Game: Gloria Mundi

Thread: Re: Could the rules be written just a little worse please?

russ — 2008-08-21T16:13:34+00:00

Skotte wrote:
I normally like the rules translations Rio Grande comes up with.
If it was designed by James Ernest and Mike Selinker, I assume they wrote it in their native language English, and it was not translated from another language, right?

(Which would make it even more frustrating if the rules are unclear. I have no idea since I've not read them. )

Thread: Re: Caveat Emptor

rvinyard — 2008-08-02T16:58:26+00:00

I don't know if Gloria Mundi is a good game or not... I'm still in that 'will I or won't I buy it' phase.

I just wanted to say that it's reviews like this that I particularly appreciate where they critique the faults of the game without trashing it, and subsequently spawn a plethora of discussion of the faults.

After reading the discussion... I'm inclined to buy it.

Thanks

Thread: Re: Crap box insert!

sthrjo — 2008-07-28T20:17:00+00:00

I have solved this: A standard size counter tray for war game counters fits precisely in the hole. The wooden counters are stored there. Quicker to set up the game this way.

Thread: Re: Adding New Building Cards

sthrjo — 2008-07-20T20:03:39+00:00

The rule says "...place it onto the space marked "+5". If this space already has a card, slide that card to the "+4" space, and so on."
The "and so on" phrase is rewritten:
If the "+4" space already has a card, slide that card to the "+3" space.
If the "+3" space already has a card, slide that card to the "+2" space.
If the "+2" space already has a card, slide that card to the "+1" space.
If the "+1" space already has a card, slide that card to the "0" space.

So it is obvious that the number 3 suggestion is what the rules imply. The original rules in German states the same thing.

Thread: Re: Could the rules be written just a little worse please?

Palpatine — 2008-07-18T20:42:40+00:00

That's nothing. Try the rules to Mallworld.

Thread: Re: Could the rules be written just a little worse please?

Trump — 2008-07-18T01:45:55+00:00

Skotte wrote:
Goods placed on the path go ahead of the goth, on the empty space which is closest to the goth. If the next empty space needs more than one good, the current player may place one good (it is his choice which), and the next player, on his turn, may place the other.

If the goth moves, he moves exactly one space, and the current player takes the good off the path and keeps it. If the current player has a card on the table which matches the thing which the goth is moving on to, he must lose one of those things. If the current player doesn't have one, then the player to his left loses one. fFailing that, the player to his left loses one, continuing around the table. If no-one at the table has a card which matches the thing the goth is trashing, then no-one loses anything. The person who is losing a card gets to pick which card is lost.

You have this bit right... mostly. First of all, you have to pay ALL of the tribute for the next spot so if two things are listed, you have to pay both. If the current player fails to pay the tribute, the Goth is very likely moving more than one space. He burns through ALL of the spaces that have been denied him thus far. I've found it quite typical that he's held off for quite a bit... and then he rushes forward nine spaces and does some serious trashing. This is necessary because the players will tend to build up some really nasty building combos and they'll need to get the chairs kicked out from under them.

Thread: Could the rules be written just a little worse please?

Skotte — 2008-07-17T21:45:23+00:00

I normally like the rules translations Rio Grande comes up with. This game, however is a complete exception. The rules are completely baffling in points, and we spent at least an hour last night just trying to puzzle out what was meant by a number of pretty important things.

The game is pretty straightforward, on the whole:
You play one card -- Green, White or Yellow -- into your play space on the table. Then everyone at the table who has a card on the table of that color gets a good of that color. If you have multiple cards, you get multiple goods. Later, you may use goods to buy building cards. Building cards replace your basic Green/White/Yellow cards, and usually allow some new ability. Abilities on buildings may be activated instead of collecting a good for that colored card. So a Green land card becomes a green building card. When green is activated at the start of anyone's turn, you may choose to get a green good, or activate a green building.

Getting goods and buildings is nice, but you should really bear in mind one thing: Rome is crumbling. The horde is invading. You really really want to get off the continent! Acquiring and employing buildings will usually allow you to move some number of spaces.

fFrom there, the rules get a little more complex. The goths are coming!! We may have been playing it wrong, but here are things we decided: The player either places ONE good on the path, or the goth moves to the next space in line.

Goods placed on the path go ahead of the goth, on the empty space which is closest to the goth. If the next empty space needs more than one good, the current player may place one good (it is his choice which), and the next player, on his turn, may place the other.

If the goth moves, he moves exactly one space, and the current player takes the good off the path and keeps it. If the current player has a card on the table which matches the thing which the goth is moving on to, he must lose one of those things. If the current player doesn't have one, then the player to his left loses one. fFailing that, the player to his left loses one, continuing around the table. If no-one at the table has a card which matches the thing the goth is trashing, then no-one loses anything. The person who is losing a card gets to pick which card is lost.

Mechanics aside, the basic idea of the game is pretty amusing. We are playing the role of Nero, building the city up in wealth and glory, while plotting the most expedient possible escape to Africa! The picture of the fFat drunkard on the box is very apropos. Live a life of complete luxury, while doing everything you can to get the heck out of the country, at the personal expense of your subjects.

We were playing a learning game -- meaning we weren't entirely sure what was going to occur or how the game was played exactly. The early game started with people choosing to not pay off the goths, preferring to stab everyone in the back. Everyone but me. Through careful planning, I managed to gain an early lead, which tended to last through the whole game. Towards the end, my opponents were starting to catch up just slightly, but not nearly enough, and I made it safely to Carthage.

