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.

 

 

State of Play: a few quiet weeks ahead, and the CSR winners announced!

 

 

Not much to report on the practical gaming front at the moment. No Monday games for a couple of weeks and the Wednesday group has returned to RPGs for the foreseeable. I’ll be trying to get couple of solo games in until regular programming resumes.

In other news, the Charles S. Roberts Awards winners have just been announced about twelve hours ago (at time of writing). Congratulations to the winners and to the nominees; 2022 was a really good year for wargames, and just gaining a nomination for a category is a tough gig, given the quality of games generally out there these days. You can find the full listing of the winners and nominees in their respective categories here.

Discounting the magazines and expansions for existing games, there are 58 titles represented among the fifteen game-oriented categories. Going over the lists. I realised that I own nine of these titles (and one of the expansions, but that’s a different story for another time). I’ve written reviews of two of the games (414BC: Siege of Syracuse and 1565: Siege of Malta), and shared some impressions on another three (Caesar!, Fire & Stone: Siege of Vienna 1683, and Plains Indian Wars). I’m also actively seeking out another six games, with fourteen more again on my wish-list.

Since I can’t seem to make much progress on my 6x6 list for a while, I’m going to turn my attention to some of the Charles S. Roberts Awards winners and nominees. I don’t think I’ll get through all the games I own from the list, but there are a couple I’ve been meaning to write up already, and haven’t had the time. Suddenly, I don’t have that excuse to hide behind. I’ll start with those I already own, and add to the list as I secure others. I can’t guarantee a close schedule for these reviews; I will knock them out as quickly as I can replay them and gather my thoughts, then get them down on proverbial paper. I promise I will try to present something thoughtful, readable, and at least mildly diverting. With pictures.

 

  

State of Play: Undaunted conclusion, more Bolt