Cicero

Cicero Rulebook

Table of Contents

Object of the Game

A game of Cicero sees the players compete over several rounds to acquire the greatest Prestige for their families. To do so they must extend their influence, both in the Senate and in all the places of power in the city. They will call on their friendships within the Guilds that govern Roman life and form fleeting alliances. They must also guard against the schemes of the other families, sometimes by radical means, while bearing in mind that the great Cicero and the generals of the Triumvirate will require them to take an active part in defending the Republic and fighting the enemies of Rome.

At the end of the game, the player who has proved the most skilful tactician, having accumulated the most Prestige for their family, is declared the winner.

Components

1 main board
5 individual player boards (one per Family)
1 Princeps token
15 Roman Legions (SPQR)
5 Family discs
15 Servants (3 per Family)
30 Influence cubes (6 per Family)
120 Senator cards
15 Triumvirate cards
108 Action cards (18 per Caste)
6 Guild cards
12 Caste cards
9 Cicero cards
5 aids (reference sheets)

Icon-only labels printed on the component and example illustrations are not reproduced in text; each icon is described by the Caste or Guild it stands for where the rules name it.

Castes and Guilds

The 6 Senator Castes are: Oratores, Mercatores, Pontifex, Insidiator, Plebeius and Belligerator.

The 6 Guilds are: Artisans, Assassins, Diplomats, Negotiants, Priests and Strategists.

The Guilds are highly hierarchical organisations. Over time they became so powerful that influence with the Guilds is now as important as influence with the Senator Castes.

Setup

Place the main board in the centre of the table.
Each player takes the individual board of their Family and the full set of pieces matching it. They place the 6 Influence cubes on the indicated space of each track on their board. They take their Servants (3 for a 2- or 3-player game, 2 for a 4- or 5-player game). They then place their Family disc on space 10 of the Prestige track of the main board.
Place the Roman Legions (SPQR) and the Princeps token near the main board.
Shuffle each of the 6 Action card decks and place them on their respective spaces.
Separate the 12 Senator cards with white backs from the Senator cards with red backs. The Senator cards with white backs are set aside until the start of the game. The Senator cards with red backs are divided into 3 piles according to their icons and placed on their respective spaces.
Place the Guild and Caste majority cards near the board.
Build the Triumvirate deck by grouping the cards by round (indicated on the back). Place this deck face down on its space, with the 3 cards of round I on top.
Shuffle the Cicero card pile and place it face down on its space.

The Six Influence Zones of Rome

The map of Rome is divided into six zones, one for each Caste. Each zone is a place of power:

Curia Hostilia hosts the meetings of the Senate. It is here that the Senators exercise their political influence and that the Oratores excel.
Emporium is Rome's river port, through which all the goods that feed the city pass. Fortunes are made and unmade here. It is the realm of the Mercatores.
Temple of Jupiter is the sacred place where the Pontifices meet to watch over the proper observance of religious practices.
Subure is the least reputable district of Rome. Crime and insecurity reign here, and the least reputable houses of pleasure are found here. It is paradise for an Insidiator looking to recruit thugs for a nasty job.
Circus Maximus is the largest Roman hippodrome, and regularly hosts the much-prized chariot races. The Plebeians quickly made it their speciality, using the people's addiction to games and betting to build their power.
Exercitus, the Roman army, groups here all those who live from war, and the legions deployed in the distant provinces. The veterans who have sworn an oath of loyalty to their general are so many relays for the Belligeratores, who fight all external enemies.

The Player Board and Senators

Each player's individual board shows the influence values of their Family. It includes the starting influence value, the influence value within the Senator Castes, the influence generated by the Family's origin Caste, the spaces for Servants, and the space for the player's cenacle.

Cenacle

Set up, next to your individual board, the space for your cenacle. The cenacle is the group of Senators who have rallied to your Family. At the start of the game, the cenacle of each player contains at most 4 Senators. This limit may be raised during the game.

A player may choose at any time to discard a Senator from their cenacle. If the limit of your cenacle decreases during the game, you may be forced to discard one or more of your Senators.

