Post by Gilvan Blight on Dec 31, 2007 10:28:26 GMT -5
Got to try this one out at our last late night gaming session at Hugin and Munin.
Quickly: An odd game, not very Catan like, I wasn't much of a fan.
[glow=blue,2,300]Summary:[/glow]This is the latest in the big boxed Catan Spin offs that were released before the release of the latest edition of Catan. Struggle for Rome is a stand along game in the Catan series that uses a lot of the Catan basic engine. Things like Rolling for Resources, the trading phase (including 3:1 to the bank), a building phase, and the robber (Legionnaire) moving on a 7 will all be familiar to Settlers players. Pretty much the rest of the game is unique.
Players each control two Germanic armies, one represented by a horsemen pawn the other by an infantry pawn on the board. The armies composition is indicated and updated by a spot for each army on the side of the board. Army composition is comprised is the number of units and the number of supply wagons in each army. Areas to show which cities each army has plundered is also tracked where the army composition is. All players start at the top left of a map of the ancient eastern world (Germania, Spain, Rome, etc). The map is comprised of various land tiles that will be familiar to Settlers players. Scattered throughout the map are Cities each indicated by a hexagonal (face down token). Each city is surrounded by a number of towers that indicate the cities strength. Cities can only be Plundered and later Conquered by armies with as many units as the city has towers.
Each turn the first player rolls a set of 4 numbers, these numbers determine which resources each player gets. Players only get resources for the land tiles surrounding each of their army pawns. There are only 4 resources in SfR, Rock, Wheat, Bulls and Horses. Interestingly the Bulls and Horses are both gotten from the same Pasture land tile, there is a randomized deck you draw from whenever you get resources from a Pasture. There is a 5th item players collect as well and that is gold. After everyone has gotten their resources (in order from the first player) players then build one at a time. Building and trading is identical to other Catan games except for what is built and what is required to build. You can purchase army upgrades (more troops for both armies, or a supply wagon for one) or a Development Card. The army upgrades are required to plunder and conquer more territory and the development cards do a wide variety of things, similar to the Development deck in Settlers (Gain bonuses when attacking cities, gain gold, gain resources, move the Legionnaire, etc).
After everyone has built the first player then gets to move his 'mounted' army. Movement is very odd. The board is interlaced with these blue arrows all over it and an army can move over one blue arrow free each turn but has to pay (wheat or 3 gold) to pass over a second (or third or Fourth, etc.) Also there are ferries scattered all over the land that can bring you to other parts of Europe for only 1 gold per trip. This means that with a bit of wheat and gold an army can make it clear across the board in one turn. Once moved if the army is next to a city it can plunder (has equal to or more units then the number of towers on the city) the player takes the hex chit from the city, gains what the city gives (always gold = to the number of supply wagons and often more gold, resources or a development card) looses any units as required (often 1 unit from the army attacking, but not always) and places it on the spot for his army. There are bonus Victory Points for plundering an army from each section of the board, plus players can only plunder each area twice before having to move on to another area.
After all of the mounted armies have moved, each player, in turn, then moves their 'footman' army in the same way as their mounted unit. Players have the option of forfeiting either turn to get 2 gold or to gather a resource of their choice. Once an army has plundered at least 3 cities then then have the option of conquering cities instead of plundering them. This requires the army to move into the city leaving one unit and one supply wagon there. Once moved into a city that army no longer moves around on the map as before. Instead each turn they can expand to adjacent cities (one blue arrow away) by placing one unit and one supply wagon into the next city. They still have to meet the requirement of having enough units as mentioned above. Cities captured in this way are worth 1 Victory Point each.
Ten victory points are required to win. Players mainly gain victory points from conquering cities, but can also get them through other means. There is a 'largest army' card worth 2 VPs for the player who played the most Diplomats (move the Legionnaire). There are a set of Scourge of Rome cards that grant 2 VPs to players who's armies have plundered a city from each region (players can win this twice, one for each army). There is also another card for someone who has captured a city from each region that is worth 4 VPs. Mixed into the Development Card deck are also Civilization Improvements that are worth 1 VP each.