It seems to me yellow buildings give the greatest potential to move rapidly, I think, but the 'gold' itself is one of the lesser valued goods, possibly. I played much of the game with only one White card, so I gained very fFew 'peace' goods. My staple diet were the green cards, which I converted to several useful green buildings, and gained an ever increasing number of green goods.

Whatever you do, it seems to me you really want to get buildings, as quickly as possible. Having buildings lets you move, as well as do things like stave off the goths, or gain an ever increasing amount of goods, so you always want to be looking to get buildings.

Great game, and, now that we have established how it works and never have to trouble ourselves with reading the rules again, I look fForward to playing it again sometime.

Thread: Re: Caveat Emptor

Ossessione — 2008-07-10T20:21:01+00:00

Awful with 4 players? Could be, I have not tried. I just played with 3 players and it was a blast. I concentrated solely on farms and lost the game. The strategy worked well for a while but then my building were destroyed. In the end I had nothing in front of me.

Thread: Re: Caveat Emptor

beckeykevin — 2008-07-09T05:59:37+00:00

Ossessione wrote:
Gloria Mundi is not nearly as bad as many make it sound. I have only played it as a two-player game, but I must say it works very well and plays in an hour or less. Concentrating solely on farms and farm buildings certainly is not a valid strategy in a two-player game. It would only work if the other player had no idea whatsoever about the possibilities of vicious destruction the game offers. My two-player games have always been very tight and very different.

It is awful with 4 players.

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Rokkr — 2008-06-27T22:52:14+00:00

rule book cover

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Rokkr — 2008-06-27T22:48:45+00:00

production cards - farm, city and peace

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Rokkr — 2008-06-27T22:46:11+00:00

goth/wall building cards

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Rokkr — 2008-06-27T22:44:53+00:00

builder building cards

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Rokkr — 2008-06-27T22:42:50+00:00

peace building cards

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Rokkr — 2008-06-27T22:40:36+00:00

city building cards

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Rokkr — 2008-06-27T22:38:16+00:00

farm building cards

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Rokkr — 2008-06-27T22:35:21+00:00

player screen - the color of the bowl is the only difference

Thread: Re: Caveat Emptor

Ossessione — 2008-05-31T10:01:22+00:00

Gloria Mundi is not nearly as bad as many make it sound. I have only played it as a two-player game, but I must say it works very well and plays in an hour or less. Concentrating solely on farms and farm buildings certainly is not a valid strategy in a two-player game. It would only work if the other player had no idea whatsoever about the possibilities of vicious destruction the game offers. My two-player games have always been very tight and very different.

Thread: Re: Caveat Emptor

casterman — 2008-04-03T06:31:00+00:00

gromans wrote:

This all sounds great and fun and our first game was exactly that.

However after the first game we noticed 2 disturbing things:

1. The winner concentrated solely on farms.

2 The buildings which you pay a resource to move your Roman citizen towards Africa were very powerful. They put the other buildings to shame.

Had my first (and I suspect last) game of GM tonight and it was exactly as you put it. It was a three player game and all were new to the game.

I started out by playing all my city cards and had one of those buildings you mention in point 2 and was leading for most of the game until I ran out of city cards and the other two players refused to play theirs. I got reeled in very quickly and the player who had mostly farm buildings pulled away for the win I was 6 or 7 steps behind him and third place was as far away from me as I the leader/winner.

The other thing we noticed is that there is no way to get back at the player to your right who constantly hoses the player to the left. It was fun at first but then became annoying (and I enjoy most games I play).

The final straw which broke this camels back was the time it took to complete this game. Don't get me wrong I like games that play 2 or three hours but for what this game is - it's too long.

Your review is concise and you accurately point out this games shortcomings.

Thread: Re: First time playing Gloria Mundi

magisterludi — 2008-03-23T15:53:17+00:00

I have yet to get this to the table, though I keep thinking it looks interesting. I fear that the little plastic pawns are a bit...risible. Maybe I should raid other games for better meeples.

Thread: First time playing Gloria Mundi

Inkygirl — 2008-03-23T13:34:43+00:00

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Had fun playing Gloria Mundi, a game set during the fall of Rome. As the Visigoth moves toward Rome, destroying land along the way (unless you can bribe him), you're fleeing while also attempting to build your career as a Roman statesman at the same time.

I quickly learned not to get attached to my buildings or land, because the Goth would inevitably march right over them. I also learned that the fleeing part of the game is just as or even more important than accumulating resources.

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Part of the strategy is keeping an eye on the other players and hurting them whenever you could. This is the aspect of the game I wasn't too crazy about -- it quickly became clear to me that (at least in our game) it wasn't enough to just focus on your own resources and movement.

I ended up winning our game, but mainly because I wasn't sitting downstream from the most experienced player, so escaped the brunt of his destructive machinations. I also was lucky enough to get hold of one of the purple-producing cards early in the game, which enabled me to buy cards which let me move several steps almost each turn.

I enjoyed the game enough that I'd like to try it again sometime, but I need to better understand the strategy of tributes: knowing when and when not to offer tribute, as well as looking ahead to gauge how other players will be affected.

A side note: I mocked the plastic figures at the beginning of the game but by the end of the game, I was amazed at how scary-looking that little red horned game piece can seem!

