| Republic of Rome Gear: |
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All the stylish HRAOs have them now
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Republic of Rome playback
For those who have never played Republic of Rome
this playback of the game
may give a good idea of what it's like. For those
who own the game but have never played, this may help to
breathe life into the rules and give an idea of the "how" of play
that the rules might not otherwise communicate.
The white Senator cards are dealt and the initial draw is as follows:
Arthur draws Aelius, Calpurnius and Quinctius and is not extremely excited, but notes from the square brackets that the last gives rise to a statesman at least and so makes this senator his faction leader. At least he has a couple of value 3 militaries.As already guessed, Darwin's Fabius becomes the first consul, receiving the two markers for it and five influence points.Brian draws Furius, Flaminius and Sulpicius. Although he has no statesmen, at least 3 is his smallest military value. He puts the faction leader marker on the head of military 4 Flaminius.
Charles has drawn the potential statesman Aemilius and a couple of losers: Papirius and Terentius. Aemilius will be in charge here.
Darwin's got the excellent future statesman Fabius, the above average Manlius and the disappointing Junius. Fabius will lead here, and he muses, as no. 2 has a good chance of being the first (temporary) consul.
Edwin draws Valerius, Fulvius, Aurelius and something of a puzzle. Only Fulvius gives rise to a statesman, but not a particularly valuable one. So should he be the faction leader or should it go to Aurelius and his 3 oratory point or to Valerius and his value 7 oratory plus influence? But it turns out to be moot after all since the Fulvius statesman only appears in the Middle Republic, which is not to be played today so he picks the last.
He now begins with the red card part of the setup. Finding that he has drawn an assassin, a bodyguard and a tax farmer, Darwin feels well protected, from possible assassins at least. Given that, he decides to assign his tax farmer to Fabius.
Edwin has pulled an amazing three tax farmers. He assigns one to his faction leader and saves the others to give out as favors later.
Arthur is happy to have pulled the indispensable statesman Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus and decides to play him as the First Punic War is already in the Forum, though inactive. He also plays a tax farmer on his faction leader and keeps his tribune secret.
Brian also has a tribune to hold onto. He decides to play the Armaments concession on the faction leader and keeps his Influence Peddling card secret.
Charles is very pleased to have drawn Lucius Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus, the very statesman to go with his faction leader. It's a dilemma whether to play it now though. On the one hand he is the Macedonian War expert, but there is no such war around at the moment, so he is at risk from various calamities. On the other hand, the Influence Peddling card is still around so if he keeps it in hand it's liable to be stolen. Finally he decides to play it. The other two cards, Tribune and Seduction, he keeps in hand.
Turn 1: An Inauspicious Beginning
Turn 2: The Phoenicians Are Coming
Turn 3: Persuasive Arguments
Turn 4: Prosecuting Wars and Criminals
Turn 5: Taking on Hannibal Himself
Turn 6: Desperate Maneuvers