[glow=green,2,300]The Good:[/glow]Good flavors added to this one. The concept matches the historical period interestingly, with you starting off as small tribes raiding cities only to become massive armies who conquer all of Europe. The board is one of the nicest looking Catan boards I have seen. This pieces are well sculpted though made of plastic instead of wood which was a bit of a disappointment. Enough differences in the rules and gameplay that I didn't feel like I was just playing a new version of Settlers. Very simple to learn, as is usual for a Catan game, by the second time around the table everyone pretty much had all the rules down pat. I liked the movement system, it was very unique and took a bit to get used to, but was very cool once learned. Being able to move a unit all the way across the board just to take a specific city before an opponent was pretty rewarding. I still like the fact that Catan games are like competitive solo games in a way, where each player cannot outright attack each other and competition grows from taking territories before your opponents and making the right trade/build decisions.
[glow=yellow,2,300]The Bad[/glow]Due to the randomness of the dice for generating resources, like every other Catan game there is a good chance you will be faced with many turns where there is nothing you can due as you don't have the right cards to do it. I found that with only the four resources players were not willing to trade as regularly as in regular Settlers of Catan and everyone pretty much just horded what they had and also no loss of cards if a 7 is rolled, meant people could horde. So if you didn't have what you needed you tended to sit there until you did. I wasn't a fan of the random 'meat deck' I just didn't see what this really added to the game except to make Horses seem even more rare (and the commodity that no one would trade). It was more frustrating then anything when you kept giving up army movement to draw from the meat deck and kept getting the wrong animal. I'm still trying to figure out how a horse and a rock makes an Army, the resource choices in this one are a bit odd.
[glow=red,2,300]The Ugly[/glow]I just had this hard to describe unsatisfied feeling while playing the game. I just had a hard time getting into it for some reason. It just didn't 'click' for me, the mechanics felt odd to me and the swap from the early exploration to the rapid expansionism of the game just felt abrupt and awkward.
[glow=purple,2,300]Overall:[/glow]This is an interesting use of the Catan engine to make a pretty interesting and accurate(ish) historical game. Settlers players will find a lot of similar rules, but there is more then enough that makes this game unique. I personally wasn't a big fan and have a hard time describing exactly why, it just didn't 'feel right' I guess. I would recommend other Catan games before this one, all except for Settlers of the Stone age, this I did enjoy more then that. What I suggest is you do like I did and hit an open gaming day at Hugin and Munin or another FLGS so you can try this out before buying.
Quickly: An odd game, not very Catan like, I wasn't much of a fan.
[glow=blue,2,300]Summary:[/glow]This is the latest in the big boxed Catan Spin offs that were released before the release of the latest edition of Catan. Struggle for Rome is a stand along game in the Catan series that uses a lot of the Catan basic engine. Things like Rolling for Resources, the trading phase (including 3:1 to the bank), a building phase, and the robber (Legionnaire) moving on a 7 will all be familiar to Settlers players. Pretty much the rest of the game is unique.
Players each control two Germanic armies, one represented by a horsemen pawn the other by an infantry pawn on the board. The armies composition is indicated and updated by a spot for each army on the side of the board. Army composition is comprised is the number of units and the number of supply wagons in each army. Areas to show which cities each army has plundered is also tracked where the army composition is. All players start at the top left of a map of the ancient eastern world (Germania, Spain, Rome, etc). The map is comprised of various land tiles that will be familiar to Settlers players. Scattered throughout the map are Cities each indicated by a hexagonal (face down token). Each city is surrounded by a number of towers that indicate the cities strength. Cities can only be Plundered and later Conquered by armies with as many units as the city has towers.
Each turn the first player rolls a set of 4 numbers, these numbers determine which resources each player gets. Players only get resources for the land tiles surrounding each of their army pawns. There are only 4 resources in SfR, Rock, Wheat, Bulls and Horses. Interestingly the Bulls and Horses are both gotten from the same Pasture land tile, there is a randomized deck you draw from whenever you get resources from a Pasture. There is a 5th item players collect as well and that is gold. After everyone has gotten their resources (in order from the first player) players then build one at a time. Building and trading is identical to other Catan games except for what is built and what is required to build. You can purchase army upgrades (more troops for both armies, or a supply wagon for one) or a Development Card. The army upgrades are required to plunder and conquer more territory and the development cards do a wide variety of things, similar to the Development deck in Settlers (Gain bonuses when attacking cities, gain gold, gain resources, move the Legionnaire, etc).
