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64 A.D. Rome is in turmoil – the city has been devastated by fire. Emperor Nero is racing back from Antium to start rebuilding structures lost to the flames. Caesar expects your aid in his historic effort to restore Glory to Rome.

User Reviews (5)

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6
I play orange
Miniature Painter
Veteran Grader
Intermediate Reviewer
6
178 of 188 gamers found this helpful
“One of the best card drawing games out there”

Glory to Rome is a pretty satisfying card game despite it having some features that would normally drive you crazy.

In the game you are essentially trying to rebuild Rome after it has burned down (thanks Nero). Players take turns selecting roles while others choose to follow or “think” and then playing cards from their hand that match that role’s color and the object of the game is to collect the most coins by the time the common deck is depleted.

The card’s layout
Each card has a value of 1-3 coins. Coins are used as measure of VPs and also a measure of how many followers you can have and how large your vault can be. Each card has a color associated with it that dictates it’s role;
Yellow = laborer (grab cards from the color locations as building materials)
Blue = Merchant (move cards into your vault)
Purple = Patron (allows you to gain more followers)
Brown = Craftsman (help build locations from cards in hand)
Grey = Architect (help build locations from cards in holding area)
Red = Legionaire (lets you steal cards from neighbors)
Cards also have a special ability on them that are only accessible once you have built that card at a location.

Game play
Players take turns being the leader and select a role (color), while other players follow that role or “think” (drawing cards from the common area)
Typically, you start off playing a brown or a grey card to start a location and then you have to acquire cards of similar color to place under the location until you have enough building materials. Once the location has been completed, you move the building material card to your center area to show how many coins you have which allows you to have more patrons and a larger vault, which lets you place cards into your vault for their coin value also.

Once you’ve played a role card or followed, that card goes to the center color locations and those cards are then available

There is also a black card which acts as a wild card.
“Thinking” allows you to draw cards until you’ve reached a maximum hand size.

So the game demands a hand management, card selection, and role selection mechanics to unfold a strategy that is dependent on other players choices, since most of the cards you need to build locations, attain vault coins, and patrons come from these central piles.

The game has a bit of a lock-step mechanic to it. It’s not a straight forward path to achieve your goals; i.e. you can’t just spam Merchant cards to move coins into your vault, because you’ll need laborers to move those resources into your holding area and you’ll also need to have built up some infrastructure (locations) to support the size of your vault.

The game has a high replay value, because of the many special abilities the completed locations grant you and because of the strategy other players choose will dictate which color cards are available in the central location, plus cards that have game ending affects. No game will be the same and the game’s balance is pretty decent such that players don’t all gun for the same strategy every game (I’m looking at you Dominion). So although, the player interaction may seem light, it is in fact not. You still have to keep track of what other players are doing and min/max your role selections to help yourself and limit other players and either speed up/slow down the game to prevent other players from surpassing you on coinage.

All in all, Glory to Rome is a fun game that plays pretty quickly, has a decent amount of theme with the card special abilities and roles, and is highly variable in game length for that added little suspense.

 
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3
10
133 of 149 gamers found this helpful
“Fun! Every time!”

Objective:
In Glory to Rome you play a young Patrician hoping to gain influence and fortune by helping to rebuild Rome after the great fire of 64 AD.

The object of the game is to gain wealth and power (Victory Points) by completing structures for Emperor Nero and selling the building materials for your personal gain!

Contents:
5 Player mats
6 Merchant Bonus Chips
1 Rome Demands mat
187 Playing Cards [144 Order cards, 36 Construction Sites, 6 Jacks (Wild cards for Role use), & 1 Leader Card]

Opinions:
Glory To Rome is multifaceted in that every Order Card offers you the choice of using it as a Building card, a Resource card, a Client card, a Role card or VP(s). Upon viewing your opening hand you will discover different buildings you may construct, each with special abilities you may earn upon construction completion. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard players say, “I want to build all of these!” From there, you decide on which buildings you’ll want to build first, which cards you’ll treat as resources, which cards you’ll want to use for Roles to get the actions done you wish to complete, etc. Your abilities can be limited by your Influence (which you’ll strategize to increase) and your special gained abilities from completed buildings will offer you short cuts and loop holes that other players won’t have the privilege of. The player with the most VP’s at the end of the game is the winner. Playback value is very high. It always feels like I’m seeing new cards and/or employing a different strategy than the previous game.

