Total War: ROME – The Board Game Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• What's in the Box
• Design Philosophy
• The Four Major Factions
  • Carthage
  • Rome
  • Greece
  • Barbarian Tribes
    • Giving the Barbarian Tribes the right feel
• Key Components - Map, Dice, Cards, Faction Boards
  • The Map
  • Troop Cards
  • Veteran Cards
  • The Skull Dice
  • Generals
    • Legendary and Talented Generals
• Ship Cards
• Action Cards
  • Playing an Action Card as an Event Card
  • Agent Action Symbols
• Faction Boards
• Setup
• Playing the Game: The Game Turn
  • Initiative Phase
  • Agent Phase
    • Moving Agents
    • Agent Actions
• Taxation Phase
• Campaigning Phase
  • Placing Armies and Navies on the Board
  • Composition of Armies and Navies
  • Moving Armies and Navies
  • Naval Transport
  • Reorganizing
  • Subduing Unrest
  • Meeting Enemy Armies and Avoiding Battle
  • Without Leadership
  • Meeting Enemy Navies
  • Independent Regions
  • Garrisoned Regions
  • Conquering Enemy Home Regions
• Battles: StratPlay
  • Routing the Enemy Army
  • Step 1: Preparing for Battle
  • Steps 2-5: Combat Procedure
  • Rolling Skull Dice
  • Step 2: Fight for Terrain
  • Step 3: Fight for the Flanks
  • Step 4: Fight for the Centre
  • Step 5: Envelopment
  • Step 6: Determine Victor
  • Tactical Tips and Options
  • Allied Armies
  • Breaking Alliances
• Example Large Battle
  • Step 1: Preparing the Battle
    • The Barbarian Tribes
    • The Romans
  • Step 1: The Fight for Terrain
  • Step 2: The Fight for Terrain (continued)
  • Step 3: The Fight for the Flanks
  • Step 4: The Fight for the Centre
  • Step 5: The Envelopment
  • Outcome of the Example
• Naval Battles
• Spending Phase
  • The Marian Reforms for Rome
• End of Turn
• End of Game
• Strategic Choices
• What Is Coming Next?

What's in the Box

You will find the following contents in your box set:

• This 24-page full-colour rulebook.
• 4x faction boards for each faction with locations for armies, navies, and agent cards around it and with costs for cards and a development tree on it.
• 5x army miniatures each for 4 factions with Roman numerals to identify them. These models are replicas of the actual troops of the time, crafted to make them resilient in use.
• 2x navy miniatures per faction, which are replicas of the ubiquitous trireme galleys of the era.
• A near A1 full-colour playing board.
• 4x sets each of 5 coloured CCC Game unique Skull dice.
• 1x 55-card deck of action cards.
• 3x agent miniatures per faction.
• 1x 30-card shared pack of ship cards.
• 5x 55-card packs of troop cards (2 for Rome).
• 30x faction markers per faction, 12 with black surrounding edges to show your original home regions and 18 to show control of new regions.
• 25x unrest markers used to show where rioting and trouble exists.
• 12x initiative cards and 43x solo play cards (not pictured).
• 16x markets, 16x barracks, 16x walls, 4x Ancient Wonders, and 24x roads.
• 1x shared set of 200 coins, representing gold with small, medium, and large coins for 1, 5, and 10 gold respectively.

Prototype components, may change in mass production.

Design Philosophy

The key challenge for me as a designer who has played the Total War Rome computer game to death in my travels, has been to get as many elements of the computer game into the board game as possible in a slick and fast-moving game that can play to conclusion in 2-3 hours. We therefore needed a very fast-moving set of mechanics where the fun and challenge comes from the pace and rapid interaction between players. This ensures the success and enjoyment of the core multi-player board game.

Without going into detail at this stage, here is a brief summary of the aspects of the computer game and how they are represented in the board game:

• Tax to raise money - Each region you control has a value in gold. You will raise money and spend money as key parts of the game. Armies win battles, but economic strength can win wars.
• Improve your regions to make them more valuable - Each region can be upgraded in up to 5 ways: markets, barracks, walls, roads, and the ultimate, an Ancient Wonder. Each improvement has a material value in the game and is represented by models on the board.
• Develop your faction's capabilities - Each faction has 10 to 12 developments that it can achieve during the game by investing in them. We bundle all major national developments under this heading, even though some are economic, some military, some cultural, and so on. Once acquired, these give benefits to the faction from then on.
• Hiring mercenaries - We have chosen these carefully to represent famous soldiers from Crete, Rhodes, Thrace, and other areas. If you conquer these regions, you can recruit mercenary cards to join your armies—but they are not easy to subdue and they may prove to be a bit unreliable.
• Defending your homelands - These are the regions under your initial control. They all have garrisons that are automatically sized based on the economic level of the region (current gold value). Conquering enemy ones is not easy as garrisons defend them, but they are very valuable gains. Home regions that have been lost to enemy factions are easier to retake, as the population will usually rebel and assist in their liberation. Home regions are defined for each faction and marked with home region markers (and are shown on the map for the 4 main factions with dotted lines).
• Recruit the right armies and navies for your strategy - You can use your money to recruit new troop cards, ship cards, and generals, and if you control a region that was a good source of mercenaries, recruit those as well. How you allocate your forces is critical in the game and requires careful thought in terms of what you are trying to achieve. You also need to ensure that you keep lines of communication open in order to reinforce an army on the map.

You will find that the combination of all of these leads to a very rich game with a strong feel of the computer original, but with a pace and player interaction that is unique to the board game experience.

If you would like a more detailed strategic board game still, then there are other expansions for that purpose. We are providing a Core Game Faction Booster with army decks and faction boards for most of the individual nations in the computer game, so you can play your favourite challenge if you like - mine was to conquer the world as the Numidians (it took me a while)! We are also designing the Alexander Expansion to be 5-player and set up so you can put the two boards together and see if the Roman Empire could make it to India, or if Alexander could crush Rome after returning from the East.

In short, the game has been designed to be an excellent standalone 4-player game but expandable in two different ways to fit your preferences: bigger campaign, or more in-depth battles. The core 4-player game with all the banter, pace, and fun creates a unique narrative for the game, while those who solo play can, at the limit, spend a long time trying to conquer the entire map as Numidia and try to get all the way to India. The choice is yours. Whichever version you prefer, enjoy!

I am an avid tabletop wargamer, so making the battle experience richer still is a priority for me. For those of you wanting a more tactical experience, our BattlePlay Expansion gives you a 10-15 minute tabletop battle using cards that is a material step up from the StratPlay system used for fast results (2-3 minutes) in the core board game. You will suddenly feel in command of an army on a battlefield more directly if you switch to this method for the major battles that occur! You can even combine two of these sets and double your army sizes to play an extra phase of battle.

The Four Major Factions

Total War Rome: The Board Game has 4 factions to choose from, which represent the main combatants of the Ancient World around the Mediterranean from 400BCE to 50BCE. Each faction has its own play style and begins with only its home regions as shown on the map (the edge of which is marked with a dotted line on the map). The home regions and starting forces for each faction are also listed in Appendix A. A faction's home regions are referred to collectively as its homeland. If you have a particular favourite, play that one; or you can choose factions randomly by handing out the faction boards facedown.

Here is an overview of the factions:

Carthage

The jewel of North Africa in the third century BCE. Under Hannibal, they faced the might of Rome and almost defeated it during the Second Punic War of 218BCE to 202BCE. His father had wrestled with Rome over Spain and Sicily during the earlier First Punic War (from 264BCE to 241BCE). A navy was essential for Carthage's development, and the 1st Punic War was a tussle for Sicily, which forced Rome to develop its own naval forces to match the Carthaginians. As the game develops, you may equip deadly War Elephants, or a Legendary Leader such as Hannibal may emerge to lead your forces. Their army is rich in cavalry and missile troops, and Carthage was especially strong in naval resources and trade. Their navy can be developed to become the dominant force on the seas.

If you are playing a 3-player game, then any of the factions can be left out as a non-playing nation, and its areas become "neutral" but are conquered just like faction home regions (see below). If you are playing a 2-player game, you each take 2 factions and play them as allies against the other 2. For solo play, you will play as a single faction and attempt to conquer the map against automated actions from the other factions. Clearly the most "historical" choice is to play as Rome and try to conquer the entire West and create the Roman Empire.

Rome

The "governor" of the Ancient World, with an empire that lasted over 700 years from its development under the republic through the decline of the empire. The forces of Rome are centered on the Legionaries and reinforced by auxiliary troops. It is primarily an infantry army. As you progress through the game, the republican army may be reformed, as happened historically under the leadership of Gaius Marius around 107BCE. At this point, all Republican Legionaries are replaced with more versatile Imperial Legionaries. Over the course of the game, a Legendary Leader with special characteristics, such as Julius Caesar, may emerge to lead Rome and build its empire.

Greece

The intellectual centre of invention in the Ancient World, it became a great empire under Alexander the Great. Building on his father Philip's development of the all-conquering Macedonian phalanx, he conquered Persia and India in the 330BCEs. This faction starts with the famous Hoplites and can soon develop the pike-armed Phalangites, just as Philip did. A Legendary Leader like Alexander may emerge to lead the troops. The Phalangites can be a challenge even for the best Roman units, as Pyrrhus proved during his campaigns in Southern Italy during the wars of 280BCE to 275BC. The Alexandrian successors, such as Seleucus and Ptolemy, dominated what we now call the Middle East after Alexander's death.

Barbarian Tribes

The rebels of the era. The northern barbarians (actually meaning "non-Greek speakers") comprised over 50 tribes ranging from the Lusitanians of Spain in the West, through the Averni of Gaul, to the Brigantes of Britannia, to the Belgae, to the Alamanni Germanic tribes, and on to the horse-based Sarmatians in the East. This faction is not a united nation, but rather a disjointed assembly of tribes at the outset, hence the faction title of Barbarian Tribes. So, as a single player you are playing them all. You will find the character of the Barbarian Tribes quite unique, and part of the challenge is to unite them into a single force. They may find a Legendary Leader such as Vercingetorix (who was defeated by Caesar at Alesia in 52BCE to end the Gallic Wars) emerge to lead their forces and unite the tribes.

Giving the Barbarian Tribes the right feel

The Barbarians are set up to feel very disjointed initially as independent tribes, but with the possibility of uniting against the other factions, something Attila partially achieved in the 5th Century, drawing in Gepids, Goths, and Huns together. Historically, the names Gaul and Germania were Roman terms for the geography and not the tribes. At Alesia, Romans fought the Avernii, at Sabis the Belgae, at Watling St. the Iceni, etc.

There are rules that give the Barbarian Tribes the right play style, based around two developments called: a) Reduced Antipathy and b) National Unity. You may get either, both, or none of these, and the Barbarian Tribes evolve very differently depending on which route you take. Before you have any of these developments, your armies must be equal in size and reinforcements are limited, so it is difficult getting full-size armies. Until you get National Unity, you are constrained by this. If you don't have Reduced Antipathy, your units may suffer, because whenever you have two armies adjacent, they fall out and the infighting may cause material losses! Finally, you can only recruit Soldurii with a general—these being the chief's bodyguards.

This is the way in which we keep one player controlling what was, in reality, around 50 tribes! Players will be tasked with the challenge of uniting them and writing an alternative history. With the expansions, each barbarian faction can be played individually: Gaul, Britons, Germans, Dacians, Thracians, Sarmatians, and Skythians then all have their own faction decks and boards.

