Maybe this review will help you decide whether or not you and your group of game lovers will want to invest in The End of the Triumvirate. You will get two perspectives here. One comes from me, Romefreak, who loves just about anything Roman. The other comes from my wife, who likes to play some pretty hefty quasi war games.

For me, I like the game’s theme, as the atmosphere created during game play, especially with 3 players, is high tension. With 3 people the game is not about “Gee, how do I ride as quickly to victory as possible?” Rather, this game pretty much forces you to collaborate with at least one other player once or twice in the game. In other words, you, as Caesar, Pompey, or Crassus, must calculate and execute your plans that resemble some of the wheeling and dealing of ancient Rome. I like the game for this flavor: I shouldn’t stab my “alley” in the back yet until he helps me screw my enemy over.

Should you be a total Rome freak like me, I can suggest some excellent books by Adrian Goldsworthy that goes into excellent detail about how Crassus, Pompey, and Caesar, as well as other high officials, played politics in dark backrooms. These books have helped me appreciate history and the game, although I would have read the books for their own sake. (For really good reads, check out Goldsworthy’s Caesar: Life of a Colossus, The Complete Roman Army, and In the Name of Rome).

So, overall, I dig the game a lot. I would give it about a 7 or 7.5 out of 10.

Pros:
• thematically fun and interesting
• rules are easy to learn
• players must make intelligent plans, deals, and then inevitably backstab opponents
• 3 paths to victory (militarily, politically, or through competence acquisition)
• rather quick game sessions

Cons:
• some provinces that are just too crammed (i.e. Gallia Cisalpina and Spania Citerior)
• I think the “Forum” might be better called the “Senate” (although I know I am not the one who designed the game…Forum works, though)
• with 2 players, the game is bland
• my wife doesn’t like the game (and I’ll get to that in a moment)

From my perspective, I would play this game much more if it weren’t for my wife’s protests. If you are a gamer who is looking for something to play that does a fairly good job of creating a tense Roman political and military grab for power, well, then, get the game. Just make sure you have other Rome fans to play with, or the box will probably collect dust.

My wife does not like the game for a couple of reasons. She finds moving governors in and out of collection boxes tedious. In addition, dropping coins and/or armies on the often crowded board also rubs her the wrong way. Character movement, to her, also seems odd. She believes the game is somewhat “broken.”

Despite all her criticisms, she has won about half of the End of the Triumvirate games we have played, so she gets the rules. She just finds the game to be monotonous. She will, however, eagerly play Wallenstein, Shogun, El Grande, Tigris and Euphrates, and similar games, so maybe her criticism is fair?

I will continue to try and convert my wife’s ways with EoT, as I noticed she kind of got into the deal-making aspect of the game when a friend played with us. At one point, she and I had to gang up against our friend to try and knock his competency levels down (which didn’t work, by the way). My wife is a person who plays competitively, aggressively, and she likes to mess with other players to handicap them. If I could somehow get her to see that aspect about EoT, the game box might not collect so much dust.

So, what do I suggest? See if you can play with somebody who already owns it. If you have players like my wife—critical and does not love all things Roman—then maybe invest in something else. If you are a romefreak, well, buy the game.

Happy Gaming!
Romefreak