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Inkygirl — 2008-03-22T21:27:42+00:00

Fleeing the Goth! During my first time playing Gloria Mundi, I quickly learned that fleeing was just as (if not more) important than building.

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Inkygirl — 2008-03-22T21:19:14+00:00

Gloria Mundi board - partway through game

Thread: A game worth playing.

LameAlias — 2008-03-17T14:46:20+00:00

Brief synopsis of the game: Players start in Rome and have to move to Carthage (Northern Africa) before the Goth pillage their way down from Germany to Rome.

I’ve had an opportunity to play this game on two separate occasions now with two different parties. The first time we played, there wasn’t much strategizing going on because we didn’t know what build cards were available and what was most important. Subsequent games involved much more strategy and movement. The point of the game is to move towards Carthage. That’s it. It is not easy to move in the beginning. The first two of three rounds may see no movement at all. Eventually, someone can get a killer combination of build cards and take off from the pack. I’ve played three times now and only once has someone made it to Carthage before the Goth got to Rome. We were very close in the other games.

There are a couple of strategies to consider when playing. Moving your own pawn is the most important thing. There are only 38 steps to get to Carthage therefore movement is generally short. If you can get a combination of cards to move you 2 or three spots per turn you are laughing. Protecting those cards is also important. When the Goth moves, he destroys production and anything built up on it. Having spare production cards to throw away saves the ones you have built on. Also, staying “short suited” is often ideal. You can sometimes gain an advantage by getting skipped in the production destruction phase. This happened quite a bit once we figured out the strategy and kept an eye on the Goth and his line of tributes. The third element to the strategy is screwing your neighbour. You should be constantly looking at what production type will benefit others and trying not to call it. Also, there is ample opportunity to force a neighbor to discard a valuable production/build card when the Goth moves. When it comes to destroying production look ahead at what will be left for the next person, make sure that whatever you do will hurt them more.

Pros: This game is pretty dynamic. I can see myself playing it a lot and having different outcomes every time. The chance factor is fairly limited. Almost everything is dependent on what action you and your opponents choose. The only thing left to chance is the order of the build cards in the shuffled deck. If you like games where you can be malicious a screw your neighbour, make sure you are sitting to the right of your enemy! There is plenty of opportunity for that. Although some of the concepts and symbols are complicated, it’s pretty easy to learn, especially if you are playing with an experienced player.

Cons: The box is ridiculously large for the contents. I will upload a picture to show it. I think there will be some scenarios where one player will get a great combination of build cards and become unbeatable, especially in the green production cards. I don’t see much point in the glory resource. I think the game could have been slightly simplified without it. Maybe, as I play more its use will become more apparent. If you don’t like malicious games, you won’t like this one. You can be pretty mean to your neighbour in this one if you want to.

Notes: The box says 60 minutes per game. So far we’ve averaged 100 minutes. The first game we played took over two hours.

Thread: Still getting it wrong, but not as badly!

Paul Mackie — 2008-03-13T00:53:58+00:00

Despite some reservations with this title following the setup error upon first playing, I was happy to give this one a second chance. And certainly the resulting game experience was a lot better, with more meaningful plays and card choices to make. Movement of the Goth still caused frequent carnage, but the impact of this was a little more controlled and manageable this time. That is, except for the one turn in which I forgot to factor in a double-tribute after subtracting a big building purchase, and I ended up losing two cards while my opponents suffered no losses… doh!

This wasn’t my only mistake - on another occasion I took a wall building card for the wrong resource type, again because of rules confusion (it does say first that red buildings can be built on any resource type!). But my opponents chose to let me get away with this one for the sake of game expediency - trying to roll it back would have been more trouble than it was worth.

For much of the game Pat and I leaped-frog each other on the Africa escape track, with Brad not too far off the pace. But Pat managed to score himself the building card that gives you ‘two spaces on the track if the Goth is on a peace symbol’ in lieu of a white peace token, and he just accelerated away from us. With one or two Peace cards as an insurance buffer, he was not going to lose this from a Goth rampage.
So a better game experience than our first with this, and although I’m not in any mad hurry to play it again, I would if the gods so ordained.
20 mins rules and setup; 72 mins game time.
Results: Pat (blue): 38. Paul (green): 29. Brad (orange): 20.

(Originally posted in The Mine Shaft Gap.)

Thread: Re: Distorted Realities

fnord23 — 2008-02-28T06:18:40+00:00

Heh.

*Every* time I've seen a group teach themselves this game, they've missed that line from the rules. (Including the first time I played (but didn't teach).)

I've seen it happen at least three times. It's to the point where if i see someone setting up the game, I ask if they've played before, and if they know they are supposed to start with one of each card out per player. *That* is running about 50-50. :/

Rio Grande would do themselves and this game a huge favor with a sticker reminder on the shrinkwrap, or adding a slip to the box on un-shrunk copies of the game. The rulebook *definitely* needs to be changed if they ever do another printing.

Thread: Re: recovering tribute

larryjrice — 2008-02-28T05:24:02+00:00

one resource piece at a time in turn order

Thread: recovering tribute

billandmonica — 2008-02-28T05:18:18+00:00

Do you take all pieces of one type of a resource(ie gold) or do you recover one resource piece at a time in turn order?