Key Components - Map, Dice, Cards, Faction Boards

Each faction has its own symbol. Look at the board, and you will see each faction's homeland, made up of home regions that are indicated symbolically. The included control markers come in two types: those with black boundaries are used to show control of home regions. Home regions have a shading effect in the name box of each region... see Rome for instance for red shading showing that it is part of Rome's home territory.

On the top left of the board is a victory point ladder running to 25 VPs. The normal game is a race to a VP target of 20, which gives a game length of about 3 hours played at a quick pace. Once somebody reaches that point, it triggers the end of the game and you finish the current turn before you see who has the most VPs. VPs are gained each turn from:

a. gold tax income, as a measure of empire size and power b. winning battles on land and sea c. developing your faction d. conquering enemy home regions

You can play to 15 VPs for a shorter game (and this is recommended when learning the game) or 25 VPs for a longer game if you wish.

The Map

The map shows the ancient world, as it was when the factions came into conflict with each other.

• Regions: The map is split into regions on land and areas of sea, with their historical names. During the game, you will seek to control these. You start with your home regions, seek to subdue independent regions and to conquer enemy home regions.
• Gold value and defence dice: Each land region has a name and a gold value that represents its state of development and its tax value. A region's starting gold value also determines its defence dice when attacked: 1 gold = 2 x GREEN dice; 2 gold = 2 x YELLOW; 3 gold = 2 x RED dice. For each faction, the region with the highest starting gold value is that faction's capital. For reference, Appendix A lists the capital region first and in bold type in the list of home regions for each faction.
• Ports: Ports are indicated with an anchor symbol.
• Borders: Borders divide land regions, and armies and agents move from region to region by crossing these lines.
• Straits: Some regions that are close together but separated by water, such as Syracuse and Cosentia, have a blue dotted line connecting them together. These are called straits and allow free movement of armies across them without the assistance of a navy and are treated as adjacent for all purposes.
• Sea areas: Similarly, sea areas are segregated by thin blue lines, which control movement through them. The previously mentioned ports allow agents to sail overseas and can provide safe haven for navies.
• Terrain: Some regions show 1 to 4 tree or mountain terrain symbols. These represent how much difficult terrain is in that region. Some troops (such as Greek Companion Cavalry) prefer fighting on open plains (termed good going), while others prefer to fight in difficult terrain (such as the deadly Thracian Rhomphaiamen, who fought as individuals).
• Mercenary regions: There are 9 regions with an M, some coloured squares, and a troop type noted. These are regions that were great sources of valuable mercenaries. The coloured squares are the dice rolled against you if you try to conquer them. But controlling them is the first step to being able to recruit mercenaries, so these can be especially valuable. Look at the M for Thracia, and you will see 2 x RED and 1 x YELLOW dice - you will see later that it is possible to lose half an army to the Thracians if you try to conquer them! However, the resulting Thracian Romphaia troop cards are a very potent addition to your armies, so it may well be worth the risk.

Troop Cards

Troop cards make up your armies. Each card represents several 1000 troops. To give a rough guide, a Republican Roman legion would be two Legionary cards and one of Velites. Here are a Republican Legionary card and a Carthaginian Sacred Band card.

The right hand side of the troop card shows (from top to bottom):

• A - The name of the troops.
• B - A nice graphic of what the troops looked like in reality (or the best guess of historians and archaeologists).
• C - The purchase cost in gold.

The left hand side of the troop card shows (from top to bottom):

• D - The faction symbol. This is ringed in black on the cards that are your starting forces, making them easy to find in the card deck.
• E - Symbols identifying the troop type (infantry, cavalry, chariot, elephant, or artillery) and formation (close, loose, flexible, or skirmish). The key for all symbols is at the top of your faction board. In both of the cards shown above, the boot indicates infantry and the shield means close order. Infantry, cavalry, chariots, and elephants in close, loose, or flexible formation are collectively known as main battle cards.
• F - The skull dice (shown by the coloured squares) to roll when the unit fights in good going (represented by the green grass).
• G - The skull dice to roll when the unit fights in difficult terrain (represented by the abstracted mountain ranges and trees).
• H - Any special damage effects for S or X results on die rolls, which brings out the character of each troop type against certain opponents. Red symbols show the troop types they kill and black symbols show troop types they cancel damage from. If you see a troop type symbol crossed out with a line it means any but those - look at an elephant card for an example of any foot except skirmishers. The terrain symbol is used to show where the special effect occurs only in one of the two terrain types.

The Republican Legionary, if it rolls an S in good going, kills enemy infantry that are close, flexible, or loose, so they are very potent when fighting enemy infantry on a flat plain, but enemy infantry skirmishers will get away. The Sacred Band (in good going) has a cancellation effect against close and loose cavalry and all chariots when it rolls an S or an X (so are largely immune to them frontally as their long spears keep them at bay). In addition, when they roll an S in any terrain, they kill those troop types.

Flexibles: Flexibles are troops who could fight in close formation if needed but were equally comfortable spread out and fighting more individually. A good example to compare are Lowland and Highland Warriors. Lowlanders familiar with fighting cavalry in good going were good at clustering together into solid, safer blocks. Highland warriors never really faced such a threat and are more vulnerable to cavalry in the open. These attributes give us the ability to reflect the character of the range of troops in the ancient world.

Veteran Cards

In addition to the normal cards, there are veteran cards, which can only come into play as an upgrade of a card after a victory in battle. The only difference in format is that they have "Upgrade only" instead of a cost. Here is a comparison of the Companion Cavalry from the Greek deck. The veterans are more potent, in this case with better dice. Some other veterans have better Specials.

The Skull Dice

In the box, you will find 4 sets of skull dice, each with 5 dice, 1 of each colour: RED, YELLOW, GREEN, WHITE, and BLACK. RED are deadly and BLACK almost useless. The mix of symbols changes by die colour and are as follows:

• Skull = destroy 1 enemy troop card
• Sword & Arrow (X) = half-damage, which carries over until the end of the battle as what we term "wounded" throughout the rules.
• S = special damage, as noted on your troop card, or kills a skirmisher in other situations (a few cards have special effects for X rolls as well).
• Blank = no damage

Die faces, six per die:

Die colour	Faces
BLACK	X, S, blank, blank, blank, blank
WHITE	X, X, S, blank, blank, blank
GREEN	Skull, X, X, S, blank, blank
YELLOW	Skull, X, X, X, S, blank
RED	Skull, Skull, X, X, X, S

The dice are designed so you can easily read the results directly off them to determine if enemy cards are destroyed - no thinking necessary!

We use these dice whenever there is a battle between armies or navies, or an attempt to conquer an independent region or an opponent's home region. Troop cards show different dice for good going and difficult terrain. In a StratPlay battle, which takes 2-3 minutes, cards are played against each other one-by-one, the relevant dice rolled, and losses accumulated to get a battle result. In the BattlePlay expansion, dice are used in a more sophisticated manner to fight a richer tactical battle on a battle board in 10-15 minutes, which considers army deployment and what the individual units are up against. Since each player has a set of 5 dice, you can get your opponents to roll for the defenders when you invade an independent region.

Generals

Each faction has 10 cards for generals (admirals have no cards, as we do not consider the calibre of different admirals in the game). Each card shows the general's command rating in words and star symbols. A better general has an advantage over a poorer one in battle.

Each faction has four qualities of generals. The weakest are two-star Mediocre Generals (your set has 5 of these) and the best is a five-star Legendary General. Talented Generals and Legendary Generals are named and have special characteristics in the left-hand margin. New generals start at two-star and may improve with victory in battle. The Barbarian Tribes start off with the least skillful generals and Rome the best, but the Barbarian Tribes get replacements for free as they are simply new tribal leaders.

Legendary and Talented Generals

All legendary and talented generals will have characteristics on their cards. Talented generals will only have 1. Legendaries have 2 or more. These will be a selection from a list of characteristics as follows:

Characteristic	What it does
Inspired Fighter	May join any combat and add a GREEN die to it, but if the enemy roll includes a SKULL, they are killed and replaced by a 2* subordinate. Any unused reveals are lost, but the enemy does not get reveals if they now have the better general. Can be used once per battle.
Diplomacy Expert	Can re-roll any agent dice rolled for any agents within 4 land regions, including enemy rolls.
Battlefield Expert	Can always increase or decrease the terrain by 1.
Morale Booster	Can remove 1 hanging wound once per battle.
Scouting Expert	Gets 1 extra reveal from good scouting.
Never Give Up	Army doesn't break until all main battle cards are gone.
Mercenary Loyalty	Mercenaries will always be reliable - they will ignore enemy cards affecting them in BattlePlay. In StratPlay if an opponent tries to bribe an army, the cost is increased by 1 gold per mercenary card (it is usually zero).

Ship Cards

Ship cards follow the same format as troop cards, and each represents a small fleet of about 25 ships. But instead of a deck for each faction, there is a single shared ship deck for all players to use.

Ship cards are all identical. They fight with skull dice which vary depending on the state of naval development for your faction:

• Transports = BLACK
• Biremes = WHITE
• Triremes = GREEN
• Quinquiremes = YELLOW
• Flagships = RED

Ship card rules:

• When transporting an army, each ship card can carry up to 3 troop cards plus a general. If a ship card is lost while carrying troops, then random troop cards are lost in proportion. Lose the entire fleet, and you lose the entire army and the general. It is therefore important to be careful when transporting armies by sea, to be either very well protected or able to avoid contact with enemy naval forces.
• Each faction can have a maximum of 2 navies, which can each have a maximum of 5 ship cards.
• All factions except the Barbarian Tribes start with ship cards at the Trireme level - 6 for Carthage and 5 each for Rome and Greece. Barbarian Tribes start with no actual ship cards or naval capability at all, but can build on their development chart.

Action Cards

There are 55 action cards in the deck. Each card is multi-purpose:

• The top half has two choices for the Agent Phase.
  • Agent actions that can only be used by agents (a symbol in the top left section of each card).
  • An emergency tax levy that can only be cashed in during the Agent Phase (a gold amount shown in the top right).
• The bottom half has a special event that can be played in the phases indicated on the card. When an action card is played to trigger an event, it is referred to below as an event card.

You will draw cards from this deck and can then use one of the actions shown on each card when you play it. This is a shared deck that all factions use. Before play, shuffle it and place it to the side of the board. Each player may hold a maximum of 5 action cards initially, but this can grow to 7 as their faction develops.

Playing an Action Card as an Event Card

In the real world, there was a lot going on that was out of the control of faction leaders. We represent this in the game by having events on the action cards. Instead of playing a card for an agent action or emergency tax levy, you can use it for the event instead, even interrupting an opponent's move to do so. You can play events at any time unless restricted on the card, creating interesting twists for faction leaders to face and simulating the "fog of war" and chaos of reality.

All events are fully described on the cards.

Here are two example cards and below them the key for the different types of actions and the number of each in the 55 card deck:

• Difficult Travels (Campaign Phase) - Slow enemy army by one land movement. Can be cancelled by Forced March.
• Plague (Agent Phase) - Remove half cards rounded down at random (including general) and one card from each adjacent army.

The left-hand card allows you to offer friendship or alliance to other factions, or you can cash it in for 2 gold. Alternatively, you can use it to slow an enemy army to move one less on campaign.

