Republic of Rome was designed by Duckus Berthold and Robert Haines and published by Avalon Hill way back in 1990. It is playable by 1 to 6 players, and game time can be anywhere from 1 to 6+ hours.

What You Get

Inside the standard Avalon Hill Bookcase box (nicely illustrated) you get an attractive gameboard containing spaces for card decks, markers, lots of charts and some good artwork. There are three 64 card decks, three sheets of colorful cardboard chits, six faction mats with sequence of play and spaces to store funds, and three dice. There were two versions of the cards; some came matte, and some came glossy, and I believe the former were more common. I have the latter, and must admit to preferring their ‘feel’. The cards have nice illustrations, but are not very strong, so some care must be taken. There are a lot of different types of chits: for armies, status ratings, character ‘death’ markers, faction leader markers, fleets… there is good color used, so they are quite distinguishable, but keeping them all arranged requires quite a few plastic baggies. Overall, I think it looks great when set up, and is quite functional.

What you do

There is a lot going on in Republic of Rome, as you are simulating a most turbulent period of history, from 264-43 B.C. I’m sure I won’t do complete justice to all the finest details, but I hope to give a good feel for what happens during a turn.

There are three possible eras to play, the early, middle, and late scenarios, each with their own card deck. It is also possible to randomize by shuffling all the decks together in a massive free-for-all. We almost always start with the early scenario, as it is the hardest, and most of my comments will relate to this game, but for the most part all scenarios play the same way.

The game starts by dealing each player three senator cards to form their opening faction, and these are placed face up before the player. Each senator is rated for his military prowess and oratory ability. They also have a loyalty rating, indicating how fickle they are in maintaining alliances. Spaces on the cards are also provided to mark the popularity of the senator with the general public, a place to denote if the senator has been a consul on a previous turn, and his current influence. One of these three is marked as the faction leader: this figure will be immune from bribery attempts, and the card is maintained even upon the death of the current senator. You also receive three red event cards, which can be action cards (like tribunes, assassins or spies), statesmen (particularly important senators) or concessions, which give extra income when applied to a senator, but at the same time make then liable to prosecutions. Players may play any statesmen or concessions at this point. The Roman treasury is given 100 talents, the Roman unrest marker placed in the ‘0’ space, and the senator card with the lowest ID number is made the first Rome consul. The game is ready to play.

There are seven phases in a turn. The first is the mortality phase. A ‘death’ chit is drawn, and the number read. If the number matches a senator number, that senator has died of natural causes, all his markers are removed, and the card discarded. If the senator was faction leader, you retain the card, but all the markers are lost. Bad news! It is possible the death chit reads ‘none’ (whew!) or even ‘draw 2’ (lots of sweating goes on as the new chits are revealed). Phase two is the revenue phase. Each senator receives 1 talent, and the faction leader three. Every concession is checked for payout, every knight controlled by a senator pays a talent, and if any senators are currently governor of a province, they have the option of collecting personal income, at the risk of being labeled ‘corrupt’. Personal income belongs to the faction ‘bank’, and may be kept in the general fund (for use in protecting senators) or given to individual senators (for extra protection or use in bribing senators or maintaining personal armies). After personal incomes are dealt with, the State gets its funds. Rome gets 100 talents, plus taxes from its provinces. From this 20 talents are subtracted for every active war, 2 talents to maintain each army and fleet, and it must pay for land bills. The money goes fast!

Phase three is the Forum phase. Starting with the highest ranking officer in Rome, two dice are rolled. On a ‘7’, there is a random event rolled with 3d6. These can be somewhat helpful (bequests to Rome), bad (droughts), very bad (natural disasters) or worst (manpower shortage in time of perilous war). Any other roll allows the player to draw a new card. One may keep any red cards. A new senator card will allocate this card to the Forum space on the board, as the new senator is available to be enticed to your faction. A war card may be drawn, and it may be either active (happening now), or inactive (war brewing: will erupt into an active war if Rome decides to prosecute it, or another trigger like a leader for the war comes up). Leader cards with no matching war are placed aside, as they wait for the chance to gather their troops to send Rome to Hades. There are also ‘matching’ war cards: these are wars that had multiple parts like the Punic wars. These generally double the strength of all matching wars, and are Very Bad Things. Woe betide you if you have a matching Punic and Hannibal decides to show up—life goes down the tubes rather fast.

