So you're comparing Glory to Rome with Race for the Galaxy?
'Glory to Rome,' you say, '- but isn't that the kid's game with the cartoony artwork that comes in a plastic box?' It is rather unfortunate that the components of Glory to Rome leave something to be desired. Moreover, it has to be admitted that Glory to Rome has gone somewhat under the radar on BGG. Sure, it has its small band of enthusiastic fans, but it has never been crowned with any kind of BGG Top 10 royal status, and it has never had the hype of a game like Race for the Galaxy. Glory to Rome first appeared in 2005 in a less than glamorous first edition. So when a revised and improved edition (oddly enough designated the I.V. edition) appeared just over a year ago, many had already dismissed the game as inferior, and it seemed that its fate to languish among the lower echelons of games on BGG had already been sealed.
I'm not the first to suggest that had Glory to Rome been published by a large and more well-known game publisher, with slicker packaging and an attractive box, and perhaps a different style of artwork, it might at this very moment be ousting Race for the Galaxy from the top 10! Many of the people who learn it and like it, find themselves playing it upwards of 50 times or more, and keep coming back to it - not to mention that they find it on par with Race for the Galaxy. Like Race for the Galaxy and San Juan, Glory to Rome uses cards in several different ways. Most importantly, it employs the Puerto Rico method of having players choose from several 'roles' that other players follow.
What are people saying about Glory to Rome and Race for the Galaxy?
Consider some provocative comments like these:
'This game has been out for a while but few people caught on to how good it is until Race for the Galaxy and the current trendy card based games started coming out. Similar depth to Race, LOTS of options and different paths to victory. If you like the others, don't miss this one.' - Lou Moratti
'If you want to keep playing Race, if you like it, then stay away from Glory to Rome. It was a Race killer for me--and I loved Race. The interaction is tremendous, the strategies for winning are myriad, and the game makes your head swim--in a good way.' - Jason Easley
'I love Race, but after I bought this I'd rather play Glory to Rome.' - Lou Seelbach
'This is an excellent game; better than San Juan or RFtG. I like this one so much I have two copies.' - Kevin Rohrer
'I'm not sure Glory to Rome is better than Race for the Galaxy, but it is certainly just as good.' - Joseph Acker
'Amazing card game in the same vein as Race for the Galaxy and San Juan. I think this is the best of the bunch despite the cartoony artwork.' - Bruce Bridges
'This is my top pick for 'hidden gem that most BGGers would love if they knew about it,' and gets my strongest recommendation. Not entirely unlike San Juan or Race for the Galaxy, but IMO this is the most strategic and most fun of the three.' - Joe Esrey
'A great game; more complex than San Juan, more interaction than Race for the Galaxy. Has lots of synergies in it akin to a CCG, much more so than the other two.' - Adam Skinner
Is Glory to Rome really worthy of such lofty comparisons?
Are these claims too strong? I'll let others be the judge of that, but at the very least, perhaps they will urge you to check out why people are getting so excited about Glory to Rome. If you enjoy games like Puerto Rico, San Juan, and Race for the Galaxy, or even the CCG type combos in card games like Magic: The Gathering CCG, then you owe it to yourself to find out more about Glory to Rome, in order to discover for yourself whether this ugly duckling is just a duck with dreams of greater things, or whether there really is a beautiful swan lurking beneath the somewhat ugly packaging and somewhat garish looking components. Read on to find out more about the game, learn how to play it, and draw your own conclusions!
The Box
Let's get the worst part about the game over with first. The packaging. I'm not sure I even dare call it a box. It's a .... plastic container. A cheap plastic container at best. With the components inside, it looks something like this:
Stripped of its cargo, it looks more like this:
Extremely unpretentious. This is real low-budget style wrapping paper. But hey, does it matter? Let's not give up too quickly! The good news is that this is pretty much the worst thing about Glory to Rome, and it only gets better from here. We all know that what really matters is the game inside the box - we can always find alternative ways of storing it if necessary!
The Rulebook
Then we find the rule book. It's also not high class in design, and it even has a peculiar shape.
Did I mention yet that we needed to unfold the rulebook? In other words, to get it to fit inside the plastic packaging, they had to fold it in half!