The right-hand card is one of the most dangerous, as it allows you to try to assassinate an opposing general or agent (but your agent could get killed in the process), trade it in for 3 gold, or start a plague somewhere. Choices!

Dangerous actions can get your agent killed!

Agent Action Symbols

The agent action symbols, with the number of each card in the 55 card deck:

Common actions

• Treaty X8
• Trade X8
• Protests X8
• Spy X8

Uncommon actions

• Riots X3
• Rebel Uprising X3
• Hire Mercenaries X2
• Slow Distrust X2
• Double Agent X2

Dangerous actions

• Assassination X3
• Sabotage X3
• Treasury Theft X2
• Bribe X3

Note: the page's event-card examples sit beneath the symbol grid in the source PDF and are not legible in the printed layout, so they are not transcribed here.

Faction Boards

Each player has a faction board that is designed to help you keep your materials tidy and organized. On your board there are 4 zones plus 3 surrounding edges:

• A - The top zone has a reminder of the symbol key for the troop cards.
• B - Top left is a diplomacy tracker, where you record your allies and enemies.
• C - Lower left, we list the costs in gold of everything you can purchase - this is helpful when spending. * items are only possible as a result of a development already being in place at the time. So to buy Scorpios you have to have done that development in a previous spending phase.
• D - To the right are your faction developments in tech-tree form, which goes from left to right, with the cost of each development (in gold) shown in yellow. To gain a higher-level development, you must have all developments with arrows leading to it. For instance, if playing as the Romans, you would need Scorpio and Ballistae before you could gain the Marian Reforms and switch to the Imperial Legionaries etc.
• E - Around the edges are indented spaces for your cards: 2x navies on the left, 4x armies at the bottom, and action and reserve cards to the right. Your army and navy models are numbered to match the numbers on your board.

So to keep your table neat, set up your play area like this...

Setup

• A - Place your home region control markers on your initial home regions. Place your army and navy models on top of them. You do not have to create 4 starting armies, unless you are playing the Barbarian Tribes faction. The Barbarian Tribes must have exactly 4 equal-sized armies and cannot mix Lowland and Highland Warriors until they have achieved the National Unity development.
• B - Place the gold coins near the board to form a "bank".
• C - Shuffle the action cards and place them next to the board, accessible to all players, and place the shared grey mercenary deck and the blue ship deck near the board.
• D - Take your faction board and place it in front of you.
• E - Take your starting set of troop and general cards, which you can identify by the black ring around the faction symbol.
• F - Take your starting set of ship cards - 6 for Carthage and 5 each for Rome and Greece. The Barbarian Tribes faction starts with no ships.
• G - Place the rest of your faction's cards face down in the Reserve Cards space to the right of your faction board as your reserve. The Roman second deck (Imperial deck) is placed aside as it is not needed until later.
• H - Create your initial armies and navies by allocating starting cards to them and placing them around your faction board. Once complete, place your army and navy models on top of them (see step A).
• I - An army is limited to a maximum of 6 main battle cards, up to 2 skirmisher cards, plus up to 2 artillery cards, thereby a total maximum of 10 troop cards. No region may contain more than this number of troop cards in total from the same faction, but may contain multiple armies up to that limit (it represents the limits of supplying an army in the field). Each army may also contain up to 1 general. Similarly, a navy (and a sea area) is limited to a maximum of 5 ship cards from the same faction. These limits apply throughout the game, not just at the start.

Playing the Game: The Game Turn

The game is played over a series of turns, which you can think of as representing several years of real time. A typical game will last 4-8 turns. You can choose a target of 10, 15, 20, or 25 VPs for short to long games—we recommend 15 as a starting level, which usually takes about 5 turns, and moving to 20 VPs as the main game once you have learned enough to play at a good pace.

Each turn is made up of 5 phases played in order, as follows:

1. Initiative
2. Agent
3. Taxation
4. Campaigning
5. Spending

It is a universal rule that you can ask an opponent to tell you how many cards they have in an army or navy and how many mercenary cards are in each any time it is your go.

Tactical Tip: You will find that you will at times want to go first and at other times last, and that this becomes more important as the game reaches closure. You will often find people bidding gold later in the game. Also, you may want to go for a particular direction of play so your ally plays next or last. At times, it is vital to make the right choices in this phase.

Initiative Phase

Take the same number of initiative cards as there are players, and randomly deal one face down to each player (you will now have a number from I to IV in a 4-player game, for example.) Each player secretly chooses how much gold they are willing to bid to add to their number and hides it in their hand, and all reveal how much gold they are holding at the same time. The player with the highest total of card number plus gold can claim the initiative and go first and choose the direction of play for the turn; or they can pass that option on to the next highest bidder. In the event of a tie, the higher bid of gold wins. Once decided, leave the first player's card face up and turn the others over to show the direction of play.

Agent Phase

In the first turn, each player draws 5 action cards from the deck and in each turn thereafter replenishes their hand back up to 5. This limit goes up to 6 if you have the Extra Agent development and to 7 if you have Advanced Subterfuge (see the faction boards for a reminder). Players draw cards at the same time.

Then, in turn order, the players move their agents and may take agent actions by playing action cards, cash in cards for gold, and/or save their cards for future use. Each agent may only take one action in each Agent Phase, in addition to moving, unless you benefit from an event card or a development that allows more.

Moving Agents

Each agent may combine land and sea movement as follows:

1. If the agent is not on the board yet, it starts in any home region.
2. Each may move up to five land regions or sea areas in total, unaffected by rivers or mountain ranges.
3. Movement by sea must be from a region with a port to another region with a port (no navy is required as it represents them hiring passage on a trade ship). Just count the sea areas in between.

An agent may combine land and sea in any order you choose.

Example: A Greek agent is located in Pella at the beginning of the Agent Phase. The Greek player moves the agent to Epidamnos (1 land region), then sails across Mare Adriaticum, Mare Ionium, and Syrtis Minor (3 sea areas) to land at Carthago. They choose not to use their final movement allowance and stay in Carthago.

Agent Actions

Here is what you can do by exercising each of the different agent actions on the cards:

Treaty - Your agent discusses alliances or cessations of hostilities with opposing agents, or tries to recover relations if you have broken a treaty. You may only play this action if your agent is in the same region as another faction's agent or in a region in that faction's homeland with a gold value of at least 2, or their capital (which for the barbarians is only worth 1 Gold). You may then request an upgrade from enemy to neutral, or neutral to friendly, or friendly to ally. If the other player agrees, you both move your faction markers into the appropriate section of your diplomacy tracker. If they turn you down you lose 2 gold to them as the tribute paid in the attempt at niceness. [Source prints "2 old" here; read as "2 gold".]

Example: The Roman player uses an action card with the treaty symbol after moving an agent into the same region as a Barbarian Tribe's agent in central Italy (hoping that agent's presence is out of a desire for trade rather than to cause trouble). The Barbarian player accepts, and they both move to friendly status.

Trade - Your agents can organize trade agreements with an opposing nation. You may only play this action if your agent is in the same region as another faction's agent or in a faction's homeland. If you trade with a neutral, both factions immediately gain 2 gold each, if friendly 3 gold, and if an ally 4 gold. In addition, you each get 1 gold bonus in the trade for each market you have in regions with ports. You cannot trade with enemies. You can only activate a trade with another faction once per Agent Phase (they may of course reciprocate).

Example: The Barbarian Tribes player uses an action card with the trade symbol for their agent in Rome. Having become allies, the trade is worth 4 gold to each player and is readily accepted by the Roman player. The Barbarians have no markets, but Rome has 2 where there are ports and gets a bonus of 2 gold. So, it's 6 gold for Rome and 4 gold for the Barbarians.

Spy - Your agent manages to infiltrate an enemy army and records its complete composition. The opposing player must show all the troop cards in that army stack, including the general. You now know what you are up against.

Example: A Greek player has backed off and allowed the Roman army to take a couple of regions, which has resulted in losses to the Roman army. Their agent trails the Roman army and plays an action card with the spy symbol to look at the whole army. They now know it is just 2 Legionaries, 1 Italian Infantry, and 2 Velites led by a mediocre general. Now, the Greek can plan to destroy it in the Campaign Phase before it can be reinforced. Of course, it could have been 5 Legionary cards - much tougher…

Protests - Your agent incites protests that interfere with tax collection in the region. Place 1 unrest marker in the region your agent is in. (This will cause any taxes from that region in the Taxation Phase to be halved, rounded down—see taxation phase).

Example: The Greek player uses an action card with the protests symbol for their agent in Carthago: They place 1 unrest marker there. The Carthage player will only receive 1 gold in taxes from Carthago this game turn, when it is usually worth 3!

Assassination - Your agent identifies an enemy general or agent and tries to eliminate them by underhand means. You can try to assassinate an enemy general in the same region by rolling 1 RED die: you need a Skull to kill them, but a X results in your agent being killed in the attempt. An S fails, but your agent survives. If killed, the general returns to their faction's reserve deck. If they were a mediocre two-star, then no successor takes over; if they were a competent three-star or better, then a two-star subordinate (take one from the reserve deck) takes over (if available). An army can therefore be without leadership until a replacement general takes command, and plays as if a zero-star general if attacked. Alternatively, you can assassinate an enemy agent, which is easier. For this, roll 2 RED dice and take the better result - thereby much easier than assassinating generals.

Example: The Carthaginian player uses an action card with the assassination symbol, moving their agent to a Roman army in Syracuse led by a talented general. They roll a RED die and get an X: alas, the Roman bodyguards killed the assassin in the attempt. Undaunted, they send another agent in to have a go and this time roll a Skull and kill the general, who is replaced by a 2* subordinate.

Riots - Your agent incites the population of the region to riot. Place 2 unrest markers in the region your agent is in. (This will reduce the taxes from that region to zero—in reality, they are spending as much to control the revolting peasants as they manage to collect).

Example: The Carthaginian player uses an action card with the riots symbol for their agent in Rome. They place 2 unrest markers there and the Roman player will not receive any taxes from Rome this game turn (normally worth 3 gold)!

Bribe - Your agent tries to get an opposing army to move away or disband or worse, or an undefended home region to open its gates and let you in.

An attempt to bribe an army costs 1 gold per non-mercenary troop card in the enemy army plus 1 gold per star value of the enemy general. If the enemy has mercenary loyalty, then there is an additional cost of 1 gold per mercenary troop card. Your agent must be in the same region as the army where the bribery occurs. Then, the player making the bribe rolls 1 RED die: if they roll a Skull, the army loses all Mercenary cards switch sides and join any army owned by the briber that is in the region or adjacent (card limits for a region permitting) and half of its other cards, rounded down, are lost. These soldiers go off to spend their loot peacefully and all the money goes to the bank. In addition, the bribing player can move the remaining army 2 regions. On an X, the agent is killed for the insult, and the enemy faction keeps the gold they were offered. On an S, the bribe has failed but the agent survives and returns with the money.

Tactical Tip: Watch for enemy armies full of mercenaries. They can be easier to bribe, as the mercenaries are prone to take the cash and avoid a fight. You can tell how many mercenary cards are in an army as they have a different back.

To attempt to bribe a region to open its gates and surrender costs 2 gold per garrison die and you must have one of your own armies besieging the region and no opposing enemy army present. The briber rolls a RED die with a Skull being a success (place a control marker in the region and the money in the bank), an X getting the agent killed (the opponent keeps the money), and an S meaning that the agent survives and the money is recovered. (Bribes can be dramatic, but it will often cost a lot of gold to make the attempt. Sometimes it will be worth the risk to avoid having to give battle or storm an enemy home region). Bribing a fully developed Rome would cost 10 gold with a 50% chance or getting killed and losing the money.

