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Analysis
Republic of Rome
Devilish Tactics
There are a lot of tactics in this game which are not apparent at first
glance. Only by frequent playings of the game do some of these become
apparent. And some of them are truly devilish!
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The Suddenly Wealthy Commander:
The Armaments/Shipbuilding Concession are unlike any other
concession in that they pay out during the Senate Phase.
Put this concession on a commander likely to be sent to war
with a large force and he leaves rich and ready to rebel...
-
The Geography of Persuasion:
A good way to grab a Senator held by another faction is to
make a deal with the player immediately to your right. Because
the rules state that bribing stops when the turn comes around
to the Persuader and the Persuader is willing to accept the
current Persuasion Number, your friend can put a huge amount
in on your behalf and make persuasion virtually certain. In
exchange, you can do him some favor, possibly even including
giving him the counter-bribe money you picked up in the event.
And since his money has been in faction treasury, it's quite
likely no one will see it coming.
-
The Most Valuable Senator Gambit:
Say you have very little income, but you do have an Assassin or
two? Try to get a big persuasion going with plenty of bribing
and counter-bribing. Even a middle-level persuasion usually
evolves into a large-scale one if you remind everyone how powerful
the winner will be with all that money. Then at the start of
the Senate Phase, simply assassinate him and remove most of the
money from the game.
-
The Most Valuable Senator Gambit II:
If you can figure out that Assassins are in anyone's hands, they will almost
certainly be forced to use them if a Senator becomes too rich,
so this tactic can work without your even having to have and use Assassin
cards!
-
Stabbing from the Front:
If you have determined that you must assassinate, change your faction
leader to your least important senator. That way, if caught, you don't
lose your faction leader in addition to losing the assassinator.
-
Mob Violence:
If you are holding the "Mob Incited to Violence" card, play tribunes to
irk the largest faction in the game. When he cancels it, you get to draw
mortality chits against his faction.
-
General Haig, or, "I'm in Charge":
Just before your commander is sent to war, play the Manilian Law and
stay out as a proconsul to keep defeating wars until you have a commanding
influence lead.
-
Lurking:
Unless you are win outright, it might be good to appear at best in third
place during the Late Republic as otherwise the drawer of the Catiline
Conspiracy is likely to use it on you.
-
Insurrection Politics:
If there is a faction which has a large number of good senators, apart
from getting together to steal them, run the Republic at a high Unrest
level. When the Mob Violence event comes up, they are likely to be hit
the worst.
Appendix: Analysis of the Early Republic War Situation
There are 8 possible wars in the Early Republic. Most Early Republic
games go about 6 turns. At no time during the game may you have 4
active wars at the end of a Combat Phase. This means you can get away
with having 3 by the end of turn 6 which implies that you need to defeat
at least 5 during the 6 game turns you have available, which is about
a war a turn. You can miss once, but if you miss twice you should attack
2 wars to make up for it.
See also the Lou Jerkich
collection of Republic of Rome links.
Founding Fathers is a game in the same style set in early America
Created:
Fri Oct 1 12:39:50 1993
Last updated:
Mon Jan 4 17:07:17 PST 1999
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