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Lance

(UndeadViking)

United States
Moorhead
Minnesota

The coolest best thing I have ever done in my life is being a father

Caleb, the best 4 month old little brother ever

At long last.

Excellent job Scott. Makes me a bit sad you don't do these on a regular basis any longer.

Posted Mon Jun 13, 2011 3:26 pm
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Kevin McCurdy

(Kevin in Kansas)

United States
Lenexa
Kansas

Nice work and good to see a new video from you Scott. I thought the intro was funny especially with Tom's scattering bits music while you were being bombarded with "board games".

Posted Mon Jun 13, 2011 3:46 pm
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Andy Andersen

(Orangemoose)

United States
Newark
Delaware

Nice to have you back for a good cause. Great intro.

Posted Mon Jun 13, 2011 4:07 pm
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Jeremy Salinas

(Drakkenstrike)

United States
Indianapolis
Indiana

Drakkenstrike's Components Breakdown Video Review Series in HD

Funny Intro !! Great Video Scott !!

Posted Mon Jun 13, 2011 4:13 pm
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Donald Dennis

(Walsfeo)

United States
Pawleys Island
South Carolina

It really sounds like they could have done a better job at unifying and streamlining the system, even if they didn't dumb it down.

Posted Mon Jun 13, 2011 4:15 pm
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Cate

(Cate108)

United States
Milwaukee
Wisconsin

No good deed goes unpunished.

Ring the bells that still can ring, Forget your perfect offering, There's a crack in everything, That's how the light gets in. - Leonard Cohen

Yes, the intro is great but so is the conclusion!

"So it is a nasty, back-stabby game where, on the surface, you have to work together while still pursuing your own goals... kind of like getting tenure, actually."

laugh

He's right!

Edited Mon Jun 13, 2011 5:00 pm
Posted Mon Jun 13, 2011 4:59 pm
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Tobias Sölvefjord

(supersiamesisk)

Sweden
Skövde

Awesome intro and über-cool that you
choose to analyze this fantastic game.

Hopefully many more now find their way to the beautiful scenery
of backstabbing senators that is ancient Rome.

Posted Mon Jun 13, 2011 5:01 pm
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Phil Miller

(PhilFromIT)

United States
Redford
Michigan

"Et tu tulip?" laugh

Classic!

Posted Mon Jun 13, 2011 5:34 pm
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"Got Trololo?"

(leroy43)

Canada
Vancouver
BC

Roger's Reviews: check out my reviews page, right here on BGG!

Who let this guy become wargame subdomain moderator anyways?

A great video Scott.

I played the original AH version a very long time ago, and the new version twice. It's an intriguing and I dare say fun game, but yes, it's also very frustrating at times for the very reasons you cite. Combined with the very long play time, there are many games I'd like to play instead.

Posted Mon Jun 13, 2011 6:00 pm
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Robert Carroll

(Nap16)

United States
Lawrence
Kansas

PhilFromIT wrote:

"Et tu tulip?" laugh

Classic!

I also like your nod to Tom's game dump and background music. Well played.

Posted Mon Jun 13, 2011 6:45 pm
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Brian Cherry

(the1jugg)

Canada
North Bay
Ontario

Obligitory Smart-Ass Comment Here

Shhhhhhhh!

Thanks Scott! It was a great blast from the past. Sometimes your videos teach me how to play a game. Other times it teaches me that a game isn't for me. This time, it's the latter.

thanks so much!

Posted Mon Jun 13, 2011 7:26 pm
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Jim Flemming

(jobin13)

United States
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania

Scott! Miss your full length videos!

Laughed out loud at around 13:48...haha

Well done, and for a great cause no less! Hope you won't be absent from the OBG podcast too often!!

Posted Mon Jun 13, 2011 7:29 pm
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Max Maloney

(Dormammu)

United States
Portland
Oregon

This is my personal grail game, because it's too long and complicated for my group.

I appreciate this work, Scott, since I know it's not your style either and it's a big one to tackle. Count my thanks another among many for the great video.

Posted Mon Jun 13, 2011 8:09 pm
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Glenn

(glenn69)

United States
Clifton
Illinois

That intro is just full of Nicholson "goodies." One inside joke after another....well, if not inside, certainly geek approved. Everything from the date of your game night, to the betrayal of your good friend Tulip, to the homage paid to the Dice Tower intro with the tumbling games. One of your best! Although, I'm not certain that the humor was intended when the game of "Sorry" hit you so squarely upon its fall. Ouch!....Sorry blush

Glad to see you doing this style video again, even if it is short lived.