But once again, we can live with a cheapy rulebook. If these are going to be our greatest complaints about a game - the quality of the box and the style of the rule-book, it must be a good game! And if you really want another copy of the rules, you can find them electronically on Cambridge Games' website, right here. After all, since when did a cheap rules booklet stop a gamer from enjoying a great game?! As long as the game play is good, we won't be stopped that easily!
Components: Complete List
So what do we get inside the box? Let's get to the good stuff.
Cards
The first thing we find are three shrinkwrapped decks of cards, as well as a plastic sleeve with more cards.
Player Camp
What we first thought was the 'cover' of the game is actually a reference card (called a 'Player Camp') on the reverse side:
There are five of these, one for each player.
Rome Demands card
There's one over-sized 'Rome demands...' card, which on the reverse side has some promotional material about some of Cambridge Games other products.
Merchant Bonus chips
Finally, there are six coloured poker style chips, called 'Merchant Bonus chips':
The complete inventory
So in short, we have the following list of contents:
- 187 Cards
- 5 Player Camps
- 1 Rome Demands card
- 6 Merchant Bonus chips
Let's look at everything a little more closely, and find out what all this is about!
Components: Cards
The 187 cards are the heart of Glory to Rome, so it's no surprise to find three decks of cards in the box.
And in case we've forgotten the name of the game publisher, Cambridge Games has gone the extra mile to make sure we remember them, because every time we look at the other side of the deck boxes we see this:
They also would love to see our game idea. Well right now, I don't have any game ideas, I want to figure out what designer Carl Chudyk's game idea is about! So what are we waiting for, let's bust open that shrink wrap and see what's inside!
Here's what we find - each of the three decks has exactly the same cards that look like this, called 'Order' cards:
I guess it just made it cheaper and easier for the manufacturer this way. Inside the plastic sleeve are some 'Site' cards.
We'll just take all the 187 cards together. In summary, we have the following cards:
- 1 Leader card
- 36 Site cards
- 144 Order cards (of 40 different types)
- 6 Jacks
Let's go find out what these are about!
Cards: Leader Card
First up is the Leader card. There's only one of these, and this card indicates which player goes first in the turn order.
If we need a short visible reminder about our options, then the reverse side of this card has text to help jog our memory.
Cards: Site Cards
Then there are six different Site cards:
Notice that we have Site cards for Rubble, Wood, Concrete, Brick, Stone, and Marble structures. There are 6 of each type, for a total of 36. It's important to realize that these are not building materials, but rather they represent sites on which buildings will be built with those materials. The Site cards indicate several important things about the buildings that will built on them:
1. The materials needed to complete the building: for example, the 'Rubble Site' indicates a Site on which a Rubble building can be built. A Rubble site will need a Foundation, and 1 Rubble Material, whereas a Marble site will need a Foundation, and 3 Marble Materials.
2. The value of the completed building: notice the coins on these cards. This does not indicate a cost, but rather indicates the value of buildings once they are completed.
The value of a completed building also happens to correspond to how many materials are needed to build that particular building. In other words:
Rubble and Wood buildings always require a Foundation and 1 Rubble/Wood material respectively, and when completed have a value of 1
Concrete and Brick buildings always require a Foundation and 2 Concrete/Brick materials respectively, and when completed have a value of 2
Stone and Marble buildings always require a Foundation and 3 Stone/Marble materials respectively, and when completed have a value of 3
Thankfully the same colour scheme is used consistently throughout the game, e.g. buildings made out of Rubble and Wood are always yellow and brown respectively, always have a value of 1, and always are the quickest to build (requiring only 1 extra material besides the Foundation).
The reverse side of these Site cards features different artwork:
This just indicates Sites that are 'out of town', and require more effort to get started building a structure on. More on that later. For now, let's just look at some closeups of the artwork on each of the different sites:
Rubble & Wood sites
Concrete & Brick sites
Stone & Marble sites
The artwork here is certainly nothing glamorous, but it is functional.
Cards: Orders Cards
Now we get to the 'Orders Cards', which all have artwork like this on the reverse side:
These are the heart of the game, and there's a lot of them, 144 in fact!