While this version is Out of Print, I was recently able to purchase my own copy of it from Ebay for a good price. 🙂

Another print style of this game was also released and can be found available for purchase through various vendors.

At least one Expansion has also been made available.

 
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10
Critic - Level 5
Professional Advisor
Expert Reviewer
Marquis / Marchioness
7
55 of 65 gamers found this helpful
“Are Real-World Politics and City Building This Colorful?”

Glory to Rome, the cartoony illustrated cardgame of Roman reconstruction. While a Kickstarter with questionable fulfillment brought updated artwork, I still find the game is most known for the brightly colored cartoon depictions of people and places, all sealed in clear plastic clamshell packaging. If you don’t mind the look (it doesn’t bother me, but I am admittedly artistically unsophisticated) and box, there is a quite enjoyable, if chaotic, game within.

Goal of Gaining Glory

Glory to Rome is a card based game, where each card depicts different options for use which must be managed as you play. You’ll use the cards to provide the roles, people, building types, building materials, and money needed to gain victory and restore glory to Rome. At its heart, Glory to Rome is a card management game. You’ll have many options of how to use a single card, whether to build for the future, increase your clientele, follow an opponent’s lead, or storing points in your vault. In the end, your score is determined by your influence, vaulted value, and any bonuses.

General Play

As I mention below, Glory to Rome isn’t the easiest game to teach, it’s easier to see the game in action. As such, I won’t go into deep detail here. Please note when looking at the linked rulebook, pay close attention to the page numbers at the bottom. They alternate from left of the page, to right of the page, and back. For instance, page 7 and page 16 are side by side, and page 7 is directly above page 15, while page 16 is above page 8.

Each player will have a player board which reminds you of action types, and is where you’ll play your cards. Unlike many boards, you don’t play your cards on the player board, but under it, with a given edge showing, depending on how you are using the card. At the left are Clientele, all cards of a given color have the same Clientele. Cards here will increase later actions of that color (for instance, having two Laborer Clientele will allow you to take two extra resources when using the Laborer action). At the bottom is the stockpile, where building materials will be stored. On the right is the Vault, where cards may be placed to score points at the end of the game. At the top is Influence, which both scores points, and shows how many Clientele you may have.

The basic turn structure isn’t overly complicated. There are six actions that can be taken, one for each color. The active player chooses (leads) an action (color), and other players may play the same type of card to follow and also perform that action. Instead of following, any other player may draw cards instead (think). The leader is not required to lead a role, and may choose to draw cards themselves.

Purple – Hire Clients
Yellow – Gather Materials (put cards from central pool to Stockpile)
Grey – Lay Foundation or Build Structure (using cards from Stockpile)
Brown – Lay Foundation or Build Structure (using cards from Hand)
Red – Demand Materials (steal from Opponents)
Blue – Sell (move from Stockpile to Vault)

Along with playing actions, as seen in the Grey and Brown cards, players will be putting down foundations and building structures. Each card color is also a type of building material, and there are a set number of foundations for each color. Players can put down foundations and start building cards, allowing use their abilities during the game (the buildings are the central parts of the cards). When a building is complete, the foundation is placed under the top of the player board, increasing influence.

The game will continue with players following roles, or drawing cards, until the deck runs out or the foundations of one type are gone (or a few other immediate end of game conditions are met; one card will end the game when built). Then you’ll score your Influence, Vault, and any bonuses and determine the winner who brought the most glory to Rome!

My Thoughts

While the cartoony art may imply light gameplay, one should not expect this to be the case. Once learned, how to play the game is not overly complicated, but it can be difficult to teach and grasp initially. The rules specifically suggest you not try to jump into the game; and I emphatically agree that talking through the different areas of the game, and showing sample turns is the way to go.

There are many different types of card powers in the game, and they are not all created equal. There are card powers that, by themselves, are just plain better than other cards. A key to Glory to Rome is that single cards aren’t likely to get you very far. Setting up combinations and synergies between cards are very important, something that you may luck upon in an early game, but will generally require multiple plays. Glory to Rome is not a game where a single play will give a great idea of the strategies of the game.

