A.S. ROMA

I am frustrated with this game. It seems to be that only the forum-vp strategy is viable, and that legionaire or other 'attack' based strategies cannot overcome the simple strategy of ignoring your opponent and pursuing VPs through your forums. In which case, this game is essentially two people playing solitaire as a race.

I took this game on a recent vacation with my wife, who is not a gamer but is willing to humor me.

We played upwards of a dozen games. In each game her strategy was to get out forums and quickly suck the VP pool dry.

I wanted to explore the game parameters and see what other strategies could work. However, I found that, over and over again, no strategy allowed me to get VPs as quickly as my wife was able to through forums.

Often, when I felt I had finally gotten a combination of cards into play that would let me win if I had enough turns to whittle her down (such as legionaires/centurios+consiliatus), the game was too far gone and my own reserve of VPs no longer robust enough to turn the tide (especially as she liked the mercatur card).

Anywhere you want.
Cards that you cover are discarded

May I lay cards from my hand anywhere I want, or only at position of unused die value?

e.g.: values of dies: 1,2,3. Am I limited to lay new card only on 1st, 2nd and 3rd position?

I find that the longer games are the great ones. When the player who is behind CAN'T end the game by taking victory points...he must figure out how to dismantle the other players side, and change the standings. This kind of game in Roma is 1 in 5 games...maybe. That said, the others are ok...but the 1 in 5 are fantastic.

Yeah, but it was still fun.

Never quite sure what you'll get from Roma. An hour long slugathon or a 3 minute filler...

After our game of Combat Commander: Europe, I was running out of time before my D&D session, so I grabbed a game that I enjoy but haven't played much of recently: Roma.

Randy and I quickly played two games of it, with the emphasis on the word "quickly". In previous games, our struggles have been titanic, earth-shaking, down-to-the-wire and have lasted at least half-an-hour!

Not so this time. Randy and I were left at the end of each game wondering what had happened.

The first game saw us sniping at each other in the early game with legionnaire and actor pretending to take that role (fairly effectively as well), which whittled down both of our victory points appreciatively. I was the first to build a forum, and thus began to recover my VPs. Randy did likewise, and soon we were in a VP race. I reached 18 VPs, half of those available, and then Randy made his final roll...

He studied his cards. He studied the dice. He looked at them again. Finally, after seeking some advice from his opponent (that was me, in case you weren't paying attention), he took the remaining 5 VPs available in the game, and finished on 18 VPs as well. It was a tie.

And yes, we know he could have gotten 6 VPs if the dice had come up that way regardless of the lack of chits. No, the most he could get was 5 VPs. With one more gold, he could have played something to take a VP off me, but no such luck.

The second game saw me dealt two Actors and a Gladiator, a horrible, horrible hand, because I'd have to give one to Randy. Off went an Actor, with a "die a horrible death, traitor!" pinned to his back. Unfortunately, he didn't. My Gladiator did.

All in all, this was Game of the Death Spiral, with both of us losing VPs at a rapid rate and not regaining them. I managed to roll a 1,1,2, which really what I didn't want to see - I couldn't play or activate anything. Finally, Randy played a Merchant and bought my final 4 VPs to put me out of my misery.

Roma can have some great, lengthy (for it) games, but both of these were incredibly short and quick. So short, that it was time to play one more game before I left... but not of Roma. We'd need another ten or so of it!