Senator Cards

The Senator cards are the heart of your cenacle. Each card carries several pieces of information:

Name.
Caste: each Senator belongs to one Caste.
Cost: the influences the player must pay to rally the Senator to their cenacle.
Guilds: the Guilds, if any, in which your Senator is influential.
Prestige: PP scored each round if the Senators in your cenacle together provide the influence required with the Guilds.
Votes: the number of votes the Senator has in the Senate.
Influences: the level of influence the Senator has with certain Castes.

If the symbol for cenacle limit is present on a Senator card, it increases the maximum number of Senators in your cenacle by the number indicated.

Game Length

A game lasts 5 rounds with 2, 3 or 4 players, or 4 rounds with 5 players.

Start of the Game

Selecting Your First Senators

The youngest player takes the 12 Senator cards with white backs. They randomly draw a number of cards equal to twice the number of players and return the others to the box. They then choose one Senator card and pass the remaining cards to their left-hand neighbour. That player keeps one card and passes the remaining Senators to their left-hand neighbour in turn. Once the pack reaches the last player, that player immediately chooses two cards and passes the pack to their right-hand neighbour.

Normally, when the pack of Senator cards returns to the first player, only one card remains for them. Each player therefore starts the game with 2 Senators in their cenacle.

Electing the First Princeps

Each player adds up the total votes in the Senate of their 2 Senators. If one player has a strict majority, they become Princeps and receive the corresponding token. In case of a tie, the player with the most votes in the Oratores Caste becomes Princeps. If there is still a tie, the oldest of the tied players is designated.

In the first round, the Princeps is the first player.

Example: a player holding these 2 cards has 6 votes in the Senate. They also have 3 votes in the Oratores Caste, which is used in case of a tie.

Round Structure

A round is played in 7 successive phases.

I. Electing the Princeps (except in the first round)

The Princeps is designated as first player and will be called upon to break ties during the decisive phase of majority counting.

To vote, each player announces aloud the total number of votes they hold in the Senate (adding the votes of all the Senators in their cenacle, plus any votes provided by certain Action cards). There is then a period in which each player may speak, debate their upcoming vote, or propose alliances in order to obtain a majority. Then each player raises a finger and, after a count of 3, clearly indicates the player to whom they give all of their votes (they may of course vote for themselves).

The player who receives the most votes becomes Princeps.

In case of a tie, the outgoing Princeps decides the winner from among the tied players.

II. Accusation of Cicero

Cicero reveals his new pleading against the conspirators who harm the glory of Rome: reveal the card on top of the Cicero deck.

In phase IV, each player must take part in the fight against corruption and the conspirators led by Cicero, either:

by spending 2 influences from among the 4 shown on the card;
or by discarding a Senator from their cenacle belonging to one of the 2 Castes indicated;
and, if neither of the two options above is carried out, by losing 10 Prestige Points (-10 PP).

It is unfortunately possible for a negative Prestige to be shown on the score track of the main board.

Example: the Cicero card below asks each player, at the end of the round, to choose one of the following:

Spend 2 influences from among the 4 shown: 1 Insidiator, 1 Mercator, or up to 2 Belligerators.
Discard a Mercator or Pontifex Senator.
Lose 10 Prestige Points.

Now that you know the nature of the tribute, it is up to you to plan how you will pay it at the end of the round. In the meantime, the order promoted by Cicero is favourable to your affairs: each player increases their influence in their origin Caste by 2 points.

Cenacle limit. Take care not to exceed the current limit of your cenacle. Certain Senators (rare and coveted) allow the limit to be raised immediately by 1 or 2 Senators if you recruit them. A player may also choose to voluntarily discard Senators from their cenacle in order to replace them with newly recruited ones. However, this replacement does not exempt the player from paying the recruitment costs of the new Senators.

III. Placing Servants

Starting with the Princeps, each player in turn sends one of their Servants to a place of power to work for the Prestige of their Family. The players take turns placing one Servant each, until all players have placed all of their Servants.

A Servant cannot be placed on an occupied space.