After everyone has built the first player then gets to move his 'mounted' army. Movement is very odd. The board is interlaced with these blue arrows all over it and an army can move over one blue arrow free each turn but has to pay (wheat or 3 gold) to pass over a second (or third or Fourth, etc.) Also there are ferries scattered all over the land that can bring you to other parts of Europe for only 1 gold per trip. This means that with a bit of wheat and gold an army can make it clear across the board in one turn. Once moved if the army is next to a city it can plunder (has equal to or more units then the number of towers on the city) the player takes the hex chit from the city, gains what the city gives (always gold = to the number of supply wagons and often more gold, resources or a development card) looses any units as required (often 1 unit from the army attacking, but not always) and places it on the spot for his army. There are bonus Victory Points for plundering an army from each section of the board, plus players can only plunder each area twice before having to move on to another area.
After all of the mounted armies have moved, each player, in turn, then moves their 'footman' army in the same way as their mounted unit. Players have the option of forfeiting either turn to get 2 gold or to gather a resource of their choice. Once an army has plundered at least 3 cities then then have the option of conquering cities instead of plundering them. This requires the army to move into the city leaving one unit and one supply wagon there. Once moved into a city that army no longer moves around on the map as before. Instead each turn they can expand to adjacent cities (one blue arrow away) by placing one unit and one supply wagon into the next city. They still have to meet the requirement of having enough units as mentioned above. Cities captured in this way are worth 1 Victory Point each.
Ten victory points are required to win. Players mainly gain victory points from conquering cities, but can also get them through other means. There is a 'largest army' card worth 2 VPs for the player who played the most Diplomats (move the Legionnaire). There are a set of Scourge of Rome cards that grant 2 VPs to players who's armies have plundered a city from each region (players can win this twice, one for each army). There is also another card for someone who has captured a city from each region that is worth 4 VPs. Mixed into the Development Card deck are also Civilization Improvements that are worth 1 VP each.
[glow=green,2,300]The Good:[/glow]Good flavors added to this one. The concept matches the historical period interestingly, with you starting off as small tribes raiding cities only to become massive armies who conquer all of Europe. The board is one of the nicest looking Catan boards I have seen. This pieces are well sculpted though made of plastic instead of wood which was a bit of a disappointment. Enough differences in the rules and gameplay that I didn't feel like I was just playing a new version of Settlers. Very simple to learn, as is usual for a Catan game, by the second time around the table everyone pretty much had all the rules down pat. I liked the movement system, it was very unique and took a bit to get used to, but was very cool once learned. Being able to move a unit all the way across the board just to take a specific city before an opponent was pretty rewarding. I still like the fact that Catan games are like competitive solo games in a way, where each player cannot outright attack each other and competition grows from taking territories before your opponents and making the right trade/build decisions.
[glow=yellow,2,300]The Bad[/glow]Due to the randomness of the dice for generating resources, like every other Catan game there is a good chance you will be faced with many turns where there is nothing you can due as you don't have the right cards to do it. I found that with only the four resources players were not willing to trade as regularly as in regular Settlers of Catan and everyone pretty much just horded what they had and also no loss of cards if a 7 is rolled, meant people could horde. So if you didn't have what you needed you tended to sit there until you did. I wasn't a fan of the random 'meat deck' I just didn't see what this really added to the game except to make Horses seem even more rare (and the commodity that no one would trade). It was more frustrating then anything when you kept giving up army movement to draw from the meat deck and kept getting the wrong animal. I'm still trying to figure out how a horse and a rock makes an Army, the resource choices in this one are a bit odd.
[glow=red,2,300]The Ugly[/glow]I just had this hard to describe unsatisfied feeling while playing the game. I just had a hard time getting into it for some reason. It just didn't 'click' for me, the mechanics felt odd to me and the swap from the early exploration to the rapid expansionism of the game just felt abrupt and awkward.
[glow=purple,2,300]Overall:[/glow]This is an interesting use of the Catan engine to make a pretty interesting and accurate(ish) historical game. Settlers players will find a lot of similar rules, but there is more then enough that makes this game unique. I personally wasn't a big fan and have a hard time describing exactly why, it just didn't 'feel right' I guess. I would recommend other Catan games before this one, all except for Settlers of the Stone age, this I did enjoy more then that. What I suggest is you do like I did and hit an open gaming day at Hugin and Munin or another FLGS so you can try this out before buying.