Six different colours of Order cards
We quickly notice that the six colours of Order cards correspond exactly to the six different coloured Site cards:
Three different uses of Order cards
Order cards can be used for one of three things:
1. a role/person
2. a building/structure
3. a piece of building material
So what does everything on the 'Order' cards mean? Let's use the helpful reference from the rulebook:
Take for example these two cards.
Here the yellow card on the left could represent either 1. a role/person (Laborer); 2. a building/structure (Bar); or 3. a piece of building material (Rubble). Similarly the blue card on the right could represent either 1. a role/person (Merchant); 2. a building/structure (Prison); or 3. a piece of building material (Stone).
Let's explain these three different uses of a card a little further:
1. Roles
Cards can first of all be played to represent one of six roles. These roles are indicated by the names on the left hand side of the cards.
We'll get to explaining how these roles work in more detail later, but for now we'll summarize the key effects of each role:
Patron: Hire Client (purple)
Laborer: Gather Material (yellow)
Architect: Lay Foundation or Build Structure (grey)
Craftsman: Lay Foundation or Build Structure (brown)
Legionary: Demand Material (red)
Merchant: Sell Material (blue)
2. Buildings
The names of the Buildings are on the top of the cards. Altogether there are 40 different types of buildings.
There are multiples of each, and there is a rule that you can never build more than one of the same building.
3. Building material
Finally, the cards can also represent building materials, which are indicated by the icons on the bottom of the cards.
So cards can function as Rubble, Wood, Concrete, Brick, Stone, or Marble.
A final example
One last illustration:
The grey card pictured above might represent 1. the Architect (role); 2. an Amphitheatre (building); or 3. Concrete (building material), depending on how it is used in the game.
Cards: Jacks
But there are still six more cards: Jacks.
These are essentially wild cards, and can be played from your hand as any of the six Roles: Laborer, Craftsman, Architect, Legionary, Merchant, or Patron.
Components: Player Camp
Each player gets their own 'Player Camp', which is essentially a player mat or reference sheet.
What does it all mean? Once again let's use the reference sheet from the rule book:
So throughout the game, cards are going to be placed in different positions in the Player Camp:
1. Cards that are Roles/Persons, will be placed on the left hand side of the Player Camp where it says 'Clientele'.
2. Cards that are completed Buildings will be placed on the top of the Player Camp where it says 'Influence'.
3. Cards that are Building Materials will be placed on the bottom of the Player Camp where it says 'Stockpile'.
Meanwhile, the right hand side of the Player Camp is the 'Vault', which is where Building Materials can be moved to count as Victory Points at the end of the game.
To illustrate, here's how our Player Camp might look midway a game:
On the left we have a yellow and brown card, functioning here in the Roles of Clientele: a Laborer and a Craftsman.
On the top we have a grey and brown card, functioning as completed Buildings: a Storeroom and a Palisade (their total value also increases the amount of Influence, and their special abilities will give benefits to the player who built them)
On the bottom we have two red and one purple card in the Stockpile, functioning as Building Materials: two Brick and one Marble.
On the right we have two building materials in the Vault (the value of these Building Materials corresponds to the Victory Points they will be worth at the end of the game)
Components: Rome Demands card
The over-sized Rome Demands card is used in connection with the Legionary role, which will also be explained later.
Components: Merchant Tokens
Finally, there are six Merchant Tokens (incorrectly called Merchant cards in the rulebook), one for each of the six different types of building materials. These are only used in the end of the game for scoring. Each player that has the most of a certain type of Building Material in their Vault at the end of the game will get a corresponding coloured Merchant Token, worth a bonus 3 points.
Game-play: Theme
The main idea of the game is that players are going to rebuild Rome after Nero has burned it down. You try to earn the most fame by rebuilding many of Rome's structures.
So how does this all work?
Game-play: Set-up
First, the Site cards are laid out, separated by material type. These are placed face down ('Out of Town' sites), but a number of them (equal to the number of players) are placed face up and made available to the players as 'Local sites', which can be taken when building Foundations.
Each player should also have a 'Player Camp' card, which serves both as a reference card, as well as the four main areas for their cards:
1. Clientele: on the left - cards played as workers
2. Stockpile: on the bottom - cards played as building materials
3. Vault: on the right - cards played for victory points
4. Influence: on the top - cards played as finished buildings
Buildings under construction are usually played on the side.
