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Glory to Rome is a serious Euro-style cardgame by new, Indie American designer Cambridge Games.
Players: 2-6
Time: 1-2 hours
Difficulty: 5 (of 10)
The Components
Glory to Rome comes with a huge deck of cards and a few other bits & pieces.
Cards: Glory to Rome contains a deck of 180 cards. As with the other Cambridge games, this one comes with medium-heavy, high-gloss cards that, from what I hear, were actually printed with a business card printer. These cards are square-cornered, unlike most gaming cards, but the weight is superb, and the artwork really stands out; the reproduction is some of the brighest and most attractive that I've seen.
The artwork is by Ed Carter. Some of it is cartoony line art and some looks to be computer modeled. I generally liked the cartoony art and found the computer-generated art to be fair, but I've seen a few people comment that they would have preferred more classical art for the game.
30 of the cards are "sites", which just show the basis for building a location in one of six colors. 5 are "Jacks" which are wild cards initially given out to players. 1 is a "Leader" which helps you keep track of who's turn it is. These cards are all simple designs.
The other 144 cards form the "orders" deck, and these cards definitely are not. Each card has multiple purposes. It can be used as a building foundation or building material in the appropriate building color (which match the six site types). It can be used as a role (which also matches the card color, for example all the yellow cards are "rubble" material and "laborer" roles).
Each card also has a bunch of additional information, including special rules for the building if you use the card as a foundation and the value of the card (which again matches the color, for example all rubble cards are worth "1"). Some of this info is clearly redundant, but having everything on the card actually makes theme asy to use, the result of a good, utilitarian design.
Camp Cards: These double-sized cards remind each player of what all the roles do, which is absolutely invaluable in this game. They also gave you the ability to lay out influence, clients, a stockpile of materials, and a vault, the four categories of cards you can have in play. They're well done, and it'd probably be impossible to play the game without them.
Rome Demands Card: Another double-sized card, this one reminds you of the rules of the "Legionary" role.
Merchant Bonus Chips: Very large, sturdy Poker chips that match the six colors of cards. They're used for end-game scoring, and not strictly necessary, but very well appreciated.
Rules: A 24-page rulebook and a 24-page card reference book. As with the other CGF games, they look like they were printed on an InkJet printer, then stapled into a cardstock cover. They're not quite to regular production standards as a result, but they're well laid out and look pretty good.
I found the rules to be a bit hard to follow because some rules weren't stated entirely clearly (such as the fact that you need the number of cards shown by your foundation's value to complete a structure and a few different elements related to starting and completing structures). I had to read through the rules a few different times to get things down. A plethora of examples in the rules are well done and help out.
The reference book runs down the cards one-by-one, and is entirely useful as a result, though it's organized by card color, which made it a little hard to look things up until we started to get used to the order of cards. As with the rulebook, a few rules were rocky. (I had to carefully work through the example for "Coliseum", for example, to try and figure out how it worked.)
Packaging: Glory to Rome comes packed in an appropriately sized Ziplock-type bag, with a cardstock sheet forming a "cover" for the package. The cards are stored in sleeves. The packaging is nicely small for transportation, but leaves something to be desired for use, as it's quite hard to repack the cards in their original sleeves. Still, I'm not convinced it's worse than those insidious unseparated double-width tuckboxes that card games so often come in. Still, if I could make one change to the Cambridge Games games it'd be for them to come in actual boxes.
Overall, Glory to Rome has bright, attractive components. They're also very utilitarian, and make a fairly complex game that overloads a lot of values onto the cards, entirely playable. As such it earns a "4" out of "5" for Style.
The Gameplay
The object of Glory to Rome is to gain influence, primarily through the building of structures, and to steal as many resources as you can get away with.
Setup: 2-5 site cards (depending on the number of players) in each of the 6 colors are laid out. An initial set of Orders cards is dealt out in front of each player to determine who goes first, then these cards create the initial Pool.
Each player is dealt a hand of four Orders and one Jack.
Each player is also given a Camp sheet to help keep things organized.
 The Geography of the Game: Although a card game, cards can exist in a lot of different states in Glory to Room, and moving cards in between these states is the heart of much of the game.
Deck. The face-down drawpile. You draw from here with the Thinker action.
