no need for an empty space on the action location either, but you have to observe all other rules. You have to pay any other usual costs.
Note: You may count the cards in a draw deck at any time during the game to work out how many more rounds are possible.
Scoring
If the game is ended, first you must adjust the area influence gained during the game:
- If your influence marker is higher on the grey influence track than the brown marker, then you need to move your marker down until it is level with the brown influence marker. There can only be one marker on any space of the grey influence track, so any other markers that are in the way are pushed down beneath the highest marker. Any number of markers can be on the 0 space (red flag). All players that are relegated to the 0 space still get a point.
Example 1: The blue marker moves down next to the brown marker. The movement is unhindered by any other markers, so the others remain untouched.
Example 2: The yellow cube pushes down all 3 lower markers. The black marker is pushed to the 1st level, while the green and blue are relegated to the 0 level.
Then add your points on the scoring track in the following order:
- 1 point for each 5 remaining denarius. Only whole units count. Example: 13 denarius = 2 points.
- 1 point for each 3 remaining resource and surplus. The resources are to be counted together with the surplus, and only whole units are counted. Example: 3 wood + 2 stone + 3 livestock + 1 ore + 2 surplus = 3 points.
- In player order add up the end of game points for each of your patron cards. (Detailed description of patron cards can be found on the back of the rulebook in the annex.)
- Score your points based on your level on the political influence track. Example: Level 4 scores 6 points for the red player.
- Finally, score your points gained in each area, based on the area scoring card. In each area, you receive the points for your marker level. If you don't have a marker on an area, you don't gain any points for that area. Markers on level 0 of an area are worth 1 point.
Calculating points based on the example: Based on the scoring card, in the first example the blue player gets 17 points, green gets 9, while yellow gets 3 points for this area. In the second example yellow receives 6, black receives 3, while green and blue receive 1 point each.
The player with the most points at the end is the winner. In case of a tie, the player with the most money wins; if tied then the one with the most resource. If the players still tie on all 3 counts, then they share the glory.
Actions
Quaestor
You claim money from the city of Rome. Take money from the general supply worth twice the value of your worker placed here.
Example: The player uses a worker valued at 4, he/she takes 8 denarius from the bank.
Aedilis
You gain resources from an area card. For this action, you must place a worker with a number equal to the number next the chosen area card on the Aedilis action location. Then you may claim all of the resources on the card. Mark your gained resources on your player board. If there are no area cards on the given slot, this action cannot be carried out.
Important: When you gain a resource, pay attention to the storage mechanism rules.
Example: The player uses a worker with a value of 3, and therefore claims resources from the 3rd area card. Rewards: 2 stone, 1 wood and 1 ore. The player marks the gained resources on the player board. Since this player already had 2 stone before this action, he increases the surplus by one for the second stone gained.
Mercator
With this action, you have the opportunity to trade resources. The resource prices found on your own player boards always apply to you. You may:
- SELL any amount of your 6 basic resources. Mark the resources sold on your player board. AND/OR
- BUY a maximum of 4 resources from the area card indicated by the value of your played worker. You can only buy resources which appear on the area card, but the number of icons of each resource type on the card doesn't matter. You can buy 4 pieces of the same resource, or any combination of pieces from the types of resources available. If there is no area card on the given slot, this action cannot be carried out.
Important: You don't have to buy and sell at the same time during your action.
Example: The player uses a worker with a value of 4, and therefore enters into trade with the 4th area card. The player decides to sell 2 ore, for which they gain 6 denarius. Then the player buys from the card 1 wheat and 2 wine. The player could also buy a 4th resource, but decides not to. Based on the player's own board, this costs 2+2x1=4 denarius, which is paid to the supply.
Aedificator
In this action location, you purchase buildings by paying the construction fee. To use this action location, you need to play a worker whose number corresponds to the value or range of values shown next to the card. After paying the construction cost, you place your new building on the left hand side of your player board, and score any points that the card may offer. The empty card spaces created here are only filled in the refill phase.
Set bonus: Every building appears twice in the deck. If you build the second card and make a pair, you instantly receive a reward from both cards. The rewards are on the top-right corner of each card. Can be resources (wood, stone, livestock, wheat, ore, wine), surplus and points.
