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At the height of its power, the Roman Empire covered a vast amount of territory and brought major advancements in engineering, architecture, science, art, and literature. Corruption and economic crisis has made the empire unstable and paved the way for aggressive barbarian tribes to attack.
aaj94
OK, Pandemic. On this site it needs no introduction. I know it is "the co-op" and has a great deal of historical weight (alongside [thing=823][/thing] and [thing=15062][/thing], it's in the big 3 of early co-ops IMO), but I've never enjoyed it. Sure, [thing=161936][/thing] was pretty great, but I got tired of the game system by [thing=221107]season 2[/thing], and I haven't played Pandemic since. That said, Fall of Rome adds just enough new to the system that it's still appealing to me. For one thing, dice-chucking and battling barbarians is exciting. For another, the 'migration paths' add some tension to the game and a natural flow to the increase of cubes on the board (in base-game Pandemic, the cubes could just feel random). On top of all that, I appreciate the translation of the theme to the Roman empire. It's all pretty natural, and given the events of the past two years, I'm inclined to a non-infectious-diseases version of Pandemic right about now. Something that I dislike in all of Matt Leacock's games is the alpha player tendency, and there's not much to fix that here. I know I can be this kind of player myself, and I hate that the game doesn't do anything to smack me down and keep the collaboration even among players. While it is intensely satisfying to dream up a last-ditch effort to 'save the empire' and win the game, it's frustrating that the game doesn't [i]force[/i] you to come up with that plan together. By comparison to some of my other preferred co-ops, Fall of Rome adds a nice, shorter option to bring to the table. It's far shorter than the two I mentioned before, but is a nice mid-weight option that's a bit longer than [thing=194879][/thing] or [thing=158900][/thing]. Not Alone is still my favorite co-op by a landslide, but Pandemic: Fall of Rome does enough right that I'm happy to keep it in my collection. It's Pandemic. I have problems with the alpha-player tendency, and just like the base game, I have questions about the repetitiveness of each game, but it's everyone's starter co-op of choice for a reason. I'm happy to rate Pandemic a [BGCOLOR=#99FFFF] [b]7.0[/b] [/BGCOLOR], and it probably deserves nearly a point higher if I could bring myself to forgive the past.
Ben_Bos
I like the game. I don’t like Pandemic, but this theme is a bit better and dice rolling is much needed or else Pandemic games are simply too dry. I would rate the Cthulhu game just above it as the spreading mechanic is packed into a more thematic appearance of the next Boss in Cthulhu which suits that game even better. I would say around a 6 Great time filler and not easy but not a wargame.
apostateant
Interesting take on the system, certainly better than Cthulu. Not really any room for it in my collection with Rising Tide and Iberia's existence, however.