Along with a Player Camp, each player also gets a hand of four Order cards and 1 Jack. In the middle of the table is a Pool, which begins with one Order card for each player. There's also a draw pile of Order cards and a draw pile of Jacks.
For example, in a two player game, the set-up might look like this:
For a four player game, the set-up might look like this:
Game-play: Basic Flow of Play
The basic game-play is very straightforward: Each turn the starting player Leads (by playing a card from their hand that is one of the 6 Roles) or Thinks (draws a card or cards from the draw pile):
a) if he Leads, each other player decides whether to Follow (play the same role) or Think (immediately draw cards).
b) if he Thinks (draws cards) no one else does anything.
Then the next player becomes the starting player and takes a turn. This continues until one of the end game conditions is met.
It's really quite straight forward, especially when you see it in action, so let's illustrate. Imagine you are the starting player (with the Leader card). Now you must choose, will you Lead or Think?
Thinking
If you think, you may draw cards. There are three options for drawing:
1. Fill your hand up to its maximum size (usually 5, unless increased by Buildings) by drawing cards from the draw pile.
2. Add one card to your hand (if it is already at its maximum size or more) by drawing a card from the draw pile.
3. Take a Jack from the pile in the center of the game.
Leading
If you choose to Lead, you play a card from your hand to execute that Role. For example, you might play a Laborer to execute the Laborer role. If you have any Clientele that are also Laborers, you also get to execute the Laborer action again for each of them. You can also play a Jack as any of the six Roles that you wish.
Following
After the starting player (Leader) has 'Led', the other players may execute the same action if they wish. So if the Leader plays a Laborer, the other players in turn may also play a Laborer card to get that action. They can also play a Jack for this purpose. Note that if other players choose to 'Think' (draw cards) instead of follow, they still get to execute the Role played by the leader for each worker in their Clientele that matches this Role. So if you have one Laborer in your Clientele and the Leader chooses the Laborer role, you can choose to draw cards on your turn (Think), but you still get to do the Laborer role once because of the Laborer you have in your Clientele.
End of turn
After the Leader has completed his action of Leading or Thinking, and all other players have done their action of Following or Thinking, the cards played to execute these actions are placed in the Pool (except the Jacks, which are placed in a separate pile and available for all players to draw), and the next player becomes the Leader, for the next round.
Game-play: The Six Roles
To help us remember what the six roles do, the Player Camp sheet does include a reference about how the roles function:
Let's explain the roles in a little more detail.
Patron Role: Hire Client
Reference
With the Patron role, you play a purple (Patron) card from your hand onto the middle of your Player Camp, which allows you to take a card from the Pool and put it into your Clientele. This is an instance where cards are used as Roles/People. The card taken from the pool is placed on the left hand side of the Player Camp to indicate that it is now a worker in your Clientele.
An Example
In the example below, we've played the purple Fountain card as a Patron, in order to get a Laborer from the Pool as our Client. We already had a Craftsman and a Laborer, so doing this action adds a second Laborer to our Clientele.
Using the Patron role to get workers into your Clientele is very useful, because it means that in later turns when a Role is played by another player, you get to do those roles for free for each matching person in your Clientele. For instance, in the example pictured here, if another player Leads with a Craftsman, even if we choose to 'Think' (draw cards) instead of Following by playing a Craftsman, we still get to exercise the Craftsman role once because we have a Craftsman in our Clientele. If we were to Follow and play the Craftsman role ourselves, we'd get to exercise this role twice, because of the extra one in the Clientele. The amount of Clientele you can have is limited by your Influence (which starts at two, but increases each time you complete a Building, by the value of that Building).
Note that the card used to play the Patron action (here: the Fountain card), is put into the Pool at the end of the turn.
Laborer Role: Gather Material
Reference
With the Laborer role, you play a yellow (Laborer) card from your hand, which allows you to take a card from the Pool and put it as Building Material into your Stockpile. This is an instance where cards are used as Building Materials. The card taken from the Pool is placed on the bottom of the Player Camp to indicate that it is now a building material in your Stockpile.