Example: The card in this example can only be bought with a value 1 worker. The player plays one of these and pays the construction cost, which is 1 wheat, 1 wine and 2 denarius, takes the card and places it to the left of his board. Then the 3 victory points are scored on the scoring track.
Example: Green gets his second Colosseum card. As a reward, he/she instantly gets 1 ore and 1 point.
Legatus
In this action location, you can support the war effort using mostly your surplus. When you place a worker next to a war card, you must pay the support costs shown in surplus and/or money. You then place the card on the left hand side of your player board, and score any victory points shown on the card. The empty card spaces created here are only filled in the refill phase.
Set bonus: Every time you get a card from the same set, you get an instant reward. Every set contains 5 cards, and all are illustrated by a similar type of weapon or armor. This equipment assists Rome in its preparation for war against its enemies. The rewards are listed on the top-right corner of each card. If you collect several pieces of equipment from the same set, you receive even greater rewards:
- 2nd card gives 3 denarius.
- 3rd card gives 1 surplus.
- 4th card gives 2 points.
- When you get the 5th card from a set, you can increase your influence in a chosen area by 1.
Example: The card in this example can be bought with any value worker from 1 to 4. The player plays a worker with a value of 2, pays 1 wine, 2 surplus and 2 denarius, takes the card and places it to the left of his board. Then the 1 victory point is scored on the scoring track, and the area influence can be used later with a Propraetor action.
Example: The black player gains the 3rd card from the "Hannibal" set. This means that he/she receives a further reward: for the 3rd card, he/she gains a surplus.
Propraetor
Here you can gain resources from an area card as well as increasing your influence over your chosen area.
- First, you can gain resources from the area card which corresponds to the value of the worker you placed. You can choose to receive either the top 2 resources shown on the card, or the bottom 2 resources. If there are no area cards on the corresponding slot, this part of the action cannot be carried out and the brown cube doesn't move up when you pay for the action. AND
- Next, you can EITHER gain 1 more resource from the corresponding area card, OR increase your own influence in it. To increase your influence, you need to play one or more building and/or war cards which provide area influence. You then move your own influence marker the number of spaces shown on the grey track. Each card can only be used once to increase your area influence. After you have used a card, rotate it by 90 degrees.
Important: If you already had a marker on the area being used, then this marker must be moved. At the start of the game, no player has a marker on the board, you do not start from the 0 space. This is important, as the markers on the 0 space are worth points at the end, while those out of the game are worthless.
Example: The blue player plays a worker with a 2 value. The player decides to use the lower half of the area card, so gains 1 wheat and 1 livestock. Both resources were already at level 3, therefore they can decide to take money or surplus for these. Finally the player decides to take a surplus for the 1 wheat and money for the livestock, which is worth 2 denarius based on the player board.
The player also owns 3 cards that contain 1, 1 and 2 area influence. If all 3 were to be used, the player would end up on top of the yellow player's marker. Therefore he/she decides only to use 2 cards. These used cards are rotated 90 degrees. He/she then puts their influence marker on the third space of the grey track in area number 2.
Set bonus: With the area cards you may collect resource fragments. Every time you are able to collect 2 identical fragments, you gain 1 resource. The resource always depends on the fragment's type.
- 2 black fragments give you a black resource (wood or stone).
- 2 green fragments give you a green resource (livestock or wheat).
- 2 red fragments give you a red resource (ore or wine).
- 2 multicolored fragments give you a basic resource of your choice (wood, stone, livestock, wheat, ore, wine).
Moving the area cards
Any time any player uses the Aedilis, Mercator or Propraetor action locations, the area card used for the action must be moved.
- On first use, the card simply slides upwards.
- The next time anyone uses this area, they must pay 2 denarius at the end of the action. In exchange, the player receives the corresponding area card, which they put on the left hand side of their player board. After this, the brown influence marker for the corresponding area card moves up one space on the influence track. Refill the now-empty card slot with a new area card from the draw deck and place the new card in the starting position. If the area card slot is empty, you must still pay the price, but you do not gain a card and the brown cube don't move up.
Important: If the area card is in the upper position or if the card slot is empty, and you cannot pay the 2 denarius at the end of the action (you can gain money during the action), then you cannot carry out this action.