Thread: Re: Distorted Realities

robmderrick — 2008-02-26T22:47:22+00:00

Paul Mackie wrote:
About two turns from the end Neil checked the rules again..”Aha - each player starts with one of each of the three building types…”
Hmm. This might have made a difference.

This is the same thing we did last time I played. I was the rules guy, so I was responsible. Despite the fact that the rest of the players wanted to slog on, I knew something was horribly wrong. I was going crazy searching the rules for something I knew I must have missed. By about the third turn, I was ready to bomb the game, when I stumbled across this simple setup step, that once missed, make this a Very Bad Horribly Game. With the rule as is, it is quite good. But, it also seems to cave in on players who feel compelled to "play it safe". The "pis" strategy in this game guarantees that they suffer less than most of the other players, but also seems to me to guarantee that they will lose, as there "pis" moves seem to invariably have a beneficial effect a particular player downstream.

But, played with the right rules, I really like this game!

- rob d.

Thread: Distorted Realities

Paul Mackie — 2008-02-26T12:45:10+00:00

Neil M. broke out this new title with the expectation that we’d be finished up in about an hour. The game looked cool enough - translucent little pieces and tiny wooden tokens, along with some gay-looking Roman senator artwork on the player screens.

The idea is that you play various building cards to help produce the wooden tokens, which you can then spend on special cards. These special cards then help you escape from Rome and ultimately make it to Carthage before the Goth arrives from the north. The ‘escaping from Rome’ part is just a gimmick of course - all we have here is a victory point track overlaid on a map of Italy. The Goth is a separate piece that works as a turn count-down, with the game end triggered by his arrival into Rome. Players can slow the advance of the Goth by paying a tribute into the space in front of him, or not pay and watch him start ripping through through the towns on his route, causing building losses to the players as he goes.

As we got underway, we asked Neil a few times if we got the setup and/or various rules correct, as we all seemed to be just running on the spot while the Goth inched closer and closer to Rome. The pattern eventually did get broken as players managed to accrue tokens and tributes were paid, but some of us were suffering considerably more than others and this seemed to be due to nothing more than a turn order effect.
As the game progressed it was feeling more and more like a thoroughly pointless exercise. I’d be making all the obvious decisions and yet I was still being punished, as were all other players except Andrew, who seemed to have struck some edge by either luck or design.

About two turns from the end Neil checked the rules again..”Aha - each player starts with one of each of the three building types…”
Hmm. This might have made a difference.
An easy sentence to miss in the setup rules, but there’s no question that this omission resulted in a significantly distorted experience.
All of us except Andrew (who won) briefly entertained a lynching of Neil, but we didn’t go through with it - he did come last after all.
15 mins rules and setup; 78 mins game time.
Results: Andrew (blue): 20. Alex (orange): 10. Brian (smoky black): 7. Paul (clear): 5. Neil M (green): 4.

(Originally posted in The Mine Shaft Gap.)

Thread: Re: Wrong rule... is it important?

Mr.Baggins — 2008-02-05T20:03:41+00:00

Thanks for the responses. We'll try it again this weekend with the right rule. My group likes pain (in board games, of course).

Thread: Re: Wrong rule... is it important?

robmderrick — 2008-02-05T18:38:00+00:00

Concur with Nick above.

The beauty of this game is the chaos and destruction, and the pain that you must cause yourself to visit that same pain, hopefully stronger, upon your opponents. It is the race against time and the inevitability of destruction that fuels the fun. Take the correct rule away, and, though possibly fun, you also take away the soul of the game. Plus, I could imagine a runaway leader syndrome.

However, playing it that 'wrong' way would definitely ease the pain that has made some folks shy away from the game. Hmmmmnnn.

Thread: Re: Wrong rule... is it important?

Moviebuffs — 2008-02-05T17:08:16+00:00

I think it's pretty important.

Imagine that you have a couple of really powerful Green buildings (maybe you're gettting 2 steps every time it is a farming round).

You will want to activate them every round .... but you can't, because you will eventually run out of green cards.

Your opponents will never want to activate your buildings .... but they will have to eventually, because they will only have green cards left.

Try it ... You'll like it

N.

Thread: Wrong rule... is it important?

Mr.Baggins — 2008-02-05T17:01:56+00:00

We played this game twice last week and loved it (we rarely play a game twice in a row; that's how much this intrigued us). Afterwards, I reread the rules and sure enough, we played wrong.

The rules say that in your turn you place a resource building, and activate that type of building. We played that you can place a resource building and then choose what building you activate.

We really enjoyed it, and I'm wondering if it is worth it to fix it in further plays. Can anyone with more Gloria Mundi experience tell me how badly this would affect gameplay?

Regards.

Antonio.

Thread: Re: 3-player 1st game

Pobblepop — 2007-12-06T18:26:21+00:00

It is a very amusing game, I play this with my girlfriend quite a bit. I love the way we slowly begin to begrudge paying the Goth his tribute until one of us snaps "Right! I've had it with paying that &%!@~ all my ~@$%$ing money, I'm not giving him anything and I don't give a %^@£$!!!." Then he proceeds to completely wipe us out and leave us with maybe a card or two if we're lucky, then we start all over again. Good times

Thread: 3-player 1st game

bratgamer — 2007-12-06T11:53:51+00:00

My Wife, myself, and my 11 yr old Son played a game of Gloria Mundi.

