Review: Caesar! Seize Rome in 20 Minutes!

  

 

Charles S. Roberts Award nominee: Best Ancients Wargame

I like a big game as much as the next grognard. Counting factors, trying to find those last two strength points that will nudge your attack up for a 2:1 to a 3:1 on the CRT. What’s not to like. But not every game has to be an epic. Realistically, who has the time to devote to a twelve- or fifteen-hour game, or the space to leave it se up in safely from small children and cats? What if I told you there is a game that will, well, kind of scratch that grand-strategic itch, but you’ll be done with un under half-an-hour? Okay, maybe that’s over-egging it, but Caesar! Seize Rome in 20 Minutes! (PSC Games, 2022), does deliver a really satisfying game experience on a really small board,and in less time that it will take to set up a session of The Russian Campaign (Fifth Edition, GMT Games, 2023). And for stakes, the fate of the whole Roman Empire is in the balance!

Caesar! is a very fast-playing game with a very small foot-print and astonishingly simple rules. Don’t be put off by these traits; for a game of its size, it packs a punch. Caesar! has become my go-to filler game. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Appearance

I wrote a Stripped Down for Parts presentation of Caesar! when I first nabbed it, so I won’t spend a lot of time rehashing what I’ve already said (you can find my unboxing here). Suffice it to say, this is a beautifully presented little game, with clear, easy-to-comprehend rules, a nice choice of colour-palette, and good-quality components. My only gripe is the black print on the rather dark-hued Influence tokens can be a little hard to read if I’m not wearing my reading glasses (eight or nine years after my first prescription lenses and I still forget to put them on). This is a minor thing and barely worth mentioning, and says more about me than about the game.

 

Play

Caesar! sets up very quickly. You randomly place reward tokens on the circular spaces in each province of the Roman Empire on the map-board, reserving one of the Senate tokens for Roma. The players play either Caesar (Red) or Pompey (Blue), and take turns drawing Influence tokens from a bag (each player starts with only two tokens available at any one time), matching the type of Influence to the requirement on the board (there are a couple of Wild tokens – marked with laurel wreaths, that can be placed on any symbol). Provinces have three to six Influence spaces on their shared borders. When a province is closed (the last free influence space is filled), the player to place the last token takes the Province Bonus token for that province and enacts it immediately. Province Bonus tokens grant various advantages to the receiving player:

- the Tactics token (scroll) allows you to immediately take another turn;

- the Wealth token (amphora) gives you an extra Influence disc draw (so you’ll have three to choose form on your turn instead of two);

- the Might token (crossed spears) lets you choose one of your opponent’s Influence tokens, and flip it over (flipped Influence tokens score 0/0 influence;

- the Senate token (columned building) is the golden ring: it allows you to place extra Control markers under them (applying your controlling influence directly to the Senate), thereby helping you to burn though your Control markers ever more quickly.

If the player manages to close two provinces with a single placement, they get both Province Bonus tokens. Then each player’s total influence applied to that province (the number on the half of the token facing that province) is totalled, and the highest scoring player gets to place one of their Control markers in that province, claiming it for their faction. The game ends when the last province is claimed, or when a player runs out of their Control markers. The game ends when one of the other player places their last Control marker. With that, they win.

The PSC Games edition of Caesar! comes with the two mini-expansions and a dedicated solo kit. To be honest, I haven’t tried playing with either of the expansions; so far I’ve found the base components make for a compelling enough game. That said, the expansions won’t shake the game up too much, and will add an extra “gotcha” element to the play, for folk who like that sort of thing.

The solitaire game pits you, the player (playing either Caesar or Pompey, your choice) against Auto-Crassus, the third member of the Triumvirate. A simple schedule of preference for Auto-Crassus’s actions keeps the game moving apace. Auto-Crassus has three difficulty settings. My pride won’t let me play against the bot below the normal rating, and it may be dumb luck, but I’ve yet to beat Auto-Crassus at (literally) his own game. Maybe next time.

 

Appraisal

Caesar! was designed by Paolo Mori, the creator of Blitzkrieg! World War 2 in 20 Minutes! a brilliant little game for the end of the session, or to take with you on holidays. At rthe risk of  repeating myself, this is a fast and fun game, and it’s seriously giving Odin’s Ravens (Osprey Games, 2016) a run for its money as my preferred two-player filler game. The fact that it made the short-list for Best Ancients Wargame category in the Charles S. Roberts Awards is testament to the fact that other people like it too.