Roma
In this action location, you may gain political influence by organizing fairs and rallying public support at the Colosseum. Move clockwise around the Colosseum track a number of spaces equal to the value of your worker. You must pay an arbitrary basic resource, surplus or money depending on the icons for each space you passed over while moving, including your destination. If you cannot pay for a step in your path, you may not carry out this action. More than one worker can stay on a single space here. If another worker is already present on a space travelled over or arrived at, you do not pay for that space. On the 3 special spaces with the honours icon, when arriving at or passing over these, you gain 1 political influence. This must be recorded on the player board now. You gain the bonus even if another player is already at that space. If you were already at the maximum influence of 10, you may gain 2 victory points for every political influence.
Additional rule (compulsory): If during the action you free an active card slot on your player board (by moving on the first 5 slots of the political influence track), and you already have a passive patron, then you must move this patron to the empty active slot. If you only have one passive patron, then you must place that patron. From this time, this card is active.
Example: The green player uses a worker with a value of 3. He moves 3 steps in the Colosseum. The third space is already occupied, so he must only pay 1 surplus and 1 green resource. The player moves the surplus and wheat markers down by 1. As he passed the special space, he moves 1 space on the political influence track.
This frees up one of the active patron card slots, so he moves one of his selected passive patrons beneath the player board, and from this time, this card is active.
Senatus
In this action location you can gain patrons. The action mechanism is the same as in Aedificator and Legatus actions. You may buy patron cards any time during the game, but depending on your level of political influence, two issues may arise:
- You have no card slots available underneath your player board. In this case, you must place the purchased patron card to the left hand side of your board. This patron is now passive. If an unlocked card slot is already occupied, you may replace an existing active patron with a newly purchased patron. Place the replaced card at the left hand side of your board. This old patron is now passive, and the new patron is now active.
- You have an empty, unlocked card slot. In this case, you place the purchased patron card into the first available unlocked slot.
Important: Every time you carry out an action that corresponds to a bonus on one of your active patron cards, you receive the patron's bonus. The bonuses on the patron cards are cumulative. Some patrons give you bonuses for your resources, cards, and political or area influence at the end of the game. You may score and receive multiple bonuses based on your patron cards.
Example: The card in this example can be bought with a worker valued at 1 and 2. The black player plays a value 1 worker, pays 12 denarius plus a stone and takes the card. She has 1 active patron in the unlocked card slot. She decides to replace this active patron with the new patron card, and places the former active card on the left hand side of her board.
Thus the new card becomes active, its ability is that the patron cards cost 2 denarius less when carrying out the Senatus action.
Special action: Training workers
This action location is on your own player board. Here, you can train workers to change their value in the next turn. A trained worker can only be used from your next turn after the training started. So you effectively lose time with training, but you also influence the value of the trained worker, when you send it to an action location on the game board (±1, ±2, ±3, ±4, or even with the same value as before, but never more than 5 or less than 1). For the higher slots, you must pay a price when you send a worker there. The player board has only 4 slots for worker training, if a slot is already occupied, it cannot be used. After passing the unused trained workers will stay with you for the next round with their default value (you get 1 point and the worker goes back to your unused worker set).
Example: The blue sends her last available worker to train. She chooses the ±2 slot, so she must pay 1 denarius to the bank. According to the rules she must wait at least a turn to use it. In that turn, the value of the trained worker may be 1, 2 and 3.
2 Player Variant
If you play a 2 player game, both of you control an additional shadow player. Both of you get an additional player board and another set of workers (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). The extra player board is used only to store the additional worker set. Other components are not required. Most of the rules are the same as in the regular game except the following rules:
Action phase (A)
After you are finished with your regular action, you must send out a shadow worker from your shadow player's set. This extra worker doesn't perform any actions. You may only place this worker on the player number restricted worker spaces (3, 4 and 5 player spaces).
The following actions contain spaces where you can send shadow workers: Quaestor, Aedilis, Mercator, Propraetor, Roma.
Note: You always have to place a shadow worker, regardless of what happened with your regular worker set.
Refill phase (B)
During the refill phase, you have to collect new workers for your shadow players as well. The player order always starts with the real players and the shadow players follow.
Therefore the collection order is: 2nd player, 1st player, 2nd shadow player, 1st shadow player. If more turns are necessary, the order remains the same. At the end of the refill phase every player and shadow player should have 5 workers again.