Clarity : They were confused on the basic game mechanics, until one turn went by, then that was completely understood. The Improvement cards were a bit of a chore to de-code, but all info was in the rules. (I will make a cheat-sheet for the next game.) As they came up, I would give them the short-version of the card effects, i.e. get grain for gold, or protects 1 land, etc.

Game play: Evil Genius Arises : Son old was the first to use the Goth to his advantage, a move that kept him way ahead in resources for much of the game. All three of us had built up a few lands and were starting to eye Improvements. Son got a good farm Improvement, then let the Goth go wild, who destroyed all cards except his improved farm! He cranked out bunches of food before the Goth got to his farm !
That started the Goth release program. We never got more than a few lands and 1 or 2 Improvements before someone let the Goth have his way with things. It was a lot of fun, and in the end I was able to buy an improvement on my last turn of the game, moved ahead, and break the father-son tie!

End of things: The game was great fun and I can see how the game design allows for our "low level of buildup" game or a "pay the Goth and use the Improvements" style. Both Son and Wife are vengeful types. Since Wife was often hardest hit by Son's Gothing, she was more than happy to release the Goth to end the game, and prevent son from buying a game-winning Improvement ! Paybacks !

Thread: Re: Replacement Pawns

ekted — 2007-11-01T19:49:50+00:00

Thread: Replacement Pawns

Apocryphile — 2007-11-01T19:14:45+00:00

Does anyone know where I can get little Roman figurines that actually look like Roman citizens, and perhaps a slightly bigger replacement figurine for the Goth, that actually looks like a Goth? I know I'm probably not going to find little, rotund Romans reclining on sedan chairs and eating grapes while they're carried out of Rome by their slaves, but some cool looking figurines that aren't too elaborate but still beat the cheap little pawns included in the game would be nice.

TIA!

Thread: Re: Variant ideas: Other suggestions?

LoMa — 2007-10-05T18:58:00+00:00

We play with some house rules for 2-3 players to ramp up the game faster and add a couple of twists:

GLORIA MUNDI HOUSE RULES FOR 2-3 PLAYERS

1. Each player receives 3 each of food, gold, and peace at the beginning of the game. This allows buildings to be bought earlier.

2. Each player receives a Tribute Token which can be used once during the game and is then discarded. With this token, you can force another player to pay the tribute to the Goth at any time – it does not have to be during your turn or during the other player’s turn. The other player must be able to pay the tribute. You can use this tactic to save your assets when you or another player is unable or unwilling to pay the tribute, or can be used to foul up another player’s ability to buy a particular building during her/his turn. (You can use anything you want for a Tribute Token - we use a 1-1/4" plastic gold coin.)

3. Each player receives a Building Token which can be used once during the game and is then discarded. With this token, you can forcibly purchase another player’s building during your turn. You pay the other player the building’s purchase cost, move the number of spaces that purchasing that particular building allows, and of course, you now own the building. (You can use anything you want for a Building Token - we use a house from Caylus.)

4. No hidden information. The screens to hide your resources are not used.

With these rules, the game goes very fast with a good sense of progression, has little downtime, and gets an added couple of differently flavored decision points. Woohoo!!!

Thread: Re: red building cards (Builder and Goth/Wall) questions

carpetemporem — 2007-09-28T21:36:58+00:00

No more questions.

Thanks for the answers and thanks for the good game.

Thread: Re: red building cards (Builder and Goth/Wall) questions

mike selinker — 2007-09-27T22:59:27+00:00

Builder cards are only used for building. You don't actually get the resource except to use it for building. So if you want something that costs 3 food, and you only want to spend 2, you can build it. But you never add any physical resources to your bank.

Your building process is still definitely a process, though. If you have 1 glory, you can use the Artifex to say "I also have 1 gold," and then use the Senator to say "and this 1 gold is now 1 glory," then use that glory to buy the Legatus, which costs 2 glory.

Walls should go only on the cards of the type they protect. This is something James and I have both commented is inaccurate in the rules. You can play it the other way, and it won't swing the game, but it doesn't fit with our original goals for those cards.

Mike

Thread: Re: red building cards (Builder and Goth/Wall) questions

carpetemporem — 2007-09-25T13:25:10+00:00

Hi Mike,

thanks so far. Sorry - I have some further questions regarding my former questions:

For question 1:

So ok, "Senator" enables you to use gold as food, peace, glory or gold.

Only question remaining here: since it's already clear that
He may only use this resource replacement for resources needed in building the card he is building.
does the rule
He may not actually take the replaced resources from the supply ...
have any meaning then?

Or does it have the meaning of "He doesn't have to actually take ..."?

For question 2:

No clarification yet. So again in other words:

If I activate the "Artifex" when building, can I use it's power to take a resource which is not required in the cost of the card built?

if yes: no further questions

if no: so if I also have the "Senator" and want to build a card with a glory cost but don't have enough glory or gold, can I take one gold from "Artifex" (although not directly needed in the payment) and then activate "Senator" to use this gold as glory (so it would be needed indirectly)?

For question 3:

I didn't get that 100%.

First part of your answer
Walls only substitute for the things they're on top of. So the Murus Terrenus will only protect a farm.
matches the rules but the second part of your answer
This is an exception to the rule that red cards can go on anything ...
doesn't follow from the first part.