An Example
In the example below, we've played the yellow Insula card as a Laborer, in order to get a Wood card from the Pool and add it to our Stockpile. We already had two Brick in our Stockpile, so doing this action adds a third Building Material to our Stockpile.
Note that if we happened to have two Laborers in our Clientele, as in a previous example (see under: Patron role), then by playing a yellow card for a Laborer action, we would get to execute this action three times, and add three Building Materials from the Pool to our Stockpile! Once again, the Laborer card used to play the initial action here goes into the Pool at the end of the turn.
Architect & Craftsmen Roles: Lay Foundations and Build Structures
Reference
The Architect and Craftsmen Roles can be used to either Lay Foundations or to Build Structures. These roles are in fact identical with only one small difference: when Building a Structure, the Architect must take materials from the Stockpile, whereas the Craftsman takes materials from your Hand. So how do they work?
How To Build
Let's first learn how to complete a building structure. Here's an example of how an Archway building would be built in three stages (1. Site and foundation; 2 & 3. Adding building materials)
Since an Archway requires a Foundation and 2 Materials, it would be built in three stages as follows:
1. With a first action (either Architect or Craftsman), you take a Site card and play a matching coloured Foundation (here: the Archway) on that site.
2. With a second action you take a card with matching material (here: Brick) from your hand (with the Craftsman) or from your stockpile (with the Architect) and add it to the structure.
3. With a third action you take another card with matching material (with the Architect or Craftsman, just as in the previous stage) and add it to the structure to complete it.
When the structure is complete, the Site card from the completed building is placed above your Player Camp, and it increases your amount of influence (here: by two, since an Archway has a value of two), plus the special ability immediately comes into effect. So once the Archway is complete, from now on you get a special benefit: you can take material from the Pool when performing the Architect role, and not just from your Stockpile! Good strategic play will try to maximize the use of special abilities like these!
Note: The image above actually contains a minor error, because it shows the Foundation of the building above the Player Camp, rather than the Site card. The Foundation card of the completed building can be placed elsewhere, so the ability of the completed building remains in public view. The Site card from the completed building can be removed and placed under the Player Camp with the top part showing to indicate the amount of Influence.
So what exactly do the Architect and Craftsman do? As you can see, they can be used for one of two things:
a) Lay a Foundation: With the Architect or Craftsman action, you play a grey or brown card from your hand, which allows you to take a card from your hand and make it the Foundation of a building. You take a matching Site card, and place the card from your hand on top of the Site, so now you have begun building your structure! Laying a Foundation is the only instance where cards are used as Buildings.
b) Build a Structure: Here's where the two roles differ. With the Architect action, you play a grey card from your hand, which allows you to take a card from your Stockpile and add it as building materials to your building. With the Craftsman action, you play a brown card from your hand, which allows you to take a card from your Hand and add it as building materials to your building. This is an instance where cards are used as Building Materials.
An Example
In the example below, we've played the grey Storeroom card as an Architect. If we had already completed the first two stages of our Archway previously, then this action would allow us to take a Brick from our Stockpile, add it to our Archway building, and thus complete it. The completed building is placed on top of the Player Camp, and now increases our Influence by two, for a total of 4 Influence. This means that we can now have 4 workers in our Clientele, and 4 cards in our Vault.
The special ability of a building also takes effect at this point. Buildings are one of the most fun parts of the game, because their unique abilities are what allows you to speed up other aspects of the game, or give you special benefits! Note that if we had two Architects in our Clientele, executing the Architect action would give us three Architect actions, and if we had two Brick in our Stockpile, we could could play a red brick Building from our hand and take both Brick from our Stockpile to begin and complete the building on the same turn!
There's also one special rule to mention here: there are only a limited number of 'Site' cards made available for each resource (the number is equal to the number of players). Once these are used up, players must use 'Out of Town' site cards, which require two actions to take and build a Foundation.
Legionary Role: Demand Material
Reference
Now for the Legionary Role! Here's where things really start to get fun! With the Legionary role, you play a red (Legionary) card from your hand. This allows you to reveal a card from your hand, and demand the same material from the Pool and from each player beside you. So this is an instance where cards are used as Building Materials. You might reveal a brick, for example, which would allow you to take a Brick from the Pool, which is placed on the bottom of the Player Camp to indicate that it is now a building material in your Stockpile, and if either player beside you has a Brick in their hand, they must give it to you and you add those to your Stockpile as well.
