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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.
ajewo
A cooperative game in the Pandemic universe in cooperation with Designer Paolo Mori (Libertalia, Ethnos, Dogs of War). Barbarian tribes take the place of the 4 diseases represented by cubes. The players job is to remove these cubes from the board by collecting a set of cards matching the tribe’s color before they spread too far and cause Rome to collapse. [b]Pros:[/b] + Artwork (colorful, detailed, clear paths, helpful coloring) + Theme (Rome, fighting Barbarians, historic) + Components (custom wooden meeple and tokens, custom dice) + Different player characters each with unique powers + Castle defense: Rome cannot fall (loose condition) + Dice roll for removing Barbarian cubes (cure) which adds a push your luck element because own Legion may die as well. Furthermore, a special ability of a character may be triggered. + Pick up and delivery: Legions (meeples) are used to resolve combat and to protect cities. If a Barbarian cube should be placed, a legion and a Barbarian is removed. Up to a maximum of 3 legions can be picked up and transported with a player’s pawn or leave behind for teammates to pick up. + Defeated tribes are helpful for in the long run: no more cubes of that color are added to the board and the cubes of that color can be converted into legions. + Barbarian tribes are a little asymmetric: different number of cubes and different number of cards needed to defeat (cure) them + Additional / multiple win conditions: instead of defeating (curing) all Barbarian tribes, players can also try to eliminate the remaining tribes + Build forts in relevant positions to recruit legions and to reduce lost legions (e.g., in hot spots) + Drawn invasion cards add cubes to specific cities or along an invasion line starting from a Barbarian base up to the named city on the card. This adds new dimensions to the strategy by cutting off key invasions routes with legions (similar to Pandemic: Rising Tides) + More dynamic and fluid than other versions of Pandemic (Barbarian movement) + The few revolt cards in the deck add tension: new Barbarians are added and may cause a cascade like in other Pandemic games + Player aids + Scales well with all player counts except with 5 players which adds a bit too much downtime. [b]Neutrals:[/b] # Luck / randomness: dice are used for removing enemy cubes through combat and to trigger special abilities. Roll the number of dice equivalent to the number of legion meeples # Dice may mitigate alpha leader phenomenon because of the added uncertainty # There are two cards of each city in the deck (like in Rising Tide) which adds a memory element but due to the coloring of the cities, it is easier to remember if a city has already been drawn # Best solo mode for Pandemic so far (multiple characters, shared hand of cards) [b]Cons:[/b] - Dice may add too much randomness for deterministic people / fans of classic Pandemic. - Little number of game variants [b]Similar games:[/b] * Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu (fight against cults, dice) * Pandemic: Rising Tides (wandering cubes) * Defenders of the Realm (castle defend, dice rolling, combat) * The Captain Is Dead (cooperative, Sci-Fi game, similar gameplay, thematic, all about planning ahead and activating stations for certain effects) [b]Similarities to Pandemic:[/b] * Win by bringing 4 tribes under control * Lose by running out of cards, by running out of cubes of a particular tribe, or by the rebellion tracker * Four actions on your turn * Building forts which help to fight the Barbarians * Remove cubes before 4 of them accumulate on a city which cause a rebellion and advances the rebellion tracker * Collect sets of cards to end the threat of a corresponding enemy [b]Differences to Pandemic:[/b] * Not collect sets of each of the 4 enemies to win, instead remove all barbarian cubes from the board * Lose if Rome falls
bigmacyl
Really fascinating implementation of the Pandemic system, it feels much more thematic than the original. The puzzle is still there, but I love the element of dice rolling to defend against the barbarian hordes. The idea of corruption is also very interesting and adds to the theme as well as strategic options.
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.