I like games where it feels like my decisions matter during play, and this is certainly the case with Glory to Rome. With so many uses for an individual card, it can be agonizing to decide if you should hold the card back for its ability later, or use it for its client now. You need to get an engine going, but the cards that make up that engine may need to be used in another way to get the other cards to set it up.

If you’re interested in trying Glory to Rome, try to find someone who has played it to teach it to you. Then, I recommend aiming to play two or three games in a row so you can start to see strategies emerge, and get a feel for the ebb and flow of the game. I would generally advise family and social gamers to look elsewhere, as there is a steep learning curve and can be confusion given how many different ways a card can be played. Glory to Rome is probably only for the most ardent casual players (which may well be a contradiction). Avid gamers will enjoy the multiple uses of cards, while many strategy gamers will enjoy building various combinations and efficient engines. Some power gamers will enjoy the game, but I find it will be hit or miss, it is a cardgame after all.

Ultimately, I enjoy playing Glory to Rome and wish I could play it more. It’s not the easiest game to teach/learn, and generally requires a pretty substantial rules refresher for people who have played before. Adding in that I strongly feel one game at a time doesn’t work all that well for Glory to Rome, it’s a game I’d recommend trying, but know it may miss the mark, depending on the crowd.

 
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10
United Kingdom
Professional Reviewer
Crab Clan - Legend of the Five Rings
Book Lover
10
107 of 143 gamers found this helpful | Medals x 1
“What Glory Rome?”

The year is AD 64. A great fire has struck Rome and at Nero’s command the city must be rebuilt. A number of young Patricians have come forward to answer the imperial call, hoping to win influence and a fortune in helping the Emperor. As their influence grows, they will be able to command Architects and Craftsmen who will rebuild Rome for them, Labourers who will gather the materials needed to rebuild Rome’s finest buildings, the Legions to take materials for their building efforts, Merchants to sell the hoarded materials that will ensure their wealth, and Patrons who will gather more Clientele who will also serve as Architects, Craftsmen, Labourers, Legionaries, and Patrons for each Patrician. All this must be done if a Patrician is rebuild the greatest city in the known world and bring Glory to Rome!

This is premise behind Glory to Rome, a strategy card game published by Cambridge Games. Originally published in 2005, in 2012 it was redesigned with all new artwork and a new box and funded through Kickstarter. Known as the “Black Box” edition, this is the version being reviewed here. Designed to be played by between two and five players, aged twelve and up, it is a card-based city building and resource management game with a novel mechanism. Most of the cards are Order cards that can be used not in one or two different ways, but in four different ways. Each Order card can be built as a building, used as a raw material in the construction of a building, hired as a patron, or sold for its material value. Each Order card can only be used the once, so a player will need to choose carefully if he is to gain the winning benefit from it.

Each Order card is first and foremost a building that a player can construct and then gain the special ability that the building grants. Each Order card is also a material that could be used to construct buildings, though if a player uses it as the material to construct part of another building, he cannot construct the building on the card. There are multiple copies of the buildings in Glory to Rome, so if a card is used for material in another building, another copy might pass into a player’s hand enabling him to try and build it. Each and every building grants its builder a special ability that will help him win the game.

Each Order card is also marked with one, two, or three coins. Once the building on an Order card has been built, these have a dual purpose. First, they indicate the Victory Points scored at game’s end for having constructed the building. Second, they indicate the player’s Influence. By increasing his Influence, a player increases both his capacity to hire more Clients and store material in his Vault.

Lastly, each Order card is marked with one of six Client types and an associated material. These are the grey Architects, which can also serve as Concrete; the green Craftsman, which also serve as Wood; the yellow Labourers, which also work as Rubble; the red Legionaries, which also serve as Brick; the blue Merchants, which also serve as Stone; and the purple Patrons, which also serve as Marble. Each of the six Client types performs a particular role or function in the game. The Architect can lay the foundation of a building or add material to its construction from a player’s Stockpile. The Craftsman can lay the foundation of a building or add material to its construction from a player’s hand of cards. The Labourer takes material from the game’s central pool and adds it to a player’s Stockpile. The Legionary demands material from both the game’s central pool and the hands of neighbouring players. The Merchant allows a player to move material from his Stockpile to his Vault. Lastly, a Patron hires a Client from the game’s central pool and adds it to a player’s Clientele.

