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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.
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.
bcnevan
Mixed bag overall, but does OK in adjusting the Pandemic system to the Roman setting. There's definitely some thematic nonsense that occurs in the mapping of the pre-existing system onto the chosen setting. The invasion pathing is a nice touch and keeps the pressure on the players as the game progresses. Even a single city with three barbarians is a large threat, as that city can relatively quickly cause 4 decline or just cause an action suck that makes the game unwinnable (playing on the harder difficulties). But due to the way the map, cards, and legions combine together, the game wants to be played in one single way. If you don't play the game in that way, the additional randomized elements introduced as compared to normal Pandemic can cause action efficiency to leak in more uncontrollable ways. Even further, the combination of initial conditions and programmed invasion pathing lessens variation between plays. But the game does seem to acknowledge this by putting more interest in the player roles, having a somewhat large set of event cards, and using the battle dice. Still, its probably best for sporadic play or mixed in with other plays of the other Pandemic boxes (e.g. Iberia, Rising Tide). As of now, this seems very much like a game that I will like less the more I play it.
bnordeng
Yet another high quality implementation of a well-themed game using the basic Pandemic mechanics. Like the others, I'd say if you like Pandemic and like a re-theming with some new mechanics to fit with the theme then you might like this. I didn't feel like I was interested in that sort of thing until I tried Iberia. Now, I own Iberia, Rising Tide and Fall of Rome and I really like how each game brings out its theme while keeping to the core of Pandemic. Original Pandemic is one of my favorite games. Fall of Rome does create the feeling that Rome (or other cities) are under great pressure that mounts throughout the course of the game. The alliance and then recruiting barbarians into your own legions is a very neat mechanic. I look forward to a lot more of this game.