Hand. The cards in your hand: initially four random cards and a Jack. You can later refill it with the Thinker action.
Pool. This is the area in the middle of the table. It initially contains a random set of cards. It's refilled with the roles that people play in the game, and its cards can be taken by a variety of methods (Patron, Laborer, Legionary).
Stockpile. A set of cards placed under your Camp. They come from the Pool or other peoples' hands using the Laborer or Legionary and can later be used to build buildings (with the Architect) or fill your Vault (with the Merchant).
Vault. Bonus victory points which sit to the right of your Camp. They represent materials you've stolen, and come from your Stockpile.
Other Concepts: Two other concepts are notable: influence and clientele.
Influence. This is a value that starts at "2" and increases as you build buildings. It represents a maximum number for your clientele and a card maximum for your Vault. Thus at the start of the game you can have up to two clients and up to two stolen cards in your Vault.
Clientele. People who work you. They sit to the left of your card and give you free role actions.
Choosing an Action: On your turn you can do one of two things: think or play a role card.
Thinking. When you think you refill your hand, taking: enough cards to fill your hand to 5; or one card if you're already at 5 or more; or one Jack if there's one available.
Roles. Alternatively you take a role action by playing a card from your hand. Each of these cards has a role which corresponds to the card's color (a yellow Laborer, brown Craftsman, red Legionary, gray Architect, blue Merchant, or purple Patron). You then become a leader, and every other player can then choose to either Follow by playing a role card of the same type or else Think.
After the end of the turn these roles will be placed into the Pool to be used on future turns.
Jacks. A Leader or a Follower can play a Jack instead of a role card as a wild card: the leader can choose a role with his Jack, the follower matches the selected role with his Jack.
Taking Actions: After everyone has played a card (or not), now everyone gets to take an action. You get one action of the appropriate type if you played a card and you get one action of the appropriate type per client you have in that color. You can take actions with clients even if you thought instead of following.
Players take actions in order starting wtih the Leader.
Laborer. You take a card from the Pool and place it in your Stockpile. It's now material that can be used to build a structure or to line your Vault.
Craftsman. You lay a foundation from your hand. This means that you take a site card from the table, then place a card of the appropriate color on the card. The card you played from your hand defines the type of building that you're building.
For example you might take a yellow (rubble) site card, then palce a yellow Insula on top of it, or alternatively a yellow Latrine.
Each card has a value from one to three. The yellow (rubble) cards are all 1, the red (brick) cards are all 2, the purple (marble) cards are all 3, etc. This is the number of additional cards that you'll have to play in order to finish up the building.
Alternatively you can use the Craftsman action to fill a structure from your hand. This means that you put an additional card of the appropriate color under the foundation of a building that you're working on. When you have enough cards (the site + the foundation + 1-3 cards extra) the building is finished. At this point you remove the foundation card and place it under the top of your Camp. This gives you 1-3 extra influence. You may now also use the building's special power and the buildings have lots of different special powers.
Architect. As with the Craftsman, you can lay a foundation from your hand.
Alternatively you can use the Architect action to a fill a structure from your Stockpile. If you complete the structure, you remove the site card and gain the influence, just as with Craftsman.
Legionary. You display a card and may take 1 card of that color from the Pool and one card of that color from each adjacent player (if they have one). All of the cards except the one you displayed are placed in your Stockpile.
Merchant. You move a card from your Stockpile to your Vault. Remember that there's a limit of your influence. Your Vault cards will be worth victory points later on.
Patron. You take a card from the Pool and place it in your Clientele area. You now have a client of the appropriate type. Remember that there's a limit of your influence.
Ending the Game: Forum: One of the ways to end the game is to build a forum (a purple building) and also have clients of all 6 colors. In this case you automatically win.
Ending the Game: Other Methods: Alternatively you end the game when (1) the Site cards run out; (2) the deck runs out; or (3) someone builds a (blue) catacomb. In this case everyone counts up points.
You get 1 VP for each point of influence, which is going to be 2 + influence you got for building buildings.
You get 1 VP per value of card you have in your Vault.
Any player who has the most of a specific material in his Vault gets a Merchant Bonus Chip in that color worth +3 VP.
A few buidings give bonus VPs.