Again, just to be sure, is this a ruling from you and does it mean that

a) Goth/Wall cards can only be built on Production Cards matching the card type icon on the Goth/Wall card and can be activated and discarded instead of a Production Card of that type.

or does it mean

b) Goth/Wall cards can be built on any type of Production Card. Only if the card type icon on the Goth/Wall card matches the Production Card it's built on, it can be activated and discarded instead of a Production Card of that type.

which would still make some tactical sense since you can't use the Goth/Wall card's power but get 2 steps for a relatively low price. Like I would perhaps build the "Templum Veneris" (clarified in your answer to my other question) just for the 4 steps even if I only have a single farm or two farms left (and therefore will never have an advantage in producing food).

Sorry for the long text. I tried to be as clear as possible about the topics which are not as clear as possible to me.

And to mention that also: for me a really interesting and good game for 2 or 3 players , somehow playable with 4 and just out of control with 5 or 6 .

Thread: Re: red building cards (Builder and Goth/Wall) questions

mike selinker — 2007-09-24T17:42:11+00:00

Designer here again. Glory is glory. Once you get a card that lets you use something as glory, you can use that something as anything.

Walls only substitute for the things they're on top of. So the Murus Terrenus will only protect a farm. This is an exception to the rule that red cards can go on anything, and one that is not at all clear in the rules.

Mike

Thread: Re: building cards with card ":" (Satisfy A to Earn B) power ???

mike selinker — 2007-09-24T17:35:38+00:00

Designer here. I can't follow your logic, but this is what the card means:
The Templum Veneris means "The farm the Temple is on doesn't operate, but all your other farms produce 2 food each." So with 2 farms, it's 2 food. With 3 farms, it's 4 food. With 4 farms, it's 6 food. And so on.

Also, don't be so quick to discount the Templum's 4 victory points. Those are hard to come by.

Mike

Thread: red building cards (Builder and Goth/Wall) questions

carpetemporem — 2007-09-22T15:45:01+00:00

I'm confused. Perhaps you can help:

First question (regarding Builder Cards with arrows):

As far as I understand the "Replace A with B" rule, I can use the resource type on the left side of the arrow also as the other type(s) on the right side when paying for a card.

Without actually taking the replaced resources could mean that the card allowing to use gold for glory doesn't allow to use this glory as a joker. So with this card it's would not be possible to pay with gold for food or peace but only for glory listed in the card's cost.

Or does it mean that gold for glory gives you gold as a joker?

Second question (regarding the Builder Card with the basic resource selection):

As far as I understand, I get one of the basic resources when I buy a building card.

And since I didn't see it anywhere in the rules, this resource doesn't have to be used for paying the card's cost. So I could buy a card which costs some food and gold but take a peace resource for the builder card.

Or, since for the "Replace A with B" builder cards it's mentioned that the resource replacement can only be used for resources needed in building the card, the designers perhaps meant that this additional resource can also only be taken if used for building the card?

Third question (regarding the Goth/Wall cards):

The general rule for red cards reads:

Red cards can be built on any type of Production Card.

The rules for the Goth/Wall cards read:

...
A player can activate a Wall card to discard the wall in order to protect the Production Card on which it is built when the Goth is destroying cards. For purposes of satisfying the Goth, losing a wall counts as losing the underlying card.
...
Each Wall card protects a specific type of Production Card shown by the card icon at the bottom of the Wall card.

Taken together:

1. being able to build a red (Goth/Wall) card on any type of Production Card
2. a Goth/Wall card protecting the Production Card on which it is built
3. a Goth/Wall card protecting a specific type of Production Card

I conclude that I can build a Goth/Wall card on any type of Production Card (and get the two steps to Africa) but can activate it to discard it and protect the underlying Production Card only if the underlying Production Card matches the card icon.

Some options which came to my mind when I thought about the designer's intent:

1. A Goth/Wall card can only be built on a Production Card matching the card symbol on the Goth/Wall card.

2. A Goth/Wall card can be built on any type of Production Card and protects a Production Card which matches the card icon when activated and discarded. This could be the underlying Production Card or, if built on a Production Card not matching the card icon, another Production Card (possibly with a building on it!) matching the card icon. Interesting possibility but with the question whether you have to activate and discard the Goth/Wall card if it's built on a non-matching Production Card and you have no matching Production Card in play.

Any ideas from the geeks out there? Or from the designers?

Thread: building cards with card ":" (Satisfy A to Earn B) power ???

carpetemporem — 2007-09-21T20:11:03+00:00

The rules text for this question is:
If the symbol on the left side of the ":" is the picture of a card, if the player activates the card, he cannot activate or produce anything from any card matching the card shown on the left. Instead, he earns the resources/objects shown on the right side of the ":" for each other card of the kind shown he has in his play area, whether they have a building on them or not.
Because of the addition
whether they have a building on them or not
it seems that production cards are meant with
card of the type shown
and because of the wording
for each other
the production card under the activated building seems not to count.

Perhaps I'm wrong with the card type assumption since the corresponding symbol is not shown on the production cards but only on the building cards.

But assume I'm correct it would mean that if a player activates "Templum Veneris" which is placed on a farm, he gets 0 food if he has no other farms (so he would not activate it), 2 food for 1 other farm, 4 food for 2 other farms, 6 food for 3 other farms and so on.

So for a total of 2 farms (one with "Templum Veneris") it would mean the same as activating the basic production and for 3 farms there's an advantage of merely 1 food, for 4 farms an advantage of 2 food.

