First Impression: Tyrants of Rome

By W. Eric Martin
September 30, 2008

Publisher: Lost Battalion Games
Designers: Neil Zimmerer & James M. Day
Players: 2-6
Ages: 12+
Rules Language: English
Price: $35
Links:

Version played: Published copy
Times played: Three, all with two players

“I am not happy. This game is no fun.” – Seung Chan Hong

That was the response of my foreign exchange student near the end of our first game of Tyrants of Rome. Obliging fellow that he is, however, he did play the game twice more with me to see what adaptions we might make based on the experience of the first game. (Threatening him with a night in the backyard might have persuaded him as well.) Those changes made later games less interactive and even less interesting – hardly the result you want after a learning game.

Eliminating Targets

Tyrants of Rome is a simple game. Each player controls a faction that starts with five leader cards – some of whom can try to bribe or assassinate other leaders – and a hand of five action cards from a deck of 92. The various actions range from one-shot godlike effects to lots of legions and barbarians that weaken opposing leaders. On a turn, you either attempt to bribe (bringing an opposing leader into your faction), attempt to assassinate (scoring points worth the leader’s value), or draw and play a card.

To win the game, you need points, and to earn points you can assassinate leaders or weaken them until their strength is zero, a process that typically requires the playing of several legion or barbarian cards. Barbarians can be played on any leader belonging to the groups shown on the specific action card, while legions can be played against any leader so long as one of your leaders has the power to command those troops.

In our first game, we had cleared all the leaders off the table by the time we were halfway through the deck. We had no targets to attack, and nothing to do other than collect barbarian cards in case our opponent drew a card that forced him to play a new leader. Thus, our first lesson: Having leaders is bad. By having leaders, you give the other player a chance to score points. If you’re ahead in the score, you’re giving him a chance to catch up; if you’re behind, you risk falling further behind. This recognition makes you realize that bribing is a sucker’s option.

During the next two games, we played multiple Insurrection cards that require a die roll for each leader in a particular group. Lose that roll, and you place that leader on the bottom of the leader deck – an option that we hoped for when rolling for our own leaders. (The rules state that you’re never allowed to deliberately play a card that might harm or eliminate a friendly leader, but the rules for the Insurrection card specifically state that you roll for both friendly and unfriendly factions, which implies that you can play the card as long as you’re not the only player with leaders in that group. It also implies that the rules aren’t well-written; more on that below.)

We also played Harvest cards to remove non-existent Famines so as not to play the card’s other option, namely “add a new leader to the board.” We’d use Minerva to reorder cards in the deck to try to give our opponent an Alliance card (which requires the playing of a new leader), but the wily opponent would be able to discard the Alliance with a Tide Turns (which allows you discard two cards, then draw two), leaving the board devoid of leaders for turns at a time. Oh, we had one or two leaders on display, but since leaders of strength 2 or 3 can be inactive – hiding in the backfield and safe from barbarian attacks – they were effectively absent.

A game that dissolves into attempts to step out of the game is not worth playing, but for you, Gentle Reader, I made the effort.

Tyranny of Rules

For a simple game, Tyrants of Rome has a long and needlessly complicated rulebook thanks to the use of a “3.6.1.1” rule presentation style that conceals and obscures as much as it informs. Rules are needlessly repeated, optional rules and typos pepper the pages, and everything is spelled out in as much detail as possible, as with rule 3.6.1.1 and its neighbors:

• 3.6.1.1 In a five-player game, only “1”, “2”, “3”, “4” or “5” Round points are awarded.

• 3.6.1.2 In a four-player game, only “1”, “2”, “3” or “4” Round points are awarded.

• 3.6.1.3 In a three-player game, only “1”, “2” or “3” Round points are awarded.

• 3.6.1.4 In a two-player game, only “1” or “2” Round points are awarded.

Despite the game’s simplicity, I kept thinking there had to be more to it. Why else would the rulebook stretch to 36 pages? Alas, no, in the end Tyrants of Rome contains less than you imagine. Death always comes to tyrants (and everyone else, of course), but there’s no reason to hasten the process by playing this game.

Want to try Tyrants of Rome for yourself? Perhaps not after that less-than-glowing review, but if you do, head to BGN’s Games for the Animals page!

Comments:

< Back Home