Whoever has the highest VP total wins.
How the Game Plays
I suspect this description is going to be wholely inadequate to describe how Glory to Rome really plays, because it's hard to visualize the different ways in which cards move around.
The initial goal of the game is building buildings and so you'll be playing building foundations from your hand, then slowly starting to fill them. You might fill from your hand, occasionally Thinking to get cards back, or you might be grabbing cards of specific colors from the Pool with Laborers.
As you play you'll probably also grab two clients with the Patron action. They're helpful because they'll give you some free actions without having to play a card.
Once you build a building you'll start to have a strategic advantage in an area defined by your building. In addition you'll have more influence. This will let you add more clients and/or will give you more space in your Vault.
The Vault is a weird tradeoff. It gets you victory points a lot faster than building. For example, to build a gray building (2 value) you'd need to take three Craftsman or Architect actions and play three cards: one as a foundation and two to fill the building. This gives you 2 influence, which is 2 VPs, 2 extra client spaces, and 2 extra vault spaces. In addition, you get the aforementioned strategic advantage from the building, some of which are quite notable. Alternatively it's a lot easier to place a card in a Vault: two actions (a Legionary or Laborer to place a card in your Stockpile, then a Merchant to move it to your Vault) and one card. It's worth the same 2 VPs, but you don't get the extra client spaces or vault spaces, nor a building special ability.
As the game goes forward, you flit back and forth between the various strategies based on both your own plans and what cards you happen to have available to play.
Relationships to Other Games
According to the designer, Glory to Rome was originally designed as a more complex San Juan-like design. The designer felt like San Juan had a singular path to victory--the collection of card-acquiring capability--and that this made the game too simplistic, so he designed Glory to Rome. There can be no doubt that Glory to Rome enjoys some of the same basic concepts as San Juan, but is considerably more complex, at the cost of elegance.
This is one of four games released by newcomer, Cambridge Games Factory. They cover a wide variety of gameplay styles. Glory to Rome is clearly a serious Eurostyle card game, while Sneeze is a kids' or family game, and the other two, Splat! and Ice Pirates of Harbour Grace look more like American beer & pretzels designs.
The Game Design
To start with Glory to Rome is an intimidating design. I read through the rules several times, and still wasn't entirely comfortable until I started playing the game. There's a pretty steep learning curve, and not just in the basic rules, but also in the many buildings available. We were a couple of times surprised by a large effect that a building had, and weren't able to comfortably develop good strategies in a first-time game because of this ignorance on our parts. You'll need to play this game multiple times to really get the most out of it.
More than one of our players described the game as very tricky which is at the same time a reflection of high complexity, but also of the many different options you have in the game.
Overall, there's a good return for that complexity. You get real strategy in the game as you decide which ways to develop. Clientele can help you better play the roles that interest you and specific buildings will inevitably shape your strategy as the game progresses. This is further supported by multiple paths to victory. Besides the obvious victory point vs. forum strategies, there also are multiple ways that you can intelligently receive VPs, most of them based upon special buildings.
Another element I liked about the game is the way that luck of card draws is offset. If you don't draw a general color of card that you need, you can often retrieve it from the Pool instead. In fact I can even see ways to use this strategically. If you need a specific color of card to build with, you might lead that color to encourage other people to put cards into the Pool, then retrieve them with Laborers.
The game is a little long for a card game of this sort. Our first game came in at 2 hours, partially due to some analysis paralysis on the part of our players. I have faith that this playtime would decrease, possibly even to the 50 minutes listed on the game, but only after numerous additional plays.
I also did feel like the game had some complexity that it didn't need: the classic "sharp corners" that I sometimes find in indie game designs, where an outside developer could have removed a little complexity without any gameplay loss. Nonetheless it's a good design: original, thoughtful, and strategic. As such I've rated it a solid "4" out of "5" for Substance: well above average.
Conclusion
Glory to Rome is a serious card game in the manner of San Juan, but with more complexity and deeper strategy. It's from newcomer Cambridge Games Factory, and though it's got a few sharp corners as do many indie designs, it's well worth playing. I encourage most Eurogamers to take a look at this release, as I think many will be pleasantly surprised.
These games are primarily available for sale online right now.
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