An Example
In the example below, we've played the red Bath card as a Legionary, and revealed the Vomitorium card (Concrete) to demand Concrete. If we obtained a Concrete in this way, it gets added to our Stockpile as a Building Material, by being placed at the bottom of our Player Camp. In a game with 3 or more players, we could get as many as three Concrete in this way, one from the Pool (if available), and one from each player beside us if they have Concrete in their hand.
As always, having extra Legionaries in our Clientele means we get to do this action more than once; or if we decided to 'Think' and draw cards rather than 'Follow' and play the role ourselves, we get to do this action once for each Legionary in our Clientele.
Merchant Role: Sell Material
Reference
The Merchant role is very important towards the end of the game. Since points are a combination of the value of completed Buildings and of the value of Building Materials in our Vault, we want to get Building Materials in our Vault. That's what the Merchant lets us do.
With the Merchant role, you play a blue (Merchant) card from your hand, which allows you to take a card from your Stockpile and move it into your Vault, where it will count as Victory Points (equal to the value of the Material) at the end of the game.
An Example
In the example below, we've played the blue Prison card as a Merchant, and moved a card from our Stockpile into our Vault (face down).
If you are the player with the most of a certain type of Building Material in your Vault at the end of the game, you'll be awarded 3 points for that - that's what the Merchant Bonus chips are to help us keep track of.
Jacks
Don't have a card for the Role you want to lead or follow? Play a Jack instead. Jacks will prove to be very important and give great flexibility, so you'll often find yourself drawing a Jack, so you won't get stuck not being able to play a Role that you really need.
Game-play: Example of Play
Here is an example of play from the rulebook:
Game-play: Using Building Abilities
The rule book advises new players to play their first game without the abilities on the Buildings, just to get a sense of how the mechanics of the game fit together. This is good advice. But once you figure out how the game-play works, you'll definitely ramp up the fun factor by using the special Building abilities that come into effect when a Building is completed - this is what really makes the game good!
The Buildings are what make the game different each time: your strategy will be determined by the abilities of the Buildings you complete. For example, there are buildings that will protect you from your opponent's Legionary action; buildings that increase the size of your hand, clientele, or vault; buildings that let you take you get special benefits when performing certain actions. To give you an idea of some of the possibilities, here's a small gallery of buildings for you to browse:
Rubble Buildings
Wood Buildings
Concrete Buildings
Brick Buildings
Stone Buildings
Marble Buildings
Since there are 40 different buildings, there are lots of different combinations, and tremendous replay value. Much like the Minor Improvement or Occupation cards in Agricola, the first few Buildings you complete will determine the strategy for the rest of the game, and since there are so many different Buildings available, there are a multitude of different strategies to try.
The special abilities of the Buildings have also been selected to match the theme, and this has been done very cleverly.
Game-play: End of Game
Triggering the End of Game
The end of the game is triggered by one of several possibilities. There are a few special buildings that can end the game when they are completed. Usually, however, the game ends when there are no more cards available in the draw deck or local building sites. Here's a complete list of the things that will trigger the game end:
1. the draw deck runs out of cards
2. there are no local building Sites left available
3. any player completes the Catacomb building
4. any player completes the Forum building and has all 6 roles as clients.
The game ends immediately when any one of these events is triggered, and no more actions are completed.
The Forum
Of special interest is the Forum building. If a player completes the Forum and has one of each of the six different clients, that player wins automatically as soon as he completes the Forum - in this instance, Victory Points are not even counted!
This is a great alternate win condition, because it means that a player who is behind on points can attempt to get a 'Forum' victory, and other players must always be on the alert for this possibility, and try to make sure they can trigger the end of the game via the usual means, rather than have victory snatched away from them at the last moment!
Game-play: Scoring
How to Score
Assuming that the game did not end by a Forum victory, players must total their victory points. Points are awarded as follows:
1. One point for each influence (value of completed Buildings, plus the two starting Influence).
2. One point for the value of each Building Material in the Vault.
Bonus Points points are also awarded:
3. The player with the most cards of a certain type of Material in their Vault gets a Merchant Bonus chip for that material type, which is worth an extra three points.