After the card draw, the player may attempt to persuade another senator to join his side, perhaps defecting from an opponent. Bribes can be directed to a senator in the Forum, or in another player’s faction. A die roll is made against the oratory ability of the bribing senator plus his influence, plus his bribe, reduced by the loyalty of the target senator, and counterbribes (from any player), and a ‘faction associated defense bonus’. 2d6 are rolled to see if the defection takes place. The money remains spent in any case. Next, senators can try to attract or pressure a knight. To attract you commit a number of talents and add this number to a die roll. If the result is 6 or higher, you get a knight, which provides votes as well as 1 talent during income. If you need money, fast, you can pressure one of your knights to ‘donate’, but this will cause the knight to abandon the faction. Then, you can either change faction leader or sponsor games at the Coliseum. This gains popularity and reduces public unrest, and there are three versions of the games: the slice & dice, blood fest, and gladiator gala. The people must be kept happy! This ends the Forum phase for this player: the sequence is repeated six times, each senator getting a chance, and any extra opportunities (in games with less than six players) are determined with the highest bidder(s) allowed another round. If the deck runs out, this either signals the last turn, or you can continue the game with the cards from the next era. And if you get this far in the early scenario, congratulations! You have done much better than my group in most occasions.

The highest ranked officer in Rome then rolls for all concessions/senators/war leaders left unallocated: on a 5 or 6 they are removed. Next is the population phase, where public unrest is adjusted for droughts and unprosecuted wars. The highest ranked officer then makes his speech to the people, the State of the Republic. This is a 3d6 roll modified by the popularity of the senator, ill omens, current unrest and other nasty things. If the modified dice roll is less than zero, the public revolts and overthrows the senate, Rome collapses, and the players lose. It is also possible to obtain a ‘mob’ result, which means the furious populace storms into the Senate and haphazardly kills a bunch of the senators. Also best to be avoided. Other results of the speech may be increased unrest, manpower shortages, or perhaps, for the very lucky, an actual calming of the dirty masses.

Next is the biggie, the Senate phase. Here is where the deals are made, the rivalries fought, bribes are offered, governorships and offices allocated, and the prosecutions enacted. It is quite well-regulated, and I’ll give an overview of the actions that go on in this phase. The elections of the next Rome consul and Field consul have to be made. Unless the order is usurped by the play of a Tribune card, the highest ranked officer nominates two senators to fill these rolls from among all the senators in Rome, except the consuls may not succeed themselves on consecutive turns. Each faction has a number of votes equal to their sum or oratories and knights, plus one vote per talent spent. The high officer dictates voting order. If a vote fails to pass by majority, a new pair is announced, and this continues until a pair is elected, or the last possible pair is nominated, in which case they win automatically. The two elected decide between themselves who will be Rome and who Field consul. Then, from among the prior Consuls, a Censor is elected. The Censor then initiates any prosecutions- up to two minor or one major. The Censor calls for all votes in the prosecutions. Minor prosecutions are directed against senators who accepted concession income the past turn, or who was an officer. A guilty vote results in loss of popularity and all concessions. A major prosecution is reserved for officers or former governors, and conviction results in execution! It’s possible to avoid the prosecution by going into exile. If one stands for the trial, the accused can use his popularity to appeal to the people for their support in an effort to gain the extra backing needed to avoid nasty things happening to his head.

After prosecutions, it’s back to the matters at hand. There are a lot of options, all run by the Rome consul unless an option is brought forth by a Tribune, or a senator is recognized by the Consul. During this phase decisions are made as to the increase or decrease of the size of the army and/or navy, and whether wars are prosecuted, who the leaders will be, and how many troops are needed. The Field consul must be the general sent in the case of one war and in the case of multiple wars, must be one of the generals sent. In extremely dangerous situations, there may be a call for a Dictator, to prosecute a really bad looking war. This allows the Dictator to also assign a Master of Horse to aide him in the battle. The Dictator cannot be vetoed in senate and is in total control of the Senate phase. It is dangerous to appoint a Dictator, but sometimes the only chance for Rome’s survival. During the phase, concessions in the Forum may be assigned after a vote, Governorships assigned (with or without the consent of the new governor!), and personal frivolous actions may be discussed at the player’s desire. Our group liked to vote on ‘rounds of applause’ or ‘group raspberries’ for particular meritorious or infamous actions from the previous turn. This phase is really wide open, and the length this phase will take really depends on the personality of your group: if they like to make speeches, it can go on a while… The Senate closes when the highest ranking officer declares.