Example: The Greek player is desperate to stop a large Carthaginian army advancing from Egypt, but has no army in the south to stop it; but they do have a lot of gold. They move an agent into Egypt and play an action card with the bribe symbol. The Carthaginian army has 6 troop cards and a competent general, but 2 of them are mercenary cards, so it costs 7 gold to try to bribe them. The Carthaginian player rolls a RED die and gets an S! The army goes off to spend its cash and the 2 mercenary cards change sides!

Sabotage - Your agent tries to destroy an enemy market or barracks by burning it down. Your agent must be in the region where the target improvement is located. Then, the player controlling the agent rolls 1 RED die: if they roll a Skull, the market or barracks is burned down; on an X, the agent is killed in the attempt; on an S, the agent fails and escapes safely.

Treasury Theft - Your agent arranges a robbery of an opponent's treasury. The agent must be in the capital city of the target faction. Then, the player attempting the robbery rolls 1 RED die: if they roll a Skull, their victim must hand over half of their current gold (rounded up); on an X, the agent is killed in the attempt; on an S the agent survives.

Double Agent - Your agent has been spying on an opposing agent and plays them as a double agent, getting them to go home to the capital and report back. The agent must be in the same region as the opposing player's agent, which is sent back to their capital and may do nothing more this turn.

Slow Distrust - Your agent spreads rumours to put alliances and friends at risk and create suspicion of other nations. The agent must be in the capital region of another faction. Reduce the diplomatic status of one of that faction's relationships by a single level. This cannot move a relationship from neutral to enemy.

Recruit Mercenaries - Your agent goes to an M region to persuade a mercenary troop to join your nearest army, as long as it is within 4 land regions. Add 1 non-veteran mercenary card of the appropriate type to that army (subject to card availability and army size limits) and pay for its gold value.

Rebel Uprising - Your agent incites the local populace to rise up against their oppressors.

• If it is a conquered independent region with an army in it, the army takes damage from the region's dice to re-conquer it.
• If there is no army, it simply returns to independent status: remove any control marker there.
• If it is a conquered home region (i.e. one that has been taken by an enemy) with an enemy army present, that army suffers 1 RED die per that region's initial gold value and if it survives quells the uprising and keeps the region; if does not survive, or there is no enemy army present, it returns to its former owner.
• You cannot cause uprisings in opposing players home regions, only ones that do not have their initial rulers.

Here is a table summarising all the dangerous actions where you have to roll a RED dice roll and your agent might die:

RED dice	Assassinate	Sabotage	Bribe an Army	Bribe a Garrison	Treasury Theft
Result	1 die vs. general; vs. agent: roll 2 dice and pick best result	Target barracks or market	Bribe Successful - army loses all M cards and the rest half disbands (round down). The bribe goes into the bank. The remaining army is moved up to 2 regions by the briber.	Open Gates - take control of region without needing to storm the city.	Must be in their capitol city. Successful Theft - take half of enemy treasury rounded up.
Skull	Target Killed - if 2* general or agent then lost, any other replace with 2* subordinate. Agent survives.	Burned Down - remove market or barracks from play.	(see Bribe Successful above)	(see Open Gates above)	(see Successful Theft above)
X	Agent Killed - remove from play; a replacement can be purchased.	Agent Killed - remove from play; a replacement can be purchased.	Agent Killed - bribe money lost to opponent. Remove agent from play; a replacement can be purchased.

Taxation Phase

Each player totals up the gold value of all the regions they control, and takes that many gold coins from the bank, adding them to their own supply. Initially, each faction has 12 gold worth of home regions. In addition, you get 1 gold for each market that is connected by roads to another market that you control.

If you have fully developed a region to have an Ancient Wonder (every possible other development must be done first including all possible roads) you get 2 gold from each opposing player from tourism (even if they have enemy status).

Remember to take into account any unrest markers on the map and any developments or effects that cancel them on your faction board. Normally, a single unrest marker in a region reduces its taxes to one half (rounded down). 2 (or more) unrest markers reduce the taxes for that region to zero. Do not remove unrest markers at this time (you will have to pay or use armies to get rid of these).

You gain VPs for Economic Might during each Taxation Phase. You get 1 VP for raising 20+ gold and 2 VP for raising 25+, 3 VP for raising 30+ and 4 VP for raising 40+ gold (a massive economic power).

Economic Power: 1 VP for 20+, 2 VPs for 25+, 3 VPs for 30+, 4 VPs for 40+.

Example 1: Rome has built markets in Rome and Brundisium and has built roads connecting them. They have expanded to conquer 2 new 1-gold regions and have no unrest markers in their regions. They get their initial 12 gold plus 2 for the new regions and 2 more for the markets to make 16 gold this turn.

Example 2: Carthage controls all of their starting home territories plus the regions of Migdol, Dimmidi, Ebora, Olisipo, Numantia, Ars, Balearica, Syracuse, and Lilybaeum. They have all improvements and an Ancient Wonder in Carthago. However, there is 1 unrest marker in Tingis (which reduces the taxes by half, rounded down to 0) and two unrest markers in Kartuba (which reduces taxes there to 0). So, they collect a total of 25 gold and 2 VPs [12 for starting regions less three from unrest for 9 gold, plus 10 from conqueror regions, plus 6 from the other 3 players for the ancient wonder].

Campaigning Phase

This phase represents a few years of campaigning. During this phase, each faction in turn order may move any or all of their armies and navies, resolving any battles as they occur.

Placing Armies and Navies on the Board

In the first Campaigning Phase, your armies and navies are not yet on the board. The first time you move each of them, you must place its model on the board in one of your home regions. If you build a new army or navy later in the game, it is not placed on the board until the first time you move it. New armies can begin in any of your home regions, any other region you control with a gold value of 2 or more, or any region you control with a barracks. A new navy must always start from a port in your home regions. You may have a maximum of 4 armies and 2 navies on the map at a time (not including any you have bribed into swapping sides).

Composition of Armies and Navies

Each army and navy is composed of a number of cards, kept face down in a stack next to that player's faction board. The cards in that stack determine the composition of that army or navy. Cards can be added to or removed from armies and navies during the game, changing their composition. Each army must have at least 2 main battle cards or it disintegrates and is entirely lost.

An army may have a maximum of 6 main battle cards plus up to 2 skirmisher cards plus up to 2 artillery cards. A navy can have a maximum of 5 ship cards. At no time can you exceed this number of cards in a region (supply would be the problem) and if at any time you are faced with having too many, you must discard to get down to the limit.

Moving Armies and Navies

Armies may move without opposition through regions you control, or any region controlled by an ally. Navies may move through any sea area (but see Interception below). Movement is always from one region/area to an adjacent region/area.

• Armies normally have a movement allowance of 3 movement points (MP) per Campaigning Phase. Armies consisting only of cavalry and/or chariots (and/or a general) have 5 movement points per Campaigning Phase.
• Movement between regions connected by a normal land border (brown) or straits costs 1 MP.
• Movement between regions connected by a road is faster - you can move 3 regions for 1 movement allowance. So, if you have a massive road and a pure cavalry force they could ride as far as 15 regions in a single Campaigning Phase! Note that roads can also be built across straits, representing an established short-distance ferry service.
• It costs 1 additional MP to cross a major river (shown in blue on the map) or through mountain passes (shown in brown on the map) unless a road connects them.
• Navies have 4 MP per Campaigning Phase. Moving to an adjacent sea area costs 1 MP. Note that 4 sea areas is a lot further than 4 land regions, so naval movement is faster.
• Certain event cards give extra movement for armies and navies.

Naval Transport

A navy can transport an army and, as the navy is faster, it is a great way to transport an army long distance - and you could of course bypass blocking enemy armies by having your navy carry your army along the coastline, or even engineer a Dunkirk-like rescue for a stranded army.

To transport an army by sea, we combine land and sea movement. Both the navy and army lose 1 MP to board and disembark, so a navy can "bridge" across a maximum of 2 sea areas in a single move (1 to board, 2 to move, and 1 to disembark). If you look at the map at Carthago, an army could board there and disembark in Petra, a full seven land regions away. An army can use the rest of its movement allowance to reach the navy to board or to move after disembarking—so having got to Petra, it could then move into Acre with its last movement. A navy can use any spare to move afterwards. A navy that doesn't move could board and disembark 2 armies (spending 2 moves to load and 2 to disembark).

If either the army or navy has too little movement to complete the transportation, the army will remain "on board" the navy until a later Campaign Phase and is therefore at risk. If a transporting navy fights, the carried cards are lost in proportion to ship card losses, rounded up, treating main battle cards, skirmishers, and artillery separately. They could take their on-board army with them to the bottom of the sea!

Interception: If a navy does any move (including boarding and disembarking) in a sea area with an opposing navy adjacent to it, the moving navy can be intercepted and attacked. If the opposing player chooses to do so, he moves his navy immediately into the sea area and attacks, at zero movement cost.

Example: Carthage wants to transport a large 8-card army across the map from Carthago to Brundisium. That is only 2 sea areas, so it can be done in one move. There is a Greek navy next to the path in Mare Internum, and the Greek player decides this is a great moment to assist Rome, breaking their alliance with Carthage to intercept. During the ensuing battle, Carthage loses 2 of their 4 ship cards, and therefore also loses half of their army, rounded up. The Carthaginian player now has just 4 army cards left, so their army has been decimated. Ouch!

Reorganizing

Friendly armies or navies that are in the same region or sea area can be merged, reorganized, or split as desired, while obeying the minimum and maximum sizes (except that the Barbarian Tribes may only do so after achieving National Unity). This costs 1 movement allowance from both armies. If two armies are merged into 1, either general can be sent back home and used to build a new army later (put his card into the unallocated stack next to the reserve deck).

Example: Upon entering Nemossos, a Roman army encounters a Barbarian Tribes army. Judging that their troops are outnumbered, the Barbarian player tries not to fight by forcing a dice-off to avoid battle. The Roman player reveals that their army is led by a talented general, a bit better than the Barbarian's competent general. The Roman player rolls a YELLOW die, getting an X, while the Barbarian Tribes player rolls a GREEN die for a Skull. Since the Skull is higher, their attempt to refuse battle succeeds and they can move away to another region!

Subduing Unrest

An army with 4 or more troop cards and a minimum of 2 main battle cards can subdue unrest and riots in a friendly region. Entering the region automatically removes one unrest from it. Spending 1 MP while remaining in the region removes one unrest from it, and this can be done multiple times.

Meeting Enemy Armies and Avoiding Battle

If you enter any region containing an enemy army (or start your turn in a region with an enemy army), you may have to fight before you can leave that region. Either player may attempt to avoid battle by beating the opposing general in a head-to-head dice roll. Each general rolls 1 die as follows:

General's star rating	Die colour
no general	BLACK
2	WHITE
3	GREEN
4	YELLOW
5	RED

If the player wishing to avoid battle rolls a higher symbol (Skull > X > S > blank), his army escapes by moving to an adjacent region. Otherwise, it must fight (unless the player has a special escape card). The opponent may pursue and force the escaping army to try to escape multiple times. If it is your turn, an escape or pursuit costs the normal movement cost. If it is not your turn, it is free. If both players wish to avoid battle, the moving army escapes without any need to throw dice and there is no pursuit.