4. Some special buildings give extra Victory Points (e.g. Statue).
Points will usually come from your completed Buildings and the Materials in your Vault. The player with the most points wins!
An Example
Here is a scoring example from the rulebook:
Strategy
Strategic considerations
The game designer has posted a helpful chart, showing how the logistics of the game all fit together, and how the different cards and roles interact:
So where does the strategy fit in? Well there are constant choices to make, first of all deciding whether to Lead a role (if it's your turn) or draw a card (Think); and if you do Lead, what role to lead. Or should you use a Jack, because remember that other cards that are led will end up going into the Pool and become available to other players as clients (for the Patron role) or building materials (for the Laborer role). And what buildings should you build, and how can you get the most of your building? Finding the way to maximize the advantages of different Buildings is particularly fun, and makes the game different each time. Coming up with powerful combinations of buildings and roles that works together is particularly satisfying!
Illustration of a combo
Here's an example:
The Stairway was built first, to increase the amount of influence. Then in one turn, the final building materials were added to complete the Aqueduct, and then the Garden. Look at the cumulative effect: The Aqueduct doubles the size of the Clientele, and the 10 Influence from all three buildings will enable up to 20 Clients! The Garden then allows the Patron action to be performed 10 times, so assuming there are 10 cards in the pool, you can add 10 cards to your Clientele in one hit! But here's the kicker: the Aqueduct also allows you to add a client from your hand for each one you add from the pool with the Patron! So for each of those 10, theoretically you can add an extra one from your hand! Now normally you don't have a hand size of 10, but it's not hard to see how this combo can easily lead to the Clientele being filled up with 20 Clients! This picture is from a real game, and just a couple of turns later the Forum was built to win the game.
Is this atypical? Not really - you'll discover all kinds of fun combinations like this with a variety of different cards! See this thread, for a pictorial session report of two player game which featured two crazy combos:
The Masked Man fiddles while Rome burns
What do I think?
So what do I think of Glory to Rome? I love it! After playing the game the first time, I immediately wanted to play it again. The same happened after my second game. And after my third game! And I'm still not tired of it! I've taught it to five people so far, and their experience has been the same.
Why do I like it?
One reason is because the play time is quick - the game can easily be played in well under an hour - and it gives a good amount of meat to chew on in that time, without getting on your nerves or causing indigestion from too much tension or complexity. Our third game was a three player game that we managed to finish in only 45 minutes! One two player game lasted less than 20 minutes! But I'd expect that you'd normally need to allow 20-30 minutes a player. And when you're finished, you're left hungry for more - a similar feeling that one can get at the end of a game of Agricola. And like Agricola, when you play you just can't wait to play again, because you know that with a different set of cards you'll have to play the game completely differently!
How does it compare with other games?
I'm going out on a limb by saying this, but my initial impressions actually put Glory to Rome ahead of Agricola for me, because I find that with Agricola there are so many options and there is a great amount of tension because you can only do a small fraction of all the things you want to do; in contrast, in Glory to Rome you get to build the things you want, and have fun reaping the benefits of them for the rest of the game. Agricola features agonizing choices about creating a miniature garden, and just when it's right the game ends; Glory to Rome is more like building a park that you get to romp around and relax in for a good while. Others will disagree, and my point is not to suggest that Glory to Rome is necessarily a better game (it has more randomness than Agricola, for one thing), just that it's a very good game. I personally can't compare it with Race for the Galaxy, but it certainly beats San Juan hands down, and so I'm not surprised that so many folks compare Glory to Rome very favourably with Race for the Galaxy, and that many would even suggest it is the superior game. But even if it's not superior, certainly fans of games like Race for the Galaxy should give it a chance. People with experience playing Magic the Gathering will especially enjoy the range of crazy card combos possible, and the potential for creating synergy. And for under $25, how can you go wrong?
Is it complicated?