Setting turn order phase (C)
Setting the turn order remains unchanged as described earlier. The shadow players are not taking part in the valuation, you only have to count your own workers' values. So you only allocate the 1st and 2nd place.
All other rules are identical to the previously described rules.
Advanced Game
Gameplay for the advanced game is the same as the basic game, but you have more options and more possibilities. We recommend that you play with the basic rules for your first one or two games to get a feel for the game. Although there are more options, because of the additional actions available in the advanced game, the advanced game may actually play faster than the basic game.
The setup for the advanced game is the same as in the base game, the difference is that you have to turn 1 card face up on the Aedificator, Legatus and Senatus decks.
Note: In the advanced mode you have to pay 3 denarius for the area cards. For this and for the advanced actions can find extra symbols under all actions.
In the advanced game, you have the possibility to use up one or more cards from the left of your board before OR after you have finished with your basic action. For each action, the used cards give some sort of bonus. These bonuses are shown under the text at each of the action locations.
Rules
- All cards contain an icon in the top left corner (an amphora, a sword, a lion). When carrying out an action, you may only use cards with a single icon type, but you may use an unlimited number of these.
- Move any cards used during your main action to the right hand side of your player board. Each card can only be used once. You never lose any used cards.
- Area card movement: If you would move an area card during your main action, move the area card as normal. You do not need to move the area card for any extra actions associated with the area. If you have to buy the area card, as the area card was in the upper position when you placed your worker, you buy the area card after taking both your main and extra actions.
- You may use cards before or after the basic action, so in some cases (Aedificator, Legatus and Senatus) you may already use a card purchased in the same round.
Extra Actions
Quaestor: All used cards give you +2 denarius each.
Aedilis: All used cards give you +1 resource free. The chosen resource must still appear on the area card. If there is no area card in the selected space, you may not carry out the extra action.
Note: If you have to buy the area card, you have to do it after your extra action. That means you get the extra resources from the same card that you used in your main action.
Mercator: You gain 1 surplus for each used card here.
Propraetor: You must use sets of 3 cards here (still only with the same symbol). For each set of 3 cards, you may move up one space on the relevant influence track (indicated by the worker's value). Any cards played here as part of your main action can be used to form a set for your extra action (as long as the symbols are the same). You can increase your area influence by performing an extra action even if you did not increase your area influence during your main action (even with an empty card slot).
Note: Be careful not to rotate the unused cards that contain an area influence icon, when you use them for the extra actions as they can still be used for increasing your area influence.
Roma: You can move 1 space in the Colosseum for each card being used.
Aedificator, Legatus, Senatus: These actions at these locations work the same way. You may purchase the extra card belonging to the action (on top of the deck).
All currently used cards decrease the price of that card (even as far as making it free) by:
- 1 resource on the Aedificator action,
- 1 surplus on the Legatus action,
- 2 denarius on the Senatus action.
After you bought a card, replace it with the next one face up at the top of the deck.
Note: In the Refill phase always draw the top cards first and after the refilling, turn a new card face up on top of the decks.
Note: It may happen in the advanced game, that when freeing up an active patron slot, a patron from the right side (used) can enter this slot. If you replace such an active card with a newly bought one, then it still goes to the left side. In this special case, you may use this patron card twice for extra actions.
Annex - Patron Cards
Reminder:
- At any time, you may only have a maximum of 5 active patron cards (if your political influence has reached the 5th space on the track).
- If a patron card is active, it always modifies the action on it when the action is carried out.
- Several action modifiers can apply to a single action. The effects of patron cards are cumulative.
- The bonuses can be performed before or after the basic action and are non-compulsory.
Action Modifiers
This is the collection of action-modifier icons that appear on patron cards, and what each one does when the patron carrying it is active:
- You gain 1 point when performing the Quaestor action.
- You gain 2 extra denarius when performing the listed action (Quaestor or Propraetor).
- You gain 1 extra surplus when performing the listed action (Quaestor or Aedilis).
- You gain 1 extra resource from the area card assigned by the worker's value when performing the listed action (Quaestor, Mercator or Propraetor). If there are no area cards on the given slot, this bonus cannot be carried out.
- You do not have to pay to purchase an area card when performing the listed action (Aedilis, Mercator or Propraetor).