Placing a Servant immediately triggers an action for the player who placed it, and also an action for each of the other players. There are 15 spaces on the main board, and they trigger the following actions:

The 3 Senate Spaces (recruiting new Senators)

Each space designates a pile of Senator cards whose backs share 2 influences in common. These are the influences that the player must spend to recruit those Senators into their cenacle. Recruiting a Senator always costs 4 influences, but all combinations are possible.

When you place your Servant on a Senate space, immediately draw 4 Senator cards from the corresponding pile. You may, by paying the indicated cost, recruit up to 2 Senators and add them to your cenacle.

The other players each draw 2 cards at the same time, and may choose to recruit 1 of these 2 Senators by paying the indicated cost.

Senators who are not recruited are then placed back under the pile they came from.

The 12 Spaces of the 6 Influence Zones (playing your influence)

In addition to the 3 Senate spaces, each of the 6 Senator Castes exerts its influence over part of Rome. Each of these 6 influence zones has 2 spaces (the first above, the second below).

If a player places one of their Servants on the first space of a zone:

they immediately increase their influence in that zone on their board by X, where X is the total cumulative influence of that Caste across all of their Senators; and, if they wish, and if they have one in hand, they may also play an Action card of that Caste.

The player may carry out these 2 actions in the order of their choice.

Then, in turn, every other player must choose between:

increasing their influence in that zone on their own board by X (X being the total cumulative influence of that Caste across all of their Senators);
or playing from their hand an Action card of that Caste.

Example of the first space of the Oratores zone: the player who places their Servant on this space plays an Action card from their hand, and also increases their influence in the Oratores on their board by the total influence of their Senators in the Oratores. All other players may carry out only one of these two actions.

If a player places one of their Servants on the second space of a zone:

they immediately increase that influence on their board by 1, and they draw the first Action card of the zone, which they add to their hand.

Then, in turn, every other player must choose between:

immediately increasing that influence on their board by 1;
or drawing an Action card of the zone to put into their hand.

Example of the second space of the Oratores zone: the player who places their Servant on this space draws an Oratores Action card. They also increase their Oratores influence by 1 on their board. All other players may carry out only one of these two actions.

Limits

Influence limit: a Family's influence in a Caste can never exceed 10.
Action card limit: there is no limit to the number of Action cards a player may hold in hand.

Roman Legions

Players may raise Legions at random from the draw pile of the Belligerator Action cards. To play such a card, you must first have the corresponding action (playing an Action card of that Caste).

How to play an Action card. To play an Action card of a Caste, the player must have the action "Play an Action card" of that Caste.

To play an Action card:

Spend as many influences as indicated on the card (some are free).
Apply the effect of the card.

Some cards have an instant effect. Others provide an effect at the end of the round or a permanent effect (they are then placed beside the player's board). Finally, some cards target a Senator card, on which they are placed.

Once its effect has been applied, an Action card is removed from the game.

Playing a Legion card. To play a Legion card:

Spend as many influences as indicated on the card.
Immediately deploy a Legion on the province indicated on the card of conquests.
Choose one of the rewards indicated for having taken part in the glory of Rome: either immediate PP, or new influences.

Example: the player spends 2 influences in the Belligerators, places a Legion on Corsica, and chooses between increasing their Insidiator influence by 1 or immediately gaining 2 Prestige Points (PP).

IV. Paying Tribute to Cicero

Cicero now asks the great Families of Rome to pay the promised tribute (see II – Accusation of Cicero).

Consult the Cicero card and:

spend 2 influences from among the 4 shown on the card;
or discard a Senator from your cenacle belonging to one of the 2 Castes indicated.

If you cannot, or do not wish to, pay either of these tributes, you immediately lose 10 Prestige Points (-10 PP).

V. The Triumvirate

Riders arrive in Rome bearing military dispatches from the conquered provinces. The Princeps draws at random one of the three cards of the current round (indicated on the back) from the Triumvirate deck.

This is the military report of one of the generals of the Triumvirate: Caesar, Crassus or Pompey. The general asks the players whether the Legions requested have been deployed in the number wanted, and whether a specific province is now under the control of a Roman Legion. If the general's request is satisfied, the game immediately moves on to the next phase.

Otherwise, the players must complete the payment of their tribute to Cicero in a different way from the first time: by paying the other 2 influences, by discarding 1 Senator from one of the 2 Castes indicated, or by losing 10 PP.

