A.S. ROMA

Roma in Zuntzu

Glad you're enjoying this game. It sounds like your 10 year old is a fairly astute gamer with an ironic name to boot. Roma is a great 2 player because it plays out really quickly and has a fast pace the whole way. I love games where I can play 3 or 4 times in an hour. The first one gets the rhythm going and starts to build the rivalry. That's the first battle, and then the war is yet to come.

I got this little charm of a two-player from one of my gaming buddy/neighbors. I had been taking him to the University of Utah games with my season tickets and he unexpectedly rewarded me with a copy of Roma for my kindness. It was way too much in my mind as he is a veritable cornucopia of football knowledge so he is always fun to take to the games - even if he is a BYU fan.

Anyway, I had played this twice with my 10-yr old boy Chance. He loves the game because he absolutely crushed me in the first two go arounds. He'd get the Forum and Templum running and just abuse me. The second game we had played it was ridiculous as he Forum'ed me to death and I had like four VP by the time he finally ended the game. The funny thing is that, despite the beatdowns I had received, I really liked the mechanics and feel of the game. So Sunday night comes around and he wants to play a quick game and I propose Roma once again.

This game was unlike the previous two. He gets his opening hand and is already proclaiming victory. "You are so dead, Dad!" was a trumpeting call. I figured that I needed to go on the offensive and kept the Legionarius card to dish some heat and kept Haruspex for some card love. We trade and I get a Mercatus and another Legionarius. We start going and I successfully had set a Legionarius across from his Forum. Unfortunately, he flips a Turris in the 1 position to up his defense. The Forum isn't going away any time quickly.

We go in to this game and Chance fills up his side of the board fairly quickly. I struggle a bit and use card abilities rather than going for the gold and card draw. He gets a Basilica by the Forum and is just salivating at the opportunity to use them. Fortunately he never sees a Templum come up like he has in the past few games. I get a Onagur out but the Turris keeps my Onagur and Legionarius from doing much damage.

With that set up, Chance takes a lead over me but not by so much. When he hits a Forum on the '4' slot he never has a high second dice to cash in on it. Even with the Templum, Chance was never able to cash out more than 6 points on the Forum. My offensive side of two Legionarius, a Onagur and soon joined by a Velites is hacking away at his side. While the Forum stays on board, the Templum succumbs to the heat as do other minor characters. He's able to block my Forum and some of my attacks through adroit use of his Praetorianus at times. I'm also able to minorly leech off his Forum with the Mercatus a few times and then I finally activate my Haruspex. With that action I search the draw deck to pull a Forum and match it up quickly with a Basilica of my own.

We are running pretty much neck to neck when I call the ball - "If I roll good on my Forum you are toast Chance". Sure enough, I roll a 5 to activate my Forum with a '6' dice as the points and get another 2 from the Basilica. I pull the last 8 VPs from the bank and the game is set. We count up and Chance is at 14 while I'm at 22. So we had been exactly tied before I punched the Forum button.

So, third time was a charm for me in Roma. Chance still likes the game as he understands that it was very close and came down to a good roll on my Forum and a not so good roll on his own Forum. We never saw a Mercator or a Tribunus Plebis so VPs were pretty secure on each side. So it was a knife fight to the end and I just got the cleaner cut through the toga and ended my losing streak at Roma!

This is very surprising to me to hear. I've never seen a game of Roma (excluding games where I am teaching a new player) run more than 15 or 20 minutes. With the games I've had it's always one of two scenarios.

One player falls behind enough that the are quickly drained of all VP to end the game or else both players manage to acquire VP at a quick rate and drain the bank very quickly.

I don't mean any jab or anything, but are you positive you're playing all of the rules correctly? It seems remarkable that anyone could have this game dragging on.

This game is fun but it can drag on and on when the sides attack each other viciously and cause VPs to be lost. Having just played Caylus Magna carta, I think the built in timer in that game can help here:

In any turn when VPs are not claimed from the general supply, one 1 vp token is put out of the game.

This does decrease the room for error as the available VPs dwindle down, and make the final grab for points with a forum + temple more critical, but it keeps the game at a manageable length.