So for example, the Market card serves as a Craftsman if used as a Client, as Wood in the construction of a building, but if built does two things. First, its single coin increases both the player’s Victory Point total and his Influence. Second, it grants a special ability, in this case, an increase in size of the player’s Vault above the limit set by his current Influence. Whereas the Archway serves as a Legionary if used as a Client, as Brick for constructing a building, and it increases a player’s Victory Point total and Influence both by two. The special ability that the Archway grants lets a player take material from the central pool of cards instead of his Stockpile.

Glory to Rome consists of three other card types. One is the Jack, a wild card that can be used instead of a Client on an Order card. Another is the Foundation card, which come in the game’s six material types – Brick, Concrete, Marble, Rubble, Stone, and Wood – with a Foundation card being required to be laid before construction can begin on a building. Thus a Wood Foundation card must be laid before construction can be begun on the Market. The last card type is the Merchant Bonus, there being one of these for each material. Each is awarded to the player who the most of the corresponding material in his Vault at game’s end.

In addition to beginning the game with a hand of five Order cards, a player also has a Player Camp heavy card mat. The Player Camp serves as a reference for the players, providing a brief description of what each of the Order cards does when used as Clients. Primarily though, a Player Camp mat is used to organise a player’s cards once they have been played. Order cards are tucked face up under the top of the Player Camp so that only their Influence values are visible; face down under the right hand side in the player’s Vault; face up under the bottom of the Player Camp in the player’s Stockpile; and face up with only the Client type visible under the left hand side of the Player Camp in Clientele section. This neatly organises the cards that a player has so far played. Constructed buildings or buildings under construction are kept separate from each Player Camp. There is also another card mat called the “Rome Demands” which is used with the Legionary Order card.

At its core, Glory to Rome is simple to play. On each turn one player is the Leader (there is a Leader card which is passed round the table as the leadership changes). As Leader a player chooses an Order card from his hand and announces his intention to play its Client as an action. So for example, as Leader, Dave chooses to play the Ludus Magnus card as his Order card and use its Patron action so that he can take an Order card from the pool and add its Client to his Clientele. Now each of Dave’s rivals can do one of two things. If they decide to “Follow” Dave as their Leader, then they must also play an Order card with a Patron action from their hand, play a Jack card from their hand, or Petition. The latter allows a Patrician to play to two or three (depending upon the variant of Glory to Rome being played) identical Client cards of another type to serve as a Jack. So for example, Anthony has neither a Patron card that he can play to follow Dave, nor does he have a Jack, but he does have two Legionary cards that he can play as a Jack.

If a player does not Follow the Leader, can instead “Think.” In which case, he draws cards up to his hand limit, a single card if he has more than his hand limit, or he takes a Jack. If a Leader decides not to lead, but instead to “Think,” he takes a single “Think” action and then the Leadership changes to the next player. Similarly, once everyone has followed a Leader or decided to Think, then the leadership also changes hands.

Normally, only single actions are possible from one turn to the next, but multiple actions become possible when a player has Clients placed in the Clientele section of his Player Camp. Actions for a player’s Clientele can be taken when either the player or another player Leads with the particular Client type. A player can decide to “Think” rather than “Follow” the current Leader and still have his Client take an action as long as the Client matches the Order card played by the Leader. So for example, when Dave used the Patron action of the Ludus Magnus card, he managed to take the Market card from the central Pool and add its Craftsman to his Clientele. On a subsequent turn, he managed to add an Architect to his Clientele, giving him two Clients. On a later turn, Anthony is the Leader and plays a Palisade Order card to make use its Craftsman action. Dave can choose to “Follow” Anthony and play a card that would give him the Craftsman action, so giving him two Craftsman actions – one for the card he is playing and the other for the card he has in his Clientele. Or if he does not have an Order card with a Craftsman, he can “Think,” draw cards or a Jack, and still gain a Craftsman action from the Client because Anthony Lead with a Craftsman.

Once each and every player has played an Order card, that card is not out of the game. Rather it goes into the central pool of cards from which cards are drawn as material, using either the Labourer or Legionary actions (the Legionary action also steals from a player’s neighbours as well as taking from the central pool). To an extent it is possible to deny rival players the materials that they want by not playing certain types of Order cards and thus not discarding them to this pool. Plus it is easy to track what materials that a player wants from the buildings that he has under construction. For example, Dave knows that Anthony requires Concrete because he is building a Vomitorium. As long as Dave or another player does not Lead or Follow with an Architect action, the Concrete that is on all Architect Order cards is not discarded to the pool where Anthony might be able to get it later with a Labourer or Legionary action. Anthony is, instead, forced to rely upon the Architect/Concrete Order cards that he might draw when he “Thinks.”