The demand shown on the example card reads: there must be at least 5 Legions deployed on the map, including 1 in Gaul.

VI. Determining the Majorities

It is now time to reward the Families that have invested most in this round. Use the aid sheet to call out the 6 Castes and the 6 Guilds.

Influence with the Castes

Count the total number of your votes in the Senate within each Caste.

The player who is most influential in a Caste takes the Primus card of that Caste; the second player takes the Secundus card.

In case of a tie, the Princeps breaks the tie and decides which player wins the majority (the Princeps may choose to break the tie in their own favour).

The Primus and Secundus cards remain the property of the players who acquired them until they lose their majority at a later count. The majority card that is lost is then transferred to the player who took it.

Example: the player has 5 votes with the Pontifex, 4 with the Belligerators, and 1 with the Insidiators and the Plebeians. They also have 2 influences with the Guild of Artisans, 2 with the Assassins, and 1 with the Priests and the Diplomats.

Influence with the Guilds

Proceed in the same way for the 6 Guilds of the game. Guild by Guild, count the number of symbols possessed by your Senators. The most influential player takes the card of that Guild (there is no second place, unlike with the Castes). In case of a tie, the Princeps again breaks the tie.

The winner reads their card and must immediately choose whether to use the power of the Guild for the next round, or to score the Prestige Points of that card during the next phase.

VII. Prestige Phase

Each player counts the PP granted by their majority Caste cards, and advances their Family disc accordingly on the score track:

A Primus card is worth 6 PP; a Secundus card is worth only 3 PP.
If the player has Guild cards, they also advance their Family disc by 3 PP for each card whose power they chose not to use.
Finally, certain Senators also earn PP, provided that the Senators in your cenacle have the indicated level of influence with the Guilds.

Example: in the example on the previous page, the player has influence in the 3 requested Guilds (Diplomats, Priests and Artisans), so they gain 4 PP.

Note that a single influence of a Senator may be used to validate several cards.

End of the Round and End of the Game

At the end of the round, the players recover all of their Servants and move on to the next round, repeating each of the phases.

After the last Prestige phase of the last round, the most prestigious Family is declared the winner and takes control of Roman politics. This is the end of the Republic.

Round Summary

This summary is printed on the rulebook's round-overview page and on the reference pages:

Elect the Princeps.
Reveal Cicero's pleading.
Collect the 2 influences indicated on your board.
Place your Servants and carry out the corresponding actions.
Pay Cicero's tribute.
Reveal the Triumvirate. If necessary, complete the payment of the tribute.
Count influence with the Castes.
Count influence with the Guilds.
Collect the PP from your Primus, Secundus and Guild cards.
Collect the PP from your Senators.
Collect your Servants and move on to the next round.

Two-Player Rules

The winner is determined after 5 rounds, during which both players have the 3 Servants of their Family.

3 additional Servants of another colour are also needed. They are used to simulate the actions of a third Family: the Automatii.

The Automatii do not score Prestige Points during the game. They do not collect influence, have no cenacle, and do not play Action cards. However, they block access to certain spaces on the board and contribute votes when the Princeps is elected. (There is no need to set up a third player board.)

At the start of each round, before electing the Princeps, reveal the top card of each of the 3 Senator decks. Place one Servant on the second space of the zone corresponding to the Castes of the 3 revealed Senators. The 2 players then carry out the secondary action of these 3 spaces (recover an influence or draw a card). Then discard the 3 revealed Senators.

Example: after the 3 Senators are revealed, a Servant is placed on the lower spaces of the Curia Hostilia, the Emporium and Subure. Then each player chooses, for each space, whether to recover the corresponding influence or to draw a card.

Special Cases

If 2 of the revealed Senators belong to the same Caste, place only 2 of the 3 Servants. However, the 2 players then each recover an influence and draw an Action card on that space.
If all 3 revealed Senators belong to the same Caste, draw again.

When the Princeps is elected, the Automatii Family systematically gives 5 votes to whichever of the players has the fewest PP. If the 2 players have the same number of PP, the 5 votes go to the opponent of the current Princeps.