Posted Mon Jun 13, 2011 8:23 pm
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Clint Herron

(HanClinto)

United States
Elkhart
Indiana

Well done, Scott!

Loved the into, and you did a really great job of conveying the game.

Thanks!

Posted Mon Jun 13, 2011 9:17 pm
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Henrik Bergander

(henrikbergander)

Sweden
Vasteras
Unspecified

Thank you Scott. Great video. You're the best! I was happy to see that you have joined the podcast network. I love to hear your insight and opinion of games.

Posted Mon Jun 13, 2011 9:57 pm
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Gregory Bay

(baymonkey)

United States
Wake Forest
North Carolina

Scott, thank you very much. I know you put a lot of time and effort into this. Thank you!

Posted Tue Jun 14, 2011 1:07 am
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Tom Vasel

(TomVasel)

United States
Homestead
Unspecified

Top 100 Games of all Time

Dice Tower Convention, July 2012!!!!

Thank you very much.

Posted Tue Jun 14, 2011 3:10 am
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Jeremy Oppenheim

(Teravos)

United States
Reston
Virginia

Thanks for the video!

Posted Tue Jun 14, 2011 5:43 am
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Geoffrey Mulder

(imyourskribe)

United States
Austin
Texas

diglett, get off that chair!

that doesn't even make sense

This intro is fabulous.

It was incredibly generous of you to put up the offer you did in the Jack Vasel auction, knowing full well that a game like this could (and probably would) be the target. Thank you for doing all this work.

Posted Tue Jun 14, 2011 5:53 am
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Железный комиссар

(JohnRayJr)

United States
Madison
Wisconsin

Thank you for doing this, Scott. I've played Republic of Rome twice, and sat through an hour of rules twice, and I can say that you've made an invaluable resource for first-time or would-be players.

I also really like that you capture the most critical aspects of the game's "feel." The first is the mortality phase. You are correct to highlight this as a make-or-break element. If someone doesn't like the high-stakes and capricious randomness of the mortality phase, they won't like this game. But you also highlight that RoR is self-adjusting in a sense, which helps contextualize the randomness of the Mortality phase. If someone loses big during that phase, they won't be picked on subsequently unless the manage to regain a lot of their power.

So again, thanks for this video. I ultimately concluded that this isn't quite my sort of game, either, but it's one to experience for sure.

Your explanation and delivery in this video shows a lot of polish, editing, and planning. High-caliber stuff. I hope people don't take it for granted.

Edited Tue Jun 14, 2011 7:17 am
Posted Tue Jun 14, 2011 7:02 am
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Jens Helge Micke

(JensMicke)

Germany
Recklinghausen
NRW

Thank you Scott,
since I have a Game of "Republic of Rome" scheduled for Thursday I can forward this video to some of the new players (and can delay my plans to make a german video about it a bit longer..... been postponing that one since february....)

Take care.

Posted Tue Jun 14, 2011 2:16 pm
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Brian Stevenson

(gordon1018)

United States
Castle Rock
Colorado

Thank you for your generosity of time doing this video. As time has gone by and I've watched your beta and Inplay videos about this game, it became very obvious that you were really forcing yourself to do this for the auction

I really appreciate you playing, learning, and teaching a game that you pretty clearly did not enjoy

I almost feel guilty having been one of the donors that placed this game on your plate.

I really enjoyed the video, and look forward to tackling this game with a better understanding of flow, mechanics and gameplay.

Thanks again, you did a great job.

And once again, sorry for making you do this....

Posted Tue Jun 14, 2011 3:37 pm
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Alex A. H.

(alex352)

Germany

The intro was seriously funny. The funniest stuff I have seen on the Internet in a long time.

edit: and I should add that the main part was interesting and instructional. Thank you very much.

Edited Tue Jun 14, 2011 10:35 pm
Posted Tue Jun 14, 2011 9:43 pm
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Skip Olivares

(Skip Olivares)

United States
Phoenix
Arizona

Thank ye for the video.