- After the marked action (Aedificator, Legatus or Senatus), as a second action you may carry out a training action. Training rules are still observed.
- As long as this card is active, the cards associated with the marked actions are cheaper for you by: Aedificator — 1 arbitrary resource; Legatus — 1 surplus; Senatus — 2 denarius.
- You may use surplus instead of any basic resource when purchasing building cards (Aedificator). Works also with extra actions in the advanced game.
- You may use any basic resource instead of surplus when purchasing war cards (Legatus). Works also with extra actions in the advanced game.
- At the marked action location (Aedilis, Mercator or Propraetor) you can gain 1 area influence on the used area card by paying different resources/surplus/money shown on the card. Move the marker at this time (even if it is not on the game board yet).
- You do not have to pay any money/resource/surplus for movement during the Roma action.
- You get to take 1 free step at the Colosseum (Roma action location) when performing the marked action (Senatus or Mercator).
- When performing the marked action (Aedificator, Legatus or Senatus), you may move the brown cube upward 1 space on the brown track next to the area card assigned to your worker's value.
Reminder:
- All patron cards are worth points at the end of game, irrespective of being active or passive cards.
- One type of end game point can be gained several times from several cards.
- Keep your scored items after scoring them. All resources, cards, and area influence will give you points at the end of the game.
End Game Bonuses
This is the collection of end-game bonus icons that appear on patron cards:
- You gain a point for each level of your political influence track.
- At the end of game, you may increase your political influence by 1.
- You gain 1 point for each active patron at the end of game.
- You may use the endgame bonus of another patron card 2x.
- Depending on the player number you gain 2/3 points for each area where you finished first on the area influence track.
- You can increase your influence in one of the areas by 1. Move your marker up by 1 on the chosen track. You perform this after the setting of area influences, so your marker can in fact move above the brown marker. You may still not move on top of other markers (but using several such bonuses you can jump over them).
- Choose an area, and gain the same number of points, as your level on this area influence track.
- You gain 1 point for each area where you have any influence (space 0 counts).
- You gain 1 point for each of your building and war cards containing points/area influence icons.
- You gain 2 points for each set of 3 different icons (amphora, sword, lion) at the end of game.
- You gain 2 points for each pair of amphora/sword/lion icons at the end of game.
- As well as the standard points, you gain additional points for basic resources at the end of the game. You receive 1 point for every 2 basic resources (rounded down).
- You gain 1 point for each marked resource at the end of the game.
- You gain 1 point for each marked types of card at the end of the game.
Credits
A big thank you to everyone that supported me, encouraged me, tested it and contributed in the development of this game.
Thanks to my family for the first tests. Special thanks to Csaba Hegedűs, without him this game could not have been made; and to his family, Mónika Hegedűsné Richter, Anett Hegedűs, Erik Hegedűs. Thanks to the members of the Társasjátékos Klub and to the members of JEM magazine, who tested and helped the game in its development. Special thanks to Domi Krantz for the English translations, to André Heines for the German translations, Julien Duprie for the French translations, Réka Wenzel and Csaba Kiss for the proofreading and to Mónika Loránt for helping with the creation of countless prototypes.
Special thanks for testing and advice goes to: Norbert Kiss, László Rigler, Dániel Tóth-Szegő, Viktória Ágnes Takács, Balázs Hámori, Benedek Farkas, Anton Bendarjevskiy, Dániel Lányi, Péter Somogyi, Attila Varga, Krisztián Kanyó, Gábor Balázsovics, Gábor Bálint, Gábor Farkas, Flávia Kenderesi, Balázs Molnár, Richard Láng, Gábor Valló, Ai Lake, Matthieu Chevanne, Nikolas Co, Kim Lockwood, Kat Demeanour, the enthusiastic members of the Nagytarcsa Boardgame Club and to many more I cannot list here.
- In memoriam of my grandfather István Tóth (1931-2016). Thank you for everything! -
Designer: Attila Szőgyi. Graphics: Attila Szőgyi, Gyula Pozsgay. English rules: Domi Krantz. German rules: André Heines. French rules: Julien Duprie and Jean-Michel Auzias.
Published and sold by A-games. © 2016 A-games. All rights reserved. www.a-games.hu
Akabón Kft., 1162 Budapest, Attila utca 133. Made in Hungary