sack Roman Europe and use your spoils to found new kingdoms.
As with the original The Settlers of Catan
game (Fall 1994 GA REPORT), you need ten victory points to win. How these points are awarded will be explained later in the
review. CATAN HISTORIES: STRUGGLE FOR ROME (Kosmos/Mayfair Games, 3-4 players, ages 10 and up, 90-120 minutes; $49)
Struggle for Rome is the second game in the
New Catan Histories series of stand alone Catan Games.
The first game in the series was Settlers of the
Stone Age (featured in the Spring 2003 GA REPORT).
In this game you are various barbarians pouring in from the
Steppes to
sack Roman Europe and use your spoils to found new kingdoms.
As with the original The Settlers of Catan
game (Fall 1994 GA REPORT), you need ten victory points to win. How these points are awarded will be explained later in the
review.
The
map shows Western Europe and you start by putting face down the various city
plunder tiles on the city spaces. There
are five different colors of tiles and each go on the same color city spaces. Each player gets two barbarian figures (one mounted which
moves first and one unmounted) which are placed on the appropriate fixed
starting positions in the top right corner of the map.
Resource boxes keep track of your
plunder markers and strength of your tribe.
You start with one man and one wagon for each tribe. You also get some
starting gold and one of each resource card.
The resources in the game are rock, wheat and livestock (can be either
cattle or horses).
The first thing do be done in a turn is the starting player, who goes first in all phases, rolls the dice to determine what resources are generated this turn. Four resources are rolled each turn and the number has to be unique. If a seven is rolled, he gets to move the Legionnaire (who acts like a thief in the original Settlers game i.e. blocks a resource and you get to steal a resource card from a player adjacent to this resource) to a resource hex. In the next phase players trade for resources with other players and build units.
The units are men (one
for each tribe per build) to increase your tribe’s strength, wagons which get
you gold when you plunder a city and are used to help conquer cities and finally
development cards which can give you things like extra gold, instant victory
points or special movement. You can
trade resources at a 3:1 ratio to the bank for a resource card of your choice or,
once per turn, spend three gold for a resource of your choice.
Once this phase is done, players move their tribes starting with the
mounted one in one phase and the unmounted in a second phase as well as
performing plunder and build city actions if they wish.
You move along the edges of the resource hexes from dot to dot (cannot
end your move on a city hex) and you can cross one land or sea movement arrow
for free. For every
subsequent land arrow you have to pay a wheat or three gold.
For every subsequent sea arrow you have to pay a gold piece.
If you wish to plunder a city you have to be next to it and have a
strength equal to or greater than the number of towers on the city.
If you meet these conditions, you get the plunder chip, flip it over,
take any loses and get the loot (gold, resources or development cards).
It should be noted that this is the
only way to get gold in the game. As
well, the player puts the plunder chip on his appropriate tribe resource box .
You can only plunder two cities of any color and cannot found cities
until you conquer at least three cities of different colors.
Another option is that you can start a kingdom when you have looted three
different cities by moving onto a city hex meeting the same strength conditions
as for looting a city. You then
place your wagon on this hex with your tribe marker.
From then on, this tribe is fixed and cannot move except by expanding to
adjacent cities again using the strength rule and having to put a figure and a
wagon on each conquered city. Each
city “conquered” is worth a victory point. You get special victory point
cards if you meet the following conditions:
Scourge
of Rome (2 vp) – If a tribe plunders at least one city of each color
Diplomacy
(2 vp) - This is a special resource
card and is similar to the army card in the original Settlers
in that the person who has the most of these cards over three owns it.
Also, diplomacy cards act as a thief roll making you to move the
legionnaire to a new resource square.
Heir
to Rome (2 vp) - This is the
toughest card to get since each of your tribes has to have conquered four
cities. If you win this card you win the game since conquering eight
cities plus this card will give you the necessary victory points.
Finally you rotate the starting player (hand him the dice) and
go through these game phases again until someone has the winning number of
points.
This game is more a race game than previous games in the Catan series. Plundering cities not only gives you extra resources but also counts towards the Scourge of Rome card (2 points) and provide you with gold. However, you have to get all five colors of cities to get the Scourge card and not everyone will be able to do it so you must plan your routes carefully. You also have to build up your tribe's resources so you can expand your kingdom when you decide to “settle down”. The game is really a balance between a) keeping your pieces moving and plundering to get resources but not points with b) founding kingdoms in good resource areas to get points and win the game. This tension, along with competition with the other players, make it an interesting game. The Mayfair edition substituted very nice plastic figures and coins for the wooden pieces normally found in Settlers. Unfortunately, they also provided player aids on very flimsy and thin paper instead of the mounted cardboard in the European edition. The rules are well written and illustrated as you have come to expect from these games. In addition, there is an online tutorial at the Catan website (http://www.profeasy.com/StruggleForRome/index.html) along with a small expansion which can be downloaded to add another special scoring card. I beleive Catan Histories: Struggle for Rome is a worthwhile addition to any Settlers fan's collection. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Chris Kovac
Battlelore Doodle Dice Editorial
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