Players: 2-5
Playing Time: 60-90 minutes
This is a mild revision of my 2006 review of the I.0 edition.
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 187 cards. They're printed medium weight with a high-gloss finish. 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.
The first 43 cards serve various utilities. 36 of the cards are "sites", which just represent the groundwork needed to build a location in one of six colors. 6 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 simple.
Each of these orders card has a color which defines most of its basic characteristics. This includes what building material type it is (e.g., marble for purple), how valuable that building material is if you store it (e.g., 3 for purple), how much of the material you need to build a building of the type (which is the same as the value, e.g., 3 for purple), and what type of client it produces (e.g., patron for purple). Some of this info is redundant, but having everything on the card actually makes them easy to use, the result of a good, utilitarian design.
Each card also has a bunch of additional information describing an individual building. This is used only when you use the card as a foundation, not for all the other purposes that you can use a card for.
Player Camps: These are five large cardstock sheets which are player mats. They each remind the players 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: A smaller cardstock sheet, 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 20-page rulebook that also contains an extensive card reference. It's got tons of examples and is well organized. This book unfortunately gets folded in half in the gamebox, which I don't really like, but that's a minor complaint.
Packaging: Glory to Rome comes packed in a plastic clamshell. The cards are further packed in three tuckboxes (for all the orders cards) and one plastic sleeve (for everything else). I'd prefer a real box--and Glory to Rome is really a professional enough game that it deserves it--but the clamshell at least fits well on shelves and is easy to store.
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.
Comments on the New Edition: For those familiar with the older edition, things haven't changed a lot, but everything that has changed is an improvement. The cards are slightly better quality on average. They're brighter and have better contrast and now feature rounded corners, but also aren't quite as weighty. The player camps are larger and more attractive, improving the game's playability. Finally the new packaging is much better than the bag that you used to get the game in.
The Game Play
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. Additional out-of-town site cards are laid next to them.
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. A few Jacks will also be laid down near the 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 Rome, 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.
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). Cards from the Pool can typically only be used for their "color" (e.g., their raw material or client type) not for the specific building powers.
Hand. The cards in your hand: initially four random cards and a Jack. You can later refill it with the Thinker action.
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). As with cards in the Pool, only their color typically matters.
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 its "limit" (initially 5); or one card if you're already at your "limit"; 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 with 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 place a yellow Insula on top of it, or alternatively a yellow Latrine.
If there is no site card of the color you want remaining, you can take an out-of-town site instead, but this costs two actions rather than one.
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.
Instead of laying a foundation 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 one 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 in-town 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 buildings give bonus VPs.
Comments on the New Edition: As with the components, there aren't a lot of changes to the gameplay, but what there is is good. The biggest difference is the out-of-town sites, which keep the game from (potentially) grinding to a halt if you hit the endgame condition where you've used up the in-town sites. There's also a new rule where you can play three of a color as a Jack. Finally I've been told that some of the specific cards have changed. It's all a light polish, not a major overhaul.
How the Game Plays
I suspect this description is going to be wholly 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, then moving those to your buildings-under-construction.
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.
Since the release of San Juan there's been one more entrant into this small genre, Race for the Galaxy, a science-fiction game that much like the others has you cycling cards to build things. It falls right into the middle of the spectrum: more complex and less elegant than San Juan and less complex and (maybe) more elegant than Glory to Rome.
This is one of a small number of card games produced by Cambridge Games and thus far the only one that's a serious Eurogame.
The Game Design
When I first read the rules for Glory to Rome I found it 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.
However, I can happily say that once you have played the game multiple times, it'll get quite a bit easier. I probably hadn't played it in a year before I got this new edition, and I picked up the game again almost immediately after one quick read through the rulebook, and was able to ride that to a crushing victory in my new playtest.
Overall, there's a good return for the game's complexity. You get real strategy in the game as you decide which ways to develop. (In fact, Cambridge now advertises it as "Extreme Strategy!") That brings a lot of options. 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.
My initial play of the game back in I.0 days was a bit long, but more recently I've found that it reliably comes in at 60-90 minutes, which seems right for the depth of gameplay.
About my only remaining complaint about the game is that it has 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 high "4" out of "5" for Substance--well above average--and also a half-point or so improvement from my original rating, showing off how it improves through multiple plays.
Conclusion
Glory to Rome is a serious card game in the manner of San Juan and Race for the Galaxy, but with more complexity and deeper strategy. This new edition slightly improves on the original release two years ago; if you haven't picked up the game yet, now's a better time than ever to do so.
If you can't find it at your local game store, you can pick it up from online stores like funagain.com.