Without Leadership

At times, an army may end up without leadership - in other words, without a general card. Even without a general, it still moves and fights as normal, but is treated as having a zero star value general until another general takes over. If an army is within 4 land regions of a home region at the end of its movement, a spare general may join it from the reserve.

Meeting Enemy Navies

If your navy enters a sea area containing an enemy navy (or if an enemy navy intercepts you, see above), the navies must stop and fight a battle immediately. Once the battle is resolved, the moving navy may continue moving only if it was victorious. The losing navy immediately retreats up to 2 sea areas, and/or retires to a friendly port if there is one within that distance (and is then safe in that port). The victor may choose to pursue and fight again if it is their turn and they have enough movement allowance. Unlike armies, navies may not force a die roll to avoid battle.

Independent Regions

Enters an independent region, even if another faction has already conquered it, they must immediately try to conquer it as the locals object to being controlled. This section describes the normal procedure for conquest of an independent region. If another faction controls the region and has built a barracks in it, the region is garrisoned and a different procedure applies (see the section Garrisoned Regions below).

Each independent region has a defensive dice roll. This is shown on the map if it is a Mercenary Region, otherwise determined by its gold value:

• gold = 2 x GREEN (the source prints no number before "gold" here; see the 1 gold, 2 gold and 3 gold values given under The Map above)
• gold = 2 x YELLOW
• gold or more = 2 x RED

When you enter the region, an opponent rolls these dice on behalf of the defenders and you must lose 1 main battle card for each Skull or two X rolled and 1 skirmisher or artillery card for each S result (you can choose which to lose). If your army survives the fight (by having at least 2 main battle cards remaining), you have successfully conquered the region. Mark it with one of your control markers. If your army is victorious, it can continue to move and enter another region and attempt to conquer it, if movement allowance remains.

Mercenary Regions: If the region has an M symbol, it was an area renowned for providing great mercenaries and allies. The dice rolls for these regions are shown on the board—they are usually much harder to subdue than other regions. However, if a mercenary region rolls all Blanks on its defensive dice, they have accepted annexation easily and you gain a free mercenary card from their deck. Take a look at Thracia, and you will see that its defensive dice roll is 2 x RED and 1 x YELLOW. You could lose 3 main battle cards from 3 Skulls (a 1 in 54 chance of this) and could easily lose 2. There is no chance of a free Thracian as there is no Blank on a RED dice.

Once a mercenary region is conquered you can build a barracks there (in any Spending Phase), and thereafter you can recruit from the mercenary cards for that region into an army within 4 land regions, or to form a new army in that region.

Garrisoned Regions

All home regions are garrisoned, as is any independent region where a faction has built a barracks.

If an army enters an opponent's region and there is an enemy army there that stays to fight, then a battle is fought immediately before the enemy can try to conquer the region. If the enemy is defeated, or there is no defending army, the invader may either try to conquer the region by defeating its garrison, or it may besiege the region (thereby denying any tax income from it).

Conquering Garrisoned Regions: A garrison is sized according to the gold value of the region and whether it has a barracks within it. The attacking army must defeat the garrison in an assault:

• The garrison rolls a number of RED Skull dice against the attacker equal to its gold value plus 1. If it has a barracks it adds another dice. So, if Roma has a barracks, it has a deadly 5x RED dice against an attacker, and even a garrisoned 1-gold region rolls 2x RED dice.
• If you are reconquering your own home region, or you have the Siegecraft development, the garrison rolls YELLOW dice instead of RED.

These dice inflict casualties as per conquering an independent region as described above (Skull or two X results kill main battle cards and S results kill skirmisher or artillery cards). But there is a difference....

The attacking army also rolls dice:

• For each infantry main battle card: 1 GREEN die (normally) or 1 WHITE die (if the garrison has walls).
• For each artillery battle card: All the dice shown on its card for good going.
• For the general: 1 die of the colour determined by his star rating:

General's star rating	Die colour
2	WHITE
3	GREEN
4	YELLOW
5	RED

Add up the damage caused by each side, counting a skull as 2 damage and an X as 1 damage. An S or blank does no damage.

Example: The Greeks have sailed to Carthago early in a game and try to take it. They have landed an army with a full 6 main battle cards and a Talented General to try to get the job done. Carthago currently has 3 gold value but no barracks or walling yet, so it rolls 4 RED dice, getting two Skulls and an X. The attacking army has 6 GREEN and a YELLOW for the general. Alas, they get only a Skull and two X results in total and fail to storm the city. The attacking army loses 2 main battle cards, and now settles down to besiege the city instead.

If the attacking army caused more damage than the garrison, then it has conquered the region. It takes its losses, places a control marker, and (if not reduced below 2 main battle cards) may continue moving if it has movement allowance remaining. Any walls or barracks remain in place under their new owner.

If the attacking army did not cause more damage than the garrison, then the assault has failed. The attacking army takes its losses and (if not reduced below 2 main battle cards) may remain and besiege the region, or continue moving if it has movement allowance remaining.

Besieging a Garrisoned Region: If you choose not to (or failed to) conquer the region, you can besiege it instead. Its owner cannot collect any gold from it while you have an army in the region (either from taxes or any trade bonus from a market), nor can they put any regional improvements there or recruit into that region. A besieged region that has been improved gradually loses its walls and barracks. During any Taxation Phase that it is besieged: if it has walls, remove them; if it has no walls, then remove any barracks instead (if it was formerly an independent region, removal of barracks means it is no longer garrisoned). In this way, it gets weaker over time. Markets, roads, and Ancient Wonders remain.

Conquering Enemy Home Regions

1 VP plus 1 VP per gold value of the region.

Battles: StratPlay

A battle between armies is fought by playing troop cards against each other head-to-head, rolling the dice, and assigning damage. Ancient battles were characterised by a few regular features: how good the opposing generals were; if there was a lot of terrain to contend with; a clash for the centre of the battle line; a battle on each flank; and when remaining troops exist on a flank, these being used to envelope the enemy army. The StratPlay system is designed to give a narrative of each of these key features in a short card vs. card battle.

The battle is resolved by following these steps in order:

1. Preparing for Battle
2. Fight for Terrain
3. Fight for the Flanks
4. Fight for the Centre
5. Envelopment
6. Determine Victor if no army has been routed.

Routing the Enemy Army

If at any time an army is reduced to 1 main battle card (0 main battle cards if the general has the Never Give Up characteristic), it collapses and routs (i.e. loses the battle). So, your objective is always to get your enemy to this level before your own army is routed.

Steps 2 through 5 are subdivided into one or more combats. In each combat, troop cards are deployed, fight and may be destroyed or wounded. The procedure for combats is described in detail later on.

Step 1: Preparing for Battle

Marshal your army: First, both players take up all of the cards that make up their army that is involved in the battle into their hands. These are the units that you will use to fight the battle.

Set the Terrain: Then, determine what type of terrain the battle will be fought over. Terrain affected many ancient battles, often providing a secure flank that had to be contested or offering an opportunity for a massive ambush such as during Hannibal's victory at Lake Trasimene in 217BCE or the "Varian Disaster" in the Teutoberg Forest in 9CE. An army fighting in terrain without suitable troops will find it difficult to win.

If the region where the battle is being fought shows any mountain or tree icons, it indicates that there is difficult terrain in that region, which affects all battles fought there. There can be any number between 1 and 4 difficult terrain icons in a region. The number of icons determines how many combats you must fight during the Fight for Terrain step (see below).

Play any action cards: Each player plays any action cards they want to use in the battle. There is a range of effects on the cards, such as events called Prepared Battlefield that can change the number of terrain icons up or down, cards that cause a general to fight better than their star value, cards to stop mercenaries joining the fight, and so on.

Designate the Battle Zones: When you fight a battle, you each need an open space on the table (which we call a Battle Zone) where you can play your cards. This space is divided into three zones. It only needs to be large enough to allow four card stacks. Try to follow this neatly and accurately and you will find it all neat and tidy.

1. The Dead Zone is the area furthest from you. Whenever one of your troop cards is destroyed, you must turn it upside-down and push it forward into your Dead Zone. So, push the dead away from you.
2. The Active Zone is in the middle, where you deploy troop cards to fight in the current combat and where troops carrying a hanging wound (see below) remain.
3. The Safe Zone is the area closest to you. Units that are not wounded after their combat are pulled back to here, where they remain in (relative) safety. So, pull survivors back towards you. These are stacked on your general. Some go on your general and are fully safe, some to the right of the general and are still vulnerable to potential envelopments.

Compare Generals: Finally, both players reveal their general cards and place them in their Safe Zone, at the left hand end of it. Historically, better generals often won battles even against the odds. So, players will have an advantage if a better general leads their army. Compare the number of stars on the two general cards: The general with the most stars is the superior commander. If you have the superior general, subtract the number of stars on your opponent's general from your own. You get 1 reveal for each difference in star rating (so, a 3-star general facing off against a 2-star general gets 1 reveal).

Each reveal can be used in one combat and forces your opponent to show you all the card(s) they are deploying for that single combat before you choose which of your cards to deploy. You choose when to invoke each reveal. This allows the better general to line up their troops to get the best results from the S effects on their cards.

Example: A Greek army commanded by a talented general (4*) is fighting a Barbarian Tribes army led by a mediocre general (2*), so the Greek player has 2 reveals for this battle. The first combat will be fought in difficult terrain, so the Greek player decides to invoke his first reveal right away to see if the Barbarians place a main battle card in the combat, forcing the Barbarian to show that they are playing just a Slinger. The Greek chooses a Javelinmen, whose S effect would kill the Slinger if rolled, and saves their main battle card for a different combat. In the second combat, the Greek commander decides to save his second reveal, so both players deploy their troops "blind" and reveal them at the same time. Since this region has 2 terrain icons, the battle then moves to the flanks. Wanting to protect his valuable veteran Companions, the Greek player uses his last reveal and his opponent has to show that they are deploying a chariot unit. The Greek leader decides that he can save his Companions for a possible envelopment attack later on, and deploys his Thessalian Cavalry instead.

Steps 2-5: Combat Procedure

Steps 2-5 are each divided into one or more combats. During each combat, you must deploy at least 1 troop card if you can. You cannot "refuse" to participate in a combat to save your forces for later. (There is an exception, noted below).

Each combat follows the same process:

• Deploy: Both players will simultaneously and secretly choose troop cards from their army to play into the current combat. The chosen cards can include at most one of each type (main battle, skirmisher or artillery) and there may be other restrictions specified below for particular steps. Once all troop cards are chosen, both players reveal their forces at the same time and place them in their Active Zone. If one side has a better general they may be able to force the opponent to reveal their cards for some combats before choosing their own (see "Compare Generals", above).
• Artillery Fire: If either side has deployed an artillery unit to the combat, it fires first and the results are applied immediately. Note, if their opponent has deployed a skirmisher, the artillery must fire at those rather than the main battle card.
• Skirmishers Fire: If either side has deployed a skirmisher unit to the combat, it fires next and the results are applied immediately. If both sides have skirmishers they shoot at each other.
• Bowmen Fire: If either side has deployed any bowmen main battle cards, they fire third at the opposing main battle card, and the results are applied immediately.
• Hand-to-Hand Combat: Finally, assuming they survived all the ranged fire, any remaining units in the combat fight and the results are applied immediately.
• Specials: A few special cards have instructions on their cards (War Dogs, Flaming Logs, Incendiary Pigs).
• Withdrawal: Troop cards that survived without even a hanging wound (see below) are pulled back to the Safe Zone.