Posted Wed Jun 15, 2011 1:11 am
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James Burns

(j-train1)

United States
Dupont
Pennsylvania

Ahh, yes another great video. I know that you don't like to edit these videos ,but I think you did a great job.

The opening was very creative and funny. I didn't know that your own game had plans to dispose you and take over.

I think I tried to play the original AH version long ago and didn't have a good time for the Mortality Killed off alot of the senators.

I would agree that the Mortality just is too random and will unbalance the game.

Edited Thu Jun 16, 2011 4:36 am
Posted Thu Jun 16, 2011 4:20 am
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Anthony Gambatese

(barbarianprince)

United States
Mentor
Ohio

Great video Scott ... I must say that you are the sole reason I got into board gaming in the first place.
It was a few years back and I decided that I wanted to sell two games on ebay that I had received as a gift years earlier that I never played (Cosmic Encounter and More Cosmic Encounter)(these were the only two "hobby board games I had" (of course I didn't know what hobby board games were at the time.
Anyway I started searching around on the net for this game to see what it was about and if it was worth selling (got $235 for the two of them so yep ... it was worth it)but I happened on your site and watched your video on this game and ... a board game fan was born!!!
thanks for that life changing video ... I'm proud to say that I know have almost 200 videos in my collection.
Although this game doesn't interest me at all, It reminds me how much I miss your board game reviews ... cry

(I watched every one of them and made a lot of purchases based on said videos!!

take care and thanks again@!

Edited Thu Jun 16, 2011 5:29 am
Posted Thu Jun 16, 2011 5:28 am
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Tobias Sölvefjord

(supersiamesisk)

Sweden
Skövde

j-train1 wrote:

I think I tried to play the original AH version long ago and didn't have a good time for the Mortality Killed off alot of the senators.

I would agree that the Mortality just is too random and will unbalance the game.

I argue that you should try not to lay all your eggs in one basket. And even if many of your senators get killed of early, my impression is that this balance out since you are not regarded as a threat and are more likely to be elected consul.

Posted Thu Jun 16, 2011 5:33 am
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Carlos Moreno Serrano

(sprocket314)

United Kingdom
Woking
Surrey

Although the original idea for the intro was mine, Scott took it to another level. Using Tom Vasel's falling bits music was genius (plus other hilarious additions).

Thank you for yet another fantastic game review, I miss them A LOT.

Posted Sat Jun 18, 2011 8:58 am
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Jeffery Bass

(SkyGazer)

United States
San Carlos
California

I second what others have posted here, Scott. I've recently acquired this game and I've not had the time or inclination to decipher the rule book which is seriously lacking in any kind of structure that helps a newcomer gain a larger perspective on how the thing is supposed to work. More than just providing a great resource for understanding the basic flow of this game, your video also provides a good level of depth in explaining most of the important mechanical parts. Good work and thanks!

Edited Mon Jun 20, 2011 5:44 am
Posted Mon Jun 20, 2011 5:43 am
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Jason Kossowan

(kossowankenobi)

Canada
Edmonton
Alberta

Great overview Scott (as always), it warms my cockles to see that my rules edit has been used for the powers of good. Thanks for your (and the donators') generous contribution.

Note to those exploring the game anew - my edit (the copy Scott was waving around) is not the official living rules. That credit goes to John Rodriquez' version). The former is the easier-to-understand version. The living rules are still quite dense, so if you've been perusing those - go give mine a look.

RoR is definitely a love/hate game at a first glance. However, for those willing to take the hit on learning the rules for your friends the roleplay nature of the game (togas were contemplated

) can lead to very memorable experiences. Those with particular interest in Roman-themed games with tolerances for the epic nature of RoR should take a hard look at it.

You just may want to skip the mortality phase...

Edited Fri Jul 1, 2011 8:10 pm
Posted Fri Jul 1, 2011 8:09 pm
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David V

(DDDDave)

Very good effort. My interest in the game -which was very strong- is slightly diminished after watching your very informative video.

Posted Sun Jul 3, 2011 9:40 am
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Tom B

(johnnyspys)

Spain
Naperville
ILLINOIS

If I use reverse psychology and say your review was terrible would it lead you to try again? whistle

Great review....which made me realize how this game will never hit my table even though it sounds like I would have fun playing it.

Thanks for the review!

Posted Sat Sep 24, 2011 6:58 pm
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