During the initial stages of the game, constructing buildings will take several turns, as will moving material into a player’s Vault. As a player adds Clients to his Clientele, he increases the number of possible actions that he can conduct on a turn, either as Leader or a follower. Further, completing the construction of buildings not only adds towards a player’s Influence and Victory Point total, they also provide him with a special ability or benefit that will help him on subsequent turns. For example, when constructed, the Circus Maximus doubles the ability of a player’s Clientele by letting each one act twice. Thus each time that Dave uses his Architect or Craftsman clients, they take two actions rather than one. Essentially, the more buildings that a player can construct, the more he is able to do, and what he can do, he is better at.

Glory to Rome ends when the draw pile has been exhausted or there are no Foundation cards available, at which point the player with the most Victory Points wins. Victory Points are scored by constructing buildings and by getting materials into a player’s Vault. Both of these objectives take several actions to complete. To construct a building, a player must use an Architect or a Craftsman action to lay its Foundation card and then add material to the building either from his hand (with a Craftsman action) or from his Stockpile (with an Architect action). Getting material into his Stockpile requires a Labourer action and there has to be the right material available in the central pool. To get material in his Vault, a player must use a Merchant action and the material must come from his Stockpile – so a player needs to decide whether to use a material card in his Stockpile as part of a building or to add directly to his Victory Point total in his Vault.

This is a medium weight, strategic card game with a light theme, one with plenty of replay value because of the variety of buildings and their special abilities available for construction. It offers replay value because although there are only two ways of achieving victory – constructing buildings and squirreling away material in a player’s Vault – there are multiple means to support those two ways, and those means are the special abilities granted by each building. It can be played in in an hour and it fits neatly in a surprisingly small box given the number of components in the game.

Physically, Glory to Rome is well done. The Player Camps and the Rome Demands mats are done in sturdy card. The cards are neatly designed and attractive. The previous edition had cartoon-style illustrations, but the updated “Black Box” edition opts for an elegant art style that echoes that of the classic board game, Civilisation. One issue with the cards is that they do get a lot of handling, so my advice would be to sleeve all of them.

As enjoyable as Glory to Rome is, it is far from perfect. Physically, the cards are not quite sturdy enough for the level of handling that the game calls for – thus the suggestion above to sleeve them. A primary issue is with the rules which are underwritten and thus not easy to learn or comprehend. This has an effect on the teaching of the game because the multiple uses that the Order cards is not easily nor necessarily immediately grasped. Nor is this helped by the numerous special abilities that the buildings on the Order cards grant – reading them slows the game play down and understanding how a special ability works with the game’s mechanics is one further to learning the game. Thus learning to play Glory to Rome is a challenge in itself, but once grasped, the game just motors along. Experienced board game players will have less of a problem, especially if they have played games such as Puerto Rico, San Juan, or Race for the Galaxy.

Once mastered, Glory to Rome is an enjoyable game to play. The game play is simpler than it first looks and it offers plenty of replay value as the number of buildings to construct means that no two games will be alike. Indeed, I enjoyed it so much that after my first play I purchased a copy for myself.

 
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3
Indie Board & Cards fan
8
97 of 156 gamers found this helpful
“One of the best!”

It’s is easily one of the best card games around. I own the Black Box edition and my ratings reflect that fact.

Components:

My cards and I know many others were certainly not in amazing condition with unusual wear along the edges, I felt compelled to sleeve this game when normally I do not sleeve a game like this. Once sleeved I have been pleased.

Rule book is great and the player mats are great with intuitive iconography and a flow chart to aid mid game.

Gameplay:

I own Race for the Galaxy, Innovation, & Dominion with nearly all the expansions and my opinion is that Glory to Rome implements the best of all the other games and I am a fan of all them all and play them all.

The game can be tricky to learn and trickier to teach but once the engine gets going it is a ton of fun with awesome replayability.

Of the other games mentioned Race for the Galaxy is probably the most similar game and while I love it, we tend to play GtR more often.

 

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