In all cases, the combatants fire or fight by choosing which enemy troop card (in the Active Zone) to attack and rolling Skull dice as described below. Note: you may never choose to attack an enemy artillery troop card. Instead artillery are destroyed if the main battle card they were deployed with is destroyed.

Rolling Skull Dice

When you attack with a troop card, you will roll the dice shown on that troop card to inflict casualties to the opposing army. The dice you roll must match the dice shown on your card for the type of terrain you are fighting the current combat in.

• In step 2, the Fight for Terrain, troop cards use their difficult terrain dice and special S or X effects.
• In the other steps (3-5), troop cards use their good going dice and special S or X effects.
• If you roll an S: your unit may use its special ability, if it applies. Look at the bottom left of your troop card to see if it has a special ability that applies to the current combat: some troop cards can automatically destroy specific opposing units (shown in RED) if you roll an S when they attack, some cancel the damage done to you by specific opposing units (shown in BLACK).
• If you roll a blank: your attack fails, there is no effect.
• Overkill damage can always overflow onto any card in the Active Zone (except artillery who are killed as above), so, for example, if you roll a Skull and an X and there is a wounded card as well as your target, you kill them both.
• If a main battle card is destroyed, any artillery card played with it is also destroyed.

Then roll the dice against the enemy card played in the active zone:

• If you roll a Skull: the opposing troop card is destroyed! The opposing player turns it upside-down and pushes it forward into the Dead Zone.
• If you roll an X: the opposing troop card is wounded. Turn the card sideways and leave it in the Active Zone. This is called a hanging wound. If there is already a card with a hanging wound in the active zone, the first wound goes onto it, instead of the original target. A card with a hanging wound that suffers a second wound is destroyed (invert it and push it into the Dead Zone). Any surplus wounds go onto any (enemy) card(s) in the active zone.

Some troop types have special abilities that take effect when you roll an X. A special X kill (RED) is treated as a Skull instead. A special X that cancels damage done to you (BLACK) still inflicts a wound on the enemy as well.

Now that we have all the techniques of combat sorted, let's look at the four "Fight" phases of battle in more detail.

Step 2: Fight for Terrain

Earlier, you determined how many difficult terrain combats there will be. It may be as few as zero and with certain event cards could be as many as seven! You must commit cards (if possible) to each combat during this step.

• You may deploy any main battle card (alone, or with skirmishers and/or artillery).
• You may not deploy artillery without a main battle card.
• You may deploy an infantry skirmisher troop card alone, or with an infantry main battle card.
• You may deploy a cavalry skirmisher troop card with any main battle card, but not alone.

Example: A battle is raging in Patavium, so the first 2 rounds will be fought in difficult terrain and the rest will be good going. Alas, the Greeks have only Hoplites, so they must play these each round for BLACK dice, whereas the Roman general has 2 Velites which get 2x WHITE dice in difficult terrain—Velites are much better than Hoplites in this situation. In the first round, the Velites rolls 1 X and in the second combat 2 X results, so a Hoplite has been destroyed and another is sitting vulnerable in the Active Zone with a hanging wound. A weakened force of 4 Hoplites must now face off against 6 Legionary cards in the open.

In each combat, troop cards use their difficult terrain dice and special S or X effects.

When troop cards are pulled back into the Safe Zone, put them on the left hand side (under the general, if there is one) to indicate they are safe in terrain. The step ends when the required number of combats has been fought, or when one side has no deployable cards. Any cards with a hanging wound remain in the Active Zone into the next step.

After these combats have been resolved, proceed to the next step. For the rest of the battle, all combats will be fought using the good going dice and special S or X effects on the remaining troop cards.

Step 3: Fight for the Flanks

Once the Fight for Terrain is over, the cavalry will fight each other for control of the wings. Both sides must now declare how many cavalry and chariot cards in total they have. A side with 2 or more elephants can also use one (only) of them in one combat, but does not declare this (it will be a surprise to the enemy). These units will now fight combats until one side has no cavalry or chariot cards remaining in his hand.

• You may not deploy artillery or any infantry cards.
• You may deploy a cavalry or chariot main battle card (with or without a cavalry skirmisher troop card).
• You may deploy an elephant card only if you have 2 or more and only once in the step (with or without a cavalry skirmisher troop card).
• You may deploy a cavalry skirmisher troop card on its own only if you have no deployable main battle card.
• The step ends when either side has no cavalry or chariots left in hand. If you haven't deployed your elephant yet, you can still use it in step 4. If you haven't deployed all your cavalry or chariot cards, those remaining can be used in step 4 or step 5.

When a card is pulled back into the Safe Zone, put it on the right hand side, (away from the general) to indicate it is safe on the flanks.

Proceed to the Fight for the Centre. Any cards with a hanging wound remain in the Active Zone into the next step.

Example: Carthage has 2 Numidian skirmisher cavalry and 2 Hispanic Cavalry main battle cards while their Barbarian opponent has 1 chariot card. The Carthaginian player can't play the Numidian cavalry on its own since he has main battle cards, so he pairs 1 Numidian with 1 Hispanic Cavalry against his opponent's single card. The Numidians roll first (skirmishers always attack before main battle cards) with 2 x WHITE dice in good going and rolls an X result, wounding the chariot. The Hispanic Cavalry attacks next and finishes the job with another X. The chariot does get to fight back, but rolls a blank and inflicts no damage. Both the Numidians and the Hispanic Cavalry are safe. The remaining Numidians and Hispanic Cavalry are retained in hand for later.

Step 4: Fight for the Centre

At this time, both sides fight combats with their remaining infantry troops, elephants, and artillery. If you have any cavalry or chariot cards remaining, you may use those also, if desired.

• You may deploy any main battle card (alone, or with skirmishers and/or artillery).
• You may not deploy artillery or skirmishers without a main battle card.
• You may deploy a cavalry skirmisher troop card with any main battle card.
• You may deploy an infantry skirmisher troop card only with an infantry main battle card.

In the first two combats, you must deploy a main battle card if you have one. So if all you have left are cavalry (quite likely if you are playing Scythians for instance) you will have to play at least 2 cavalry main battle cards in this step.

After the first two combats, if the only main battle cards remaining in your hand are cavalry or chariots, you can choose (in each combat) whether to deploy, or to save them for Step 5 (Envelopment). It is allowable to change your mind and use saved cards for a later combat in the current step (Fight for the Centre) if you so desire.

When a card is pulled back into the Safe Zone, put it in the centre, (next to the general) to indicate it is safe in the centre.

If you select card(s) to deploy and the opponent does not deploy, either because he can't, or because he is saving his remaining cards for envelopment, then you still deploy and fight the combat. However, in this case you can choose to attack against any troop card (except artillery) either in the Active Zone, or safe in the centre in the Safe Zone. Any obligation to target skirmishers before a main battle card does not apply (but a card with a hanging wound still takes priority if you inflict a wound). The target of your attack does not roll any dice back against you.

The step ends when either nobody has any more deployable cards (except any saved for envelopment), or there are no cards remaining that can be attacked. Any cards with a hanging wound remain in the Active Zone into the next step.

Example: A Barbarian army has 6 Lowland Warrior cards to the Carthaginians' 3 Libyan Spearmen, with the Carthaginian having 1 spare Hispanic Cavalry from the Fight for the Flanks. After 3 head-to-head fights, both sides have lost 1 card. The Carthaginian chooses to save his Hispanic Cavalry for the envelopment. The remaining Lowland Warriors get free rolls against Carthage's remaining Libyan Spearmen safe in the centre. After a second Libyan spearmen is killed, leaving the Carthaginian player with just 2 main battle cards (the spearmen and 1 Hispanic Cavalry), he decides to throw the Hispanic Cavalry into the Fight for the Centre (since if he loses the last Libyan Spearman, his army routs anyway).

Step 5: Envelopment

After the Fight for the Center is complete (including any extra attacks by the larger army), if either army still has cavalry or chariot cards remaining (not any elephants), they carry out envelopment. All these troop cards (skirmish, or main battle) deploy and can choose to attack any remaining enemy troop cards (except artillery) in any Zone (EXCEPT safe in terrain, they really are safe). In addition, they may reroll any dice if you think you can get a better result!

Needless to say, envelopment by quality cavalry is likely to be deadly! Cards attacked in this step do not roll any dice back.

Example: The Carthaginians have envelopment with 2 remaining Hispanic Cavalry cards against a Roman army. Their centre has managed to hold the Romans, who now have 2 Legionaries and 1 Italian infantry in their Safe Zone. The Romans have an Italian Infantry that is loose order and therefore will be killed by the cavalry on an S result, so the Carthaginian attacks this unit first and rolling their dice in good going, but gets a blank. He rerolls and gets an S, killing the Italian Infantry card. The other Hispanic Cavalry has to attack a Legionary and rolls an X. The Carthaginian rerolls since the hanging wound does no good, and for the final roll gets a Skull, killing it and reducing the Roman army to 1 main battle card. The Roman army routs! A new Cannae has been played.

Step 6: Determine Victor

Any army reduced to 1 main battle card (0 main battle cards if the general has the Never Give Up characteristic) at any time routs. The entire army is destroyed, and its general is killed. Place all cards in the reserve deck. If you rout an army that had 4 or more troop cards it is called a Triumph. If you rout an army with 3 or fewer troop cards it is a Minor Victory.

Tied Battles: If there is still a tie, both armies may either remain in the region or withdraw to an adjacent region of their choice. If both armies remain, each must roll to disengage as usual if they want to move away in the future and their opponent doesn't want to allow this to happen. The armies do not fight again during the current Campaign Phase, unless attacked by a different army.

Triumph: If you get a Triumph (rout an army that had 4 or more troop cards), you get the following benefits:

• gain 2 VPs.
• recover up to 2 cards of your choice from your Dead Zone.
• upgrade 2 troop cards in your army to veterans (reserve cards permitting).
• roll to see if your general improves by rolling 1 Skull die, using YELLOW for a mediocre general, GREEN for a competent general, or WHITE for a talented general. If you roll an X, you immediately upgrade your general to its next * level, and if you roll a Skull, upgrade 2 levels (cards permitting).

After applying the results of the battle, all remaining destroyed troop and general cards are returned to their reserve decks and all surviving troop and general cards are returned to their army stack next to their faction card.

Minor Victory: If you get a Minor Victory (rout an army with 3 or fewer troop cards), you get these benefits:

• gain 1 VP.
• recover 1 card of your choice from your Dead Zone.
• upgrade 1 troop card in your army to veterans (reserve cards permitting).
• roll to see if your general improves as above.

If neither side has its army routed, the side that suffered the most main battle card casualties has lost the battle. If main battle card losses are a tie, add in skirmisher cards lost for the comparison. For the winner, this counts as a Minor Victory with all the benefits listed above. Meanwhile, the loser must immediately retreat to an adjacent region or board a navy. It must choose a friendly region or navy first, neutral region second, allied next, then an unoccupied enemy region, but cannot retreat to an enemy region occupied by an enemy army. If it cannot find a way to retreat it is destroyed.

