A.S. ROMA

Only after 40+ games has it become clear that the SENATOR is one of the most devastating cards in the deck. Who knew?

Collect a bunch of expensive strong attack cards (CENTURION, ASSASSIN, GLADIATOR, MERCATOR) and wait until the beginning of a turn. Spend 3 gold to put down the SENATOR, activate him, and place cards everywhere with the 2 most devastating cards on the other 2 rolled dice.

Your opponent is instantly on the ropes!

The question remains: Is the ARCHITECT a power card as well?

My copy has been in the mail for a week and I'm itching to play it.

Thanks for the replies--looks like I'll have to invest in Roma!

I agree that there's no contest between Roma and Hellas.

Steven, you should definitely not wait for Roma II. Who knows if that game will be even as good as the original.

I do agree with you, Robert, about the first player advantage, although there is a very simple adustment that's bandied about: Give player two 11 VPs at the start.

I had also been thinking about adjusting the dice, although I was going to test out simply giving the first player TWO dice on his first turn, and then proceeding normally after that.

In the end, however, Roma is such a great game, you don't really NEED any fixes. I read somewhere (I think from Steven Feld) that most unbalanced games end pretty quickly, while a good fair match lasts a while. So it's kind of like tennis.

Hellas is a very different kind of game from Roma: it's a territorial game with an exploration component. It also hasn't been developed with anything like the care that Roma has: there's a seemingly unending list of ambiguities and questions that the all-important action cards raise and the rules don't answer, which ultimately makes the game too frustrating for my taste. Finally, the back-and-forth between the players in Hellas is pretty one-dimensional. (Do I start the turn with more Greeks than you? Then I'm winning.) In Roma there are many different ways for even a strong position to be weak, and many ways to exploit a stronger opponent's weakness.

Roma is an incredible game. It's by far Stefan Feld's best design, and that's saying something. I've played it 60 or 70 times and still find it absorbing and entertaining.

I haven't yet tried nerfing the Mercator, because it has seemed to me that while it's a devastating card if you get it to explode, it takes a lot of tempo to set up the bomb, and while you're setting up your opponent can just kill you.

If I were going to fix something in Roma it would be the first-player advantage. In a significant percentage of games, the first player can both play a card and kill one of his opponent's on the first turn, leaving the second player scrambling to catch up instead of fighting back. This is a problem because the starting position is so precarious; when this happens, the second player often hits the ground before he has a chance to open his chute.

It seems to me (I haven't tested this) that the game ought to ramp up the action dice, so that the first player gets one die for his first turn, the second player gets two for his, and then both players get the full complement of dice from the second turn on.

I've also been eying Hellas...I'm not sure if these games are similar enough in theme and mechanic to justify having both. Is it worth waiting for Roma II cause it sounds like an updated + expanded version of the original?

You should really consider moving Roma to the top of your list. I'm surprised this game doesn't have a greater following/buzz. It's one of the best I've ever played.

russellg wrote:
The "new" cards in the game CITADELS is a good example of expansion components that add nothing to the game. The same can be said of the "Deluxe" additions to LOTR: THE CONFRONTATION.
Funny you say that...I actually LIKE the extra characters and districts from Citadels' Dark City expansion. They don't "fix" anything or make it better, but they do offer a great deal of variety which is what I think is its purpose.

I also thoroughly enjoy the extra options offered in the Deluxe LOTR: The Confrontation. Again, there's no real "fix" or necessary improvement, but the new characters, powers, and cards make for more strategic options...thus, I believe that add a great deal to the game.

I'm encouraged by your posting as well cause I've been eying Roma for quite some time now.

Fair enough... then It's my house rule.

Enjoy!

I've played many, many games of Roma against different players and the Mercator never seems to be as broken as folk here insist.

I got the Mercator fix from this thread:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/82272

and here:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/134741


Regardless, it completely balances out the power of the Mercator. I've tested this over 50 games. (Unchecked, he can still wipe out an opponent in 1-3 turns.)

So I recommend this rule wholeheartedly.

I thought the same thing, but was then contradicted by said publisher, who claimed they had made no such suggestion, and that it was unneccessary.

I agree three VPs per activation fixes it a bit...

Limit PER ACTIVATION: Swap 2 gold for 1 VP up to a maxium of 3 VP.

Thus, if your dice rolls allow you to activate the Mercator three times in your turn, then you could buy a total of 9 VP from your opponent.

This fix came in a response from the publisher in one of the forums.

Just curious, in what way did you decide to deal with the mercator?

David O'Neil is correct -- you're posting the exact same system that the original poster was using. What the original poster seemed to mean but perhaps did not make clear was that the price for each coin would rise to the levels that he listed. That yields the same prices that you note.

I also thought your original response to David O'Neil came off as rude as well -- whether that was your intent or not.

This game is nearly perfect (after fixing the one bug with the Mercator.)

Most of the cards have such diverse strengths and weaknesses that you can play 100 games and always explore new strategies.

While many games benefit from expansions, the limitations of Roma's closed set is what makes it so great.


The "new" cards in the game CITADELS is a good example of expansion components that add nothing to the game. The same can be said of the "Deluxe" additions to LOTR: THE CONFRONTATION.

Roma is a perfect game with it's limited set. I hope ROMA II doesn't muck it up.

I agree.

There is no single game that I have played so many times, and there are so many different strategies.

I'm suprised this game isn't a sensation.

Roma Board - Tablero by Manolo Vila