The difficulty of the game system can be overstated. My eight year old watched me play part of a game with my twelve year old, and that was enough for him to figure out how the game worked - he joined in by playing the next game, and was able to play quite competently, including using all the Building abilities. In fact, he went on to beat his older brother in the next session. Admittedly, the game is probably easier to learn if explained firsthand than trying to figure it out on your own from the rulebook, but I hope this pictorial review will ease the learning curve significantly for those trying to learn how the game works for the first time. The real depth of the game isn't the complexity of rules, but optimizing your game-play and making good choices; this comes with experience and with good decision making.
Does the game have weaknesses?
Sure, the packaging is ultra-budget. And as for the artwork, I personally don't mind it, and it could be argued that the cartoony artwork matches the humor on the cards. Consider the quotation from Cicero on the Latrine: 'It is pleasant to do nothing.' The Sewer has this tongue-in-cheek Cicero quotation: 'As you sow, so shall you reap.' My son wryly suggested an improved rendition, even more in keeping with the theme: 'As you sow, so shall you reek.' While I don't mind the artwork, it has to be admitted that it isn't the pinnacle of excellence, and I can appreciate that some people don't care for the it - I have to concede that the game might have had greater success with more professional artwork and packaging. I do think that it's unfortunate that the game suffers because of these things, because Glory to Rome really does deserve better.
What do others think?
Don't just take my word for it! Clearly I'm not the only one enthused about Glory to Rome. Consider these comments:
'This is a great game- probably the best card game of 2005 for me. Gets better with every play. The components do leave a little to be desired, but for such a good game from an small self publisher, it's worth it.' - Greg deBeer
'Game play is excellent: smooth, interaction, plopping opportunities. Similar to San Juan in that the cards are used in many ways but with GTR there is more to get the brain cells going. Love it.' - Helen Minall
'A fun card game with many 'outrageous' combos, but oddly is still balanced. It is a lot of fun when you do hit those 'outrageous' turns.' - Jeff Wu
'Repeated plays of this keep raising my rating. At this point, it's the only game that neither I nor my girlfriend will ever turn down. Fun, fast (with two players), and different every time.' - Seth Brown
'GREAT game. Lots going on so you always have something to think about. Lots of card combinations so the game is never the same. Every card seems broken, so the game seems CRAZY. Funny art. Deep but portable and on the shorter side.' - Randall Barnes
'This is a gem of a game. Don't let the cartoony graphics fool you, there's quite some depth in this. Fans of San Juan, Race for the Galaxy, et al will like this. But its different enough to be worthy of its own place in a collection.' - Neil Cook
This comment particularly sums up my own thoughts well:
'Chris Rao really hit on something when he described Glory to Rome as 'more creative and less mechanical.' The buildings provide some surprising and uproariously fun advantages in GtR, in contrast with games ranging from Jambo to Race. I think the game is designed so that most of the combination machinery can and will spin nigh-out-of-control as the endgame approaches. You can't really single out a card that is 'broken' by fastidious Eurogaming standards; the whole deck is potentially 'broken.' Compare this to Agricola, where superb play barely nets you a decent farm, and the entire game centers around eeking out a few extra actions. In Glory to Rome, you get to run after the warm-up. They're both fantastic games, but in this one you get to do/see some crazy [stuff] without sacrificing skill.' - Jack (JohnRayJr)
The final word
In a nutshell
Here's how I'd sum up the good, the bad, and the ugly about Glory to Rome:
Cons:
inferior packagingNeutral:
artworkPros:
quick play time depth of play fun combos alternate win conditions high replayability solid theme good humor cheap priceIs Glory to Rome for you?
That will depend on your personal taste. I hope that this pictorial overview has helped you learn how the game works, and if you are a fan of games like Race for the Galaxy, San Juan, or even Magic the Gathering, that you'll be sufficiently persuaded to give Glory to Rome a try. Just like Rome wasn't built in a day, I think you'll find that you won't have exhausted the enjoyment you can get out of Glory to Rome in one day either!
Edit: One minor error has been pointed out to me. When a building is completed, it is not the Foundation of the building itself (e.g. the Archway card) that is placed under the Player Camp (along the Influence edge), but the Site card for the building. The Foundation of the completed building (with the materials used to complete it underneath) can be placed elsewhere so that its ability can be clearly seen by all players.
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The complete list of Ender's pictorial reviews: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/37596
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