Glorious Victory: If you win a Total Victory over an army with 4+ troop cards, you immediately receive 2 VP, recover 2 troop cards, upgrade 2 troop cards, and have a chance to upgrade your general. If you get a Victory gets you 1 VP, you can recover 1 card, upgrade 1 card, and roll to upgrade your general.

Tactical Tips and Options

• Infantry Skirmishers: As these can be played in the Fight for Terrain on their own, you can often use them to contest the terrain and leave your main battle cards for the Fight in the Centre. However, if you think the enemy has good difficult terrain main battle cards, it may be worth deploying main battle cards with good dice against them so you have a chance of killing them (your skirmishers being unlikely to do that alone). However, foot skirmishers are also extremely useful in the Fight for the Centre, as they can weaken enemy troops before the main fight, and particularly if the enemy has artillery - they can screen your main battle cards from artillery fire.
• Cavalry Skirmishers: As these have to play with main battle cards in the Fight for the Flanks, you have the choice of stacking them or saving them. Stack them and you are more likely to kill the enemy flankers, save them and you may have them left for an envelopment.
• Artillery: It was rare in this era for artillery to turn a battle. One example close to that was Watling St in 61CE, where the Roman artillery caused mayhem amongst the chariots of Boudicca's Britons. Artillery cards must be played with an infantry main battle card. They fire at the enemy before any other dice are rolled, so they may destroy the enemy from afar as they approach. But, if the enemy has a skirmisher card in the same matchup, the artillery must fire at them. Reveals are very useful here as you can choose to put your artillery against something vulnerable.
• Elephants: The first elephant card in an army must be deployed during the Fight for the Center. Having 2 or more is very powerful as you can then deploy 1 in the Fight for the Flanks, and they are deadly against cavalry. They are also not terrible in terrain if you are forced to find a main battle card for the Fight for Terrain.

All the above is a reason why the SPY agent action is extremely valuable before a battle: If you know exactly what is in the opposing army, you are far better placed to make good decisions in the deployment of your cards!

Allied Armies

On occasion, armies from allied factions worked together, but it was often a risky business as sometimes allies refused to fight, and on a few famous occasions even swapped sides!

If 2 allied armies are together in a region facing an enemy army, they may choose to fight together. If they do, they decide together which troop cards and general they will use for the battle, up to the maximum size of a single army, taking cards from either army. The rest of their cards do not participate in the battle. If the allied armies win the battle together, they must decide how to share the benefits of victory. Of course, one ally may decide not to fight after all… or even change sides… Alliances can be double-edged at times! There are also some event cards that can interfere with allies. If an ally does not join the battle, they may make their own attack during their turn.

Example: The Roman and Greek players are ganging up on the Carthaginians. They know that the Carthaginian army has 6 Libyan Spearmen as they used a SPY action on it. Knowing this, they choose to use a mix of 3x Phalangites from the Greek army and 3 x Legionaries from the Roman army to maximize their chances of destroying the Carthaginians in the Fight for the Centre.

Breaking Alliances

Breaking alliances can cause you problems, as other factions will find you untrustworthy and it may take time to recover. If you attack an ally you immediately lose 1 VP, all other allies you have drop to friendly and all friendlies drop to neutral. Your agents must then use treaty actions to get them back to being allies. It will temporarily harm your trade - but it's sometimes worth it!

In addition, any former ally's army occupying your own territory must immediately either roll to conquer that territory, or immediately retreat. If it retreats it must move to an adjacent region or board a navy (this does not cost movement points): it must choose a friendly region or navy first, neutral region second, allied next, then an unoccupied enemy region (and take the roll to subdue it), but cannot retreat to an enemy region occupied by an enemy army. If it cannot find a way to retreat it is destroyed. So, you may lose territory breaking alliances with a player who occupies your own lands. But again, it may well be worth it.

Example Large Battle

Here is a battle between a 10-card Roman army and an 8-card Barbarian army (the largest armies each can field with the Romans having benefit of being able to have artillery). It is played out step by step for you complete with diagrams. Once you know the rules you will be able to play a battle like this in about 3 minutes.

Step 1: Preparing the Battle

The battle is in Vesontio. This has 2 trees and so 2 combats in terrain.

The Barbarian commander has 2 action cards saved for this battle, while the Romans have none. The Barbarian cards are:

• Prepared Battlefield, allowing him to increase the number of terrain combats to 3 as he fears the Roman legionaries in good going.
• Exceptional Fighting, which gives a single GREEN booster dice to 1 combat of his choice.

The Romans have a Talented General to the Barbarians Mediocre. So the Roman general has 2 reveals.

Here are the armies with some thoughts about each in the coming battle.

The Barbarian Tribes

The army has 5 foot main battle cards and 2 of them are very good (a Soldurii and a Gaesatae). All 5 infantry cards kill enemy infantry on an S result, but the standard Lowland Warriors only have a WHITE dice, so have have to get lucky. They have only 1 Chariot card, but are expecting the Roman army to be mainly foot troops, so are expecting to at least hold the flanks. They also have 2 infantry skirmishers that can be used in terrain, but may also be needed to shield troops from Roman artillery (the Barbarian player knows the Romans have 2 artillery as it is a 10-card army).

If the Barbarian player is focused on just surviving the battle, they may want to play a lot of cards in terrain as they may well survive by doing so; but if they want to win the battle they will need good dice and S results against the Roman legionaries who most likely will be fighting in good going. There are many ways one could approach the battle with this army, in this case I have chosen an aggressive strategy for them.

The Barbarian army is: Lowland Warriors (x2 or more, as shown on the cards), Soldurii, Naked Gaesatae, Chariots, Javelinmen, Slingers, with a Mediocre General.

The Romans

The Roman army has only 4 foot main battle cards and has 2 Allied Cavalry. This mass of cavalry may surprise the Barbarians. They have 2 Legionaries and 1 Veteran Legionary and really do not want to have them fight in terrain as their dice are superb in good going and they kill infantry on an S in good going. They have 2 Velites who can fight in terrain alone, and an Italian infantry that is well suited to fighting in terrain. They also have 1 Scorpio and 1 Ballistae.

The Roman army is: Republican Legionaries (x2), Veteran Republican Legionaries, Italian Infantry, Velites (x2), Allied Cavalry (x2), Scorpio, Ballistae, with Marcus Lucinius Crassus as a Talented General with a Morale Booster characteristic.

The Roman commander is thinking they may well win the flanks in this battle. Their challenge is to do three terrain fights. They will have to use the Velites in two of them and use the Italian Infantry there as well. They really want to place their artillery where the enemy has no skirmishers in front, so will be thinking to use their reveals to try to do that.

LET BATTLE COMMENCE...

Step 1: The Fight for Terrain

Both players go for a win and use their skirmishers to handle the terrain. The Roman player saves his reveals for the Fight for the Centre.

Combat 1: Rome plays a Velite and the Barbarians a Slinger. The Velites roll two WHITE dice in terrain and on an S they kill enemy skirmishers. They get a Blank and an S - killing the Slinger. The Slinger gets one WHITE and has no S effect. It rolls a Blank. The Velite is pulled back to the safe zone and the Slinger is pushed away into the dead zone.

Combat 2: Rome plays another Velite and the Barbarians their Javelinmen. The Velite rolls 2 Blanks and the Javelinmen an X. The Velite is kept in the Active Zone but turned sideways to show it is carrying a hanging wound; the Javelinmen is pulled back to the Safe Zone. A lucky result for the Barbarians.

Step 2: The Fight for Terrain (continued)

Combat 3: Rome plays its Italian Infantry and the barbarians a Lowland Warrior. Seeing a chance to kill a main battle card early, the Barbarian players chooses to add his extra GREEN dice to this combat. The Italian Infantry roll a Blank and an S, but do not have any S effect. The Lowland Warriors gets a Blank on its WHITE dice but a Skull on its GREEN bonus dice, killing the Italian Infantry outright (note that the Velite is not killed as it was a straight kill on the card in play rather than X results; 2 X results would have killed the Velite first and then wounded the Italian Infantry).

Step 3: The Fight for the Flanks

The players declare cards with the Roman surprising the barbarian by having 2 cavalry/chariot cards to their 1. There is no point Rome using a reveal as they only have one choice of card to play.

Combat 4: Roman Allied Cavalry vs. Barbarian Chariot. Both sides get an X. This kills the Velite with the hanging wound and the Allied Cavalry is pulled to the Safe Zone. The Chariot is now sitting in the Active Zone carrying a hanging wound. The Roman player still has cavalry in hand, hoping to use it for an envelopment later.

Step 4: The Fight for the Centre

Now the Romans will come into their own with their Republican Legionaries fighting in the good going in the centre of the battlefield. But the Barbarian has some powerful cards in their centre as well.

Combat 5: The Romans choose a reveal after the Barbarian has chosen his card, which is a Soldurii. Seeing this as a great target the Roman plays a Republican Legionary with a Ballistae. The Ballistae fires first and gets an X. This kills off the Chariot. The Legionaries get a Blank and an S, but they kill enemy infantry in good going on an S, so the Soldurii is killed. The Soldurii in turn gets a Skull on their RED dice, killing the Legionary and artillery that was deployed with it.

Combat 6: The Barbarians play a Lowland Warrior thinking the Roman might use their other reveal. The Romans do so and choose to play their Veteran Legionary and save their artillery. The Veteran Legionary has a pretty deadly YELLOW + GREEN dice roll and gets a Skull and an S - killing the poor barbarians twice over! The Barbarians do however get an X to wound the Veteran Legionary.

Combat 7: Rome plays their last Legionary with their Scorpio, and the Barbarians their last Lowland Warrior. Again the Scorpio gets to roll first and gets an X, but the Legionaries miss entirely! Meanwhile the Lowland Warriors get an S, which is a kill on any infantry and another dead legionary. Rome was so close to routing the Barbarian army this time, but is struggling to win the battle.

Step 5: The Envelopment

At this stage, the battle is hanging in the balance. Each army has just 1 main battle card in the Safe Zone and 1 wounded one in the Active Zone. But the Romans cannot now lose their army as the Barbarians have no more attacks. However the Romans have their remaining Allied Cavalry card held back for an envelopment, and there is no roll back against this. And it gets to re-roll any dice it doesn't like.

Combat 8: Rome plays its Allied Cavalry and can choose to attack any card in the active zone. The wounded Lowland Warrior is an obvious target. They roll an S, which would kill loose order infantry, but the Lowland Warrior are flexibles. So the Roman player takes their option to re-roll and gets an X, which is enough to kill the Lowland Warrior.

Outcome of the Example

The Barbarians have only 1 main battle card left so their army is routed and destroyed. It was a very close fight, but the Romans achieve a Total Victory, albeit a somewhat Pyrrhic one. The entire Barbarian army is lost and placed in the reserve deck, including the general.

The Romans now get the benefits from their win. First, they get 2 VPs and move their marker up the VP ladder. Second, they can recover 2 cards from their Dead Zone. As they are in an area with a lot of terrain they choose a Legionary and an Italian Infantry. They can upgrade up to 2 cards to veteran and choose a Legionary and an Italian Infantry. They roll a WHITE dice to upgrade their general but get a Blank and he remains Talented. The Roman army has only lost a Legionary, and artillery and a Velite (victory often allowed an army to gather up and heal the lightly wounded). It now has a smaller but very tough army that looks like this, and needs to decide whether to besiege or storm Vesontio.

The source closes this example with an in-world battle narrative written as a historians' account; that flavour fiction is not transcribed here.