Then "Villa" which is cheaper by 2 food is so much better since it gives (beside only two steps to Africa) an advantage of 2 food from 1 to 4 farms total.

Perhaps I'm wrong with my card type assumption and production cards are counted as well as building cards. Then it would mean that a production card with a building card counts as 2 for powers with a card type symbol and ":" or "=".

But in the rules for "=" is an example with a sentence

It does not matter whether the Farm cards have buildings on them or not.

which again indicates that only production cards are counted.

Any ideas how it is meant by the designers?

Thread: Re: Gloria Mundi - Session Report

DaCrusha1 — 2007-09-13T21:55:33+00:00

I agree with Ray here. Too many people play a game once and feel they have the right to review it. Games need to be played a few times, just to shake out the game play. Sometimes I think that folks are more interested in getting the little golden coin more than they are posting a real objective view.

Thread: Re: Short session report: first play, 3 players

Big Bad Lex — 2007-09-06T11:45:10+00:00

An important aspect to this game is the need for screwage. Keeping an eye out for where the Goth strikes next and structuring your sets to minimise or cover out loss whilst maximising pain to those to your left is crucial.

This doesn't sit happily with many gamers who are more used to concentrating on their best options rather than options that cause more havoc elsewhere.

IMHO, if a player gets an early lead, it's more to do with them being allowed to rather than the luck of a card draw.

Thread: Short session report: first play, 3 players

Cybris — 2007-09-06T08:54:13+00:00

I play this first game with two experienced players.

While I was impressed by the nice components, the multitude of different cards and symbols was confusing at first. I recognice a high replay value because of the large card stack - though most of the cards that came up were, IMHO, worthless and too expensive.

The winner of this session was able to get two VP producing cards fairly early and used the Goths to deprive the other players of their cards, forcing us to totally change our strategies. To me it seems to be a flaw that one can win by practially monopolizing one ressource type. We tried to catch up by using the Goth raiders, but this took so much time that the VP producing cards garantueed the win.

I'm thouroughly unimpressed with this game - it seems very unbalanced to me. There is no way to prevent others from buying good cards because everything is so expensive. Once you build a foundation of ressources, you can begin trashing the landscape with the Goths and still rake an VPs because buying them is so easy with the right cards. At the end of the game, you are practically forced to give others the necessary card activation because you have nothing else left to play.

Maybe the card distribution in this game was just unlucky, but not being able to get the few killer cards because of turn order or ressource starvation is not fun. You can plan ahead a few turns because most information is open to see, but this doesn't help much if you're behind and you seem to be only calculating for how many turns you are not going to get a good card. Extreme strategies go unpunished in the beginning and mid-game, which seems to be a flaw.

I wanted to like this game, but without some heavily game-altering house rules it doesn't seem to be much fun. The other players told me that this session was unusual because of the high Goth aggressiveness and they mostly blamed card distribution. I think it's ok for a game to be unbalanced when it's short, but Gloria Mundi isn't and so it might not get a chance for a second impression.

Thread: Re: Hopeless?

nybba — 2007-07-20T12:48:50+00:00

I must say that i realy missed a player aid last night when i tried this the first time. So if someone who knows the rules are willing to put one up that would be great.

Thread: Re: Paying tribute

mjfassio — 2007-05-29T23:06:09+00:00

I picked this game up at an auction and after trying to play a couple of 2-player games it seems impossible to ever keep a building long enough to use its conversion ability. Also when a player pays tribute to keep the Goth from moving all the next player has to do is not pay, let the Goth destroy a card, and they take the tribute that was paid by the previous player.

What's the point to even play this game if you can't keep buildings and have the next player essentially steal the tribute of the previous player?

Thread: Re: Gloria Mundi - Session Report

Gamegrunt — 2007-05-14T11:41:33+00:00

I enjoyed the first game I played last week. While the failure to pay tribute caused some chaos, it was the exception rather than the rule in our game - most player moves included paying off the Goth.

Victory was mine and the game was won by a single resource bit (the tie-breaker when two players arrive in Carthage on the same turn.)

I would play the game again.

Gg

Thread: Re: Gloria Mundi - Session Report

dracomjb — 2007-05-14T07:54:38+00:00

I love this game. The only annoying thing is the putting out all the fiddly bits and then putting the fiddly bits back in the bag (and the huge box).

The whole point is to try and screw everyone else, while not screwing yourself.

Thread: Variant ideas: Other suggestions?

wkover — 2007-05-07T16:53:08+00:00

I've played Gloria Mundi twice. (Both plays were at the 2007 Game Days convention in Maryland.) As with all semi-cooperative games (e.g., Terra), the reviews tended to be evenly split: many players hated it, although some found it fairly interesting and unique.

Regardless of whether players fell in the hate/interest camp, though, nearly everyone had suggestions for improvement. These are a few of our ideas.

1. Early in the game, only the cheaper buildings should be available for purchase.

Our thought was that cheap buildings should come out early and expensive buildings should come out later. This could be arranged, for example, by separating the buildings into cheap/expensive decks. Early on, buildings would only be drawn from the "cheap" deck. At some point, the cheap deck would be re-shuffled with the other cards -- so that both cheap and expensive cards would be available in mid-game. The deck-merging might be triggered when the Goth (or the tribute) reaches a certain space on the Goth track.