Next is the combat phase where the wars are prosecuted. Four undefeated wars at once will spell the end of Rome, so the wars must necessarily be confronted, and preferably before they gain strength by the appearance of leaders or matching wars. Plus, a win in war can aide in filling the Roman coffers, and gain in prestige for the winning general! Losses can result in leader deaths as well, so care must be taken to throw enough troops at the fight, but not so many that a victorious, strong general can use them to march on Rome and claim it for his own, and victory in the game (although this is unlikely in the early scenario). Wars are resolved by a 3d6 roll, modified by the strength difference between the Roman and enemy forces, the commander ability and any evil omens. Results could be stalemates, which means the war continues, victories and even defeats. All troop losses could result in the leader death: it’s dangerous to be a soldier! Victories remove the war, and help Rome survive another turn.

The last phase is the revolution phase, as players must discard or play excess (more than 5) red cards they hold. Any victorious commander can then declare Civil War if he does not peacefully return his troops home. He must support the troops from his own treasury. The Senate will be able to raise troops against him in the next Senate phase, and the battle is fought like a normal war. If the rebel wins the war, that player has won the game! The revolt also counts as one of the four wars needed to cause the fall of Rome. This game has it in for you on all fronts! There are also advanced rules that add primarily religion and provincial armies.


So how do you win? Well, survival of Rome is a victory for everybody, but many folks want to crown an individual winner, so… If a senator achieves 35 influence (gained by becoming Consul/Censor among other ways) and Rome survives the turn, that player wins. You can win by defeating Rome as a rebel. You can win by getting voted Consul for Life during the Senate phase. If the people revolt and you are a declared rebel, you win. Finally, if the last card is drawn and you have the highest combined influence at turn end, you also win. There are lots of ways to lose: four active wars, a people revolt, if Rome is unable to pay the cost of a natural disaster or evil omen or other obligations.

What I Think

This is a game in my top 5 ever since I got it in the early 90's, a masterwork, unsurpassed in its genre. There is no other game like this for recreating the intricate machinations of politics in this violent era, or indeed, of any other era. It is a masterful blend of camaraderie, backstabbing, balancing of your fortunes with the need to maintain the common good. There are so many options to follow, and no player is never truly out of the game, although it can be a pretty intimidating barrier to get back into it. The game will reward experience, as good players will often be able to overcome misfortune better than the inexperienced players, and the ability to wield the power of Consul ‘as a surgeon’s knife’ can pull out some victories in the face of defeat. I love the opportunities to deal indirectly but effectively with enemies: how about sending that high-power senator on a Governorship right before the crucial vote? Shall we send old Fabius out to war with Hannibal? Maybe Hannibal can save us the trouble of using our assassin card later.

I have heard so many complaints about the rules of the game, how ‘indecipherable’ they are. This is all nonsense. It is a very complicated game, and has very thorough rules. However, the order of play cards are very clear, and by following step-by-step with the order of play cards, the game opens up in a logical way. Yes, there are a lot of rules, but they allow you to do so many things. This is an intricate game, with a widely-variable playtime. It is a game best learned from one experienced, but certainly can be learned by yourself. A good option is to start with the solo game, which works well-enough to get a good feel for the game, as each of you opposing ‘auto’ players is given their own personality on how they will bid, and how they will vote in matters. It will mainly be ‘you against them’, and can be quite challenging.

I learned a lot about the history of Rome from the game as well, and could better understand some of the maneuverings of the famous figures of the past when I subsequently read about them in books. It is a game of near-perfection in my eyes: almost nothing left out. I’m not sure how it could be improved. Some have suggested streamlining, but everything you ‘streamline’ means the loss of some real flavor. If given sufficient time, I should never turn down a game of Republic of Rome. If you ever wanted to shout ‘Alea jacta est!’, ‘Et tu, Brute!’ or begin with a ‘(Harrumph) My fellow, Senators, let me be brief…’, match wits with other ambitious power-hungry compatriots, or go toe-to-toe with Spartacus with the whole Empire in the balance, then this is you game.