Naval Battles

Naval battles are simpler and fought as follows.

• Lay out your ship cards in an empty space (the Naval Battle Zone).
• All naval combat is considered simultaneous, so destroyed ships still get to roll their dice.
• For each ship, roll a skull die of the colour applying to your type of ship (trireme etc).
• Remember that if an army is reduced to 1 main battle card (0 if the general has Never Give Up), the whole army is lost (including general).
• If a navy is carrying any troop cards, you lose these pro rata (rounded down) to any naval losses. This is calculated after extracting army card losses due to S results. All troop card losses are picked randomly.
• At the end of the naval battle, return any destroyed cards to their reserve and any surviving cards to their fleet or army stack. A damaged ship that was not destroyed does not carry its damage over into later naval battles.
• A navy remains in play even if reduced to only 1 card. You gain 1 VP for entirely sinking an enemy navy of 2 or more ship cards.

Result	Effect
Skull	1 enemy ship card destroyed
X	1 enemy ship card damaged, turn it sideways. A subsequent X destroys the damaged ship.
S	If the enemy navy is carrying an army, one random troop card is destroyed.

Example: Rome has Quinquiremes and tries to transport a 6-card army with 4 ship cards. The Carthaginians only have Triremes but intercept with a 5-card navy. The Romans roll YELLOW dice to the GREEN for the Carthaginians. Rome has two sets of 3 troop cards and they roll Skull & Blank; the other two roll X, and S. So they sink one Carthaginian ship card. The Carthaginians get Skull, X, S, S. So two army cards are lost and 1 ship card is sunk taking a further troop card to the bottom. So the sea battle is a tie but the Romans have lost 3 of their 6 army cards (pick them out at random).

Spending Phase

It is now time to spend last year's tax revenue on developing your nation, armies, and navies! Players do this simultaneously.

• New armies: If you have a general that is unallocated (or purchase one, see below), you may create a new army by assigning your new troop cards to that general. The new army is not placed on the board until the first time it moves, following the normal rules for placing new armies.
• Recruiting Mercenaries: If you control a mercenary region (marked with the M icon) and have built a barracks there, you can recruit the mercenary troop cards from that region to join any army within 4 land regions with a line of communication. If you have a spare general unallocated and a line of communication to the region, you can create an entire new army there including mercenaries and/or your normal troop cards (this army is placed immediately).

Here are your spending options:

a. BUY UNIT AND/OR SHIP CARDS - You can buy cards from your reserve deck by paying the cost on the card (also shown in the table on your faction board for easier planning). You must assign all new units to your armies, observing the maximum size limit of each army, or use them to build a new army under a spare general, subject to these conditions:

• Lines of Communication: You can reinforce an existing army only if you can trace an unbroken line of communication all the way to your homeland through regions you control or that are controlled by an ally and/or sea areas solely occupied by your navies. Therefore, players should think about cutting off enemy armies to stop them from getting any reinforcements. If you have crossed the seas, you need to be extra careful to control the necessary sea areas to allow reinforcements to flow to your distant armies.
• Disunity in the Barbarian Tribes: If you are playing the Barbarian Tribes and have not yet achieved the national unity development, you can only add up to a maximum of 2 main battle cards and 1 skirmisher card to each army, including any new army built. This represent recruitment from individual tribes, whereas other nations can gather troops from many areas.

b. BUY DEVELOPMENTS - You can pay for developments by spending gold to progress on your development tree. Each faction's development tree is unique in shape and adds to the historical nature of that faction.

• You can buy more than 1 development at a time, and can progress each line by one stage in a turn. You can only buy a development if all previous developments with arrows leading to it are previously existing (i.e. not bought this turn). The price for each development is shown on your faction board. What each of the developments does in the game is shown on your faction board and also in Appendix B, with letters in brackets showing which factions have that development on their tree.
• Important: When upgrading to get a new troop type, you do not receive the benefits of your new development until the next game turn so you cannot upgrade to a unit type and recruit it at the same time.

The Marian Reforms for Rome

The Roman Faction has one development, the Marian Reforms, which takes effect immediately. When you purchase this development, immediately take the Imperial troop cards you set aside at the beginning of the game - termed the Imperial deck for ease. Replace the following troop cards in your armies (and unallocated stack): Republican Legionaries become Imperial Legionaries, Italian Infantry become Imperial Auxilia, and Allied Cavalry become Imperial Cavalry. Replace veteran cards with equivalent veteran cards where possible. Your Velites and artillery remain. Return the replaced cards to the (Republican) reserve deck, then set it aside - you may not recruit from it in the future except for artillery cards. Replace it with the Imperial deck. You can recruit from the Imperial deck immediately. If troop cards are destroyed later (and at the end of the game) be sure to return them to the correct deck.

c. BUY REGIONAL IMPROVEMENTS - You may spend gold to add a market, barracks, or walls to a region you control, and can buy up to 2 of these in a single turn. Each of these costs 2 gold. You may buy roads for 1 gold each. These are placed between adjacent regions and you can buy up to 6 of these in a turn. You may only make 2 improvements to any region in a single Spending Phase. If you have built all the improvements in a region possible (including all roads into it) you can build an Ancient Wonder there for 6 gold.

Each improvement has a different effect:

• Market: A market located at a port improves any trade action you are part of by 1 gold each. This benefit only applies to you: your ally gets bonuses based on their own number of markets. In addition, markets that are linked by roads give 1 gold extra in the Taxation Phase (note the barbarians have a development that allows this boost for markets in adjacent regions without roads).
• Barracks: A barracks makes a region immune to unrest and rioting, allows recruiting of armies even if that region is not valued at 2+ gold, gives the region +1 die level of garrison when an enemy tries to take it, and turns a conquered region into a garrisoned region. So, a 1-gold conquered region would normally roll 2x GREEN dice when attacked, but now has a local garrison and becomes 2x RED and the enemy has to beat the damage to succeed.
• Walls: Walls make a region extremely difficult to conquer. They downgrade the attacker's infantry main battle cards from GREEN to WHITE dice when trying an assault. Such regions are largely immune from attack by anyone without siegecraft.
• Roads: Roads allow fast movement between regions, even across rivers and mountain ranges, covering 3 regions for each point of movement allowance. They also connect markets allowing more economic activity and taxation.
• Ancient Wonder: An Ancient Wonder is something amazing like the Pyramids in Giza or the Colossus of Rhodes and costs 6 gold to build. It takes 2 gold in the Taxation Phase from every player (from tourism). So, in a 4-player game you get your 6 gold back next taxation phase.

d. BUY A GENERAL - You can pay to recruit a new general into play at a cost of 2 gold for a new two star general. The new general may join an existing army within 4 land regions of your homeland or may be saved to build a new army (place him in your unallocated stack). You can buy any number of generals and keep them unallocated, but you may only have 4 in the field at any one time. Barbarian Tribes get new 2* generals free as they are simply Tribal leaders.

Example: Carthage has lost an army and a 3* competent general in a big battle with Rome. The Carthage player decides to replace this general and buy another to have a spare handy in case of future mishaps. He pays 4 gold.

e. BUY AN AGENT - If you are below your current limit, you can buy a replacement agent at a cost of 2 gold. This agent must start in your homeland. Alternatively, you can bribe an enemy agent to change sides for 6 gold, and simply replace their agent with your own. You may only have agents up to the limit of your current allowance, which starts at 2 and rises with certain developments.

Example: Our Greek player only has 1 agent on the board at present. They consider replacing one, but notices that an agent from the Barbarian Tribes is ideally placed to spy on their biggest 8-card army, which is approaching Greek territory from the north. They pay 6 gold to bribe this enemy agent to change sides and swaps this agent model with one of their own so they can spy on that army in the next Agent Phase. As the game is going counter-clockwise this turn, the Barbarian Tribes player is next, and pays 2 gold to replace their just-converted agent.

f. REMOVE UNREST - You may pay to subdue unrest by paying for police forces to do so. It costs 1 gold to remove each unrest marker. Remember: an army with 4 or more troop cards can also quell unrest; so having a local reserve army can be a good idea.

End of Turn

Once all players have finished their Spending Phase purchases and cards have been allocated to armies, the turn ends and a new turn begins with another Agent Phase.

End of Game

At the top left of the board is a victory ladder shared by all factions. The game is a "race" to score Victory Points (VPs) before anybody else can, which then triggers the end of the game by finishing the current turn and seeing who is in the lead. Use your victory marker to keep score on the ladder as the game evolves: it can get very tense with much betrayal as players get close to a winning score! Here is the complete list of ways to score VPs in one place:

• Economic Might - Gain 1 VP for raising 20+ gold in each Taxation Phase, 2 VP for 25+, 3 VP for 30+, 4 VP for 40+.
• Glorious Victory - Gain 1 VP for a Minor Victory, or 2 VP for a Triumph. Allied forces share the benefit if they fight together (and if cannot agree toss a coin for each).
• Victory at Sea - Gain 1 VP for entirely sinking an enemy navy of 2+ ship cards.
• Faction Advancement - Gain 1 VP for completing an entire column of developments on your faction board.
• Conquering Enemy Home Regions - Gain 1 VP plus 1 VP per gold value of the enemy home region. So, taking Rome is worth 4 VPs! But not easily done…
• Broken Alliance - lose 1 VP for breaking an alliance.

The first player to get to the target number of VPs triggers the end of the game and that turn is completed. The winner is the player with the most points at the end of the turn.

You always need to watch what the other players are doing. Will an ally turn into an enemy to stem your progress? Will someone strike at you when most vulnerable? And what happens as a player approaches the winning VPs target? The game is self-balancing as if someone runs away from the pack they will almost certainly be targeted by everyone. So it is rare to have a runaway winner.

Strategic Choices

You will find that there are lots of options of how to approach Total War Rome: The Boardgame, with several different ways of becoming the winning faction and a good deal of differences between the factions due to their unique play styles. A relatively safe but slow approach might be to conquer a lot of independent regions and focus on being an ally to all, with good trade for a while. You can score well for FACTION ADVANCEMENT and ECONOMIC MIGHT, but you would get nothing this way for GLORIOUS VICTORY or CONQUERING ENEMY HOME REGIONS. You will also be allowing your enemies to progress freely without any interference from you…

By contrast, a very aggressive approach might be to go straight for an enemy and their home regions. If it works well and you win victories and take regions from them, you will rapidly gain VPs for GLORIOUS VICTORY and CONQUERING ENEMY HOME REGIONS. This was the approach of Pyrrhus in the Pyrrhic Wars, but it involved painful victories with great losses - hence the famous term "Pyrrhic Victory".

There are many different pathways through the game to enjoy and there is no right answer.

What Is Coming Next?

Have fun playing the game and the vast array of variety it already contains! Look for the BattlePlay Extension Pack to bring a whole new tactical dimension to the game. Watch out for our Core Faction Booster, which will allow players to control smaller nations such as Dacia, Numidia, Spain, Gaul, or Thracia. And keep an eye out for expansion sets that cover different eras and geographies of "total warfare" such as Alexander, Barbarians and Britannia.

---

Note on this transcription: The source PDF's contents page lists Appendix A (home regions and starting forces) and Appendix B (faction developments), and the text refers to both. Neither appendix appears in the 62-page PDF supplied, so they are not transcribed here. The rulebook's closing contact line about the publisher's forum and website is also omitted as non-rules text.