2. Players should be allowed to do each of the following once per game: force another player to pay tribute (if possible), purchase a building (for full cost) on another player's turn, and purchase a building on his/her own turn as if it were in the "zero" spot.

These one-use powers might address some of the purchasing problems associated with player order, and they might also help mitigate the wholesale destruction that prevents players from constructing a reasonable resource engine in early- or mid-game.

Thread: Re: Gloria Mundi - Session Report

monkeyrobot — 2007-05-04T14:20:49+00:00

I've played the game three times. After the first two, I did not like it. The third time, however, I saw some potential in it.
Gloria Mundi is certainly not for everybody. One of the problems is that a player can set up an unbeatable combo at some point and it seems pretty hard that other players can do much about it. In the last game I managed to construct an aqueduct (which lets you move one everytime it's a farm turn) and I managed to always protect it with another farm. There was not much the other players could do to stop me from advancing.

Thread: Re: Gloria Mundi - Session Report

unruled — 2007-05-04T00:43:17+00:00

Sexy Amy wrote:
Wah ! What is wrong with me? I really like this game. (And in recommending it, I have made ever so many enemies demanding their 10-odd pounds back, as Alice might say.) I guess I enjoy being in a poem by Yeats. Isn't there something about the center of unleashed chaos? Just a personality disorder I guess.

Nothing is wrong with you, or with Gloria Mundi.

The most important thing you can learn from BGG is that other people have opinions and you should ignore them.

Play games, lots of games, and play games lots of times (not just twice) and you'll find yourself learning more about what makes a good game for you than you ever could by reading session reports and reviews.

Thread: Re: Gloria Mundi - Session Report

Sexy Amy — 2007-05-03T23:33:26+00:00

Wah ! What is wrong with me? I really like this game. (And in recommending it, I have made ever so many enemies demanding their 10-odd pounds back, as Alice might say.) I guess I enjoy being in a poem by Yeats. Isn't there something about the center of unleashed chaos? Just a personality disorder I guess.

Thread: Gloria Mundi - Session Report

gschloesser — 2007-05-03T21:20:38+00:00

I first played Gloria Mundi over two years ago when it was still in its infancy. I honestly don’t recall much of that game, other than it lasted too long, and I wasn’t favorably impressed. Thus, when the game was eventually published by Rio Grande Games, I never felt the urge to purchase or play it. The mixed reaction it received by gamers didn’t do much to change my mind.

Kevin, however, had acquired a copy and played a few times. He enjoyed the game, and was interested to introduce more of us to it. I’m not going to try to explain the game fully, as I don’t own it, and it really is a game that appears to need multiple playings in order to fully understand its mechanisms and nuances. Sadly, I didn’t enjoy this second playing any more than my first experience, so I doubt I’ll be seeking to try it again.

The biggest source of contention amongst most of us was the “tribute” mechanism. If one player opts not to pay tribute, the Goth figure marches to the last space where tribute was paid, causing numerous or all players to lose buildings and improvements. Some have argued that players must pay tribute even when it may be to their advantage not to, but that isn’t what happened here. If a player was going to escape the Goth’s wrath, he would rarely opt to pay tribute. This certainly seems like a logical play, but I understand others argue that it may not be smart. I dunno.

I do know that the Goth marched often, making it very difficult for players to assemble and maintain buildings. I don’t think any player had more than two buildings and upgrades at any one time … and these certainly didn’t last beyond a turn. We had all been warned that the game is one of destruction, and we shouldn’t grow too fond of the buildings we constructed. Fair enough, but the destruction and lack of permanency was maddening. Long-term plans couldn’t be executed, as buildings rarely survived a full turn. The appealing benefits of many buildings became nothing more than a tease, as it was clear that they would never last.

Jim felt that he was at a disadvantage from the beginning. He came last in the turn order, and it seemed that immediately after constructing a building, it would be destroyed by the Goth before he was able to derive its benefits. Of course, this same fate befell us all, but Jim did seem particularly hard hit.

I quickly sensed that I would likely be better off if I constructed buildings solely for the movement benefit they granted. Courage obviously wasn’t part of my creed, as I ran like a track star, rushing towards Carthage and away from the approaching Goth. I didn’t get far, as the Goth marched quickly, cutting a swath of destruction on his way to Rome. The game ended with me just fourteen spaces away from Rome. Fortunately for me, my opponents were even closer, so victory was mine.

Finals: Greg 14, Rhonda 8, Kevin 7, Jim 6, Gail 5

Ratings: Kevin 6, Gail 5.5, Rhonda 5, Jim 4, Greg 3

Kevin commented that he has now played the game three times, and all three played differently. Two of the games did see a quickly-moving Goth, and those games were unsatisfactory. Two-out-of-three bad experiences would be enough for me to abandon the game. Heck, I’m happy to abandon it after two-out-of-two poor experiences.

Thread: Re: Crap box insert!

Big Bad Lex — 2007-04-09T16:56:23+00:00

It's rare that I ever find a box insert that's any use once the tokens and pieces and bagged up. Hence I ditch the stupid cardboard, lay the board in first followed by the rules and player mats etc with the baggies in last.

Occam's razor strikes again.

Thread: Re: Crap box insert!

ekted — 2007-04-09T12:35:25+00:00

http://ekted.blogspot.com/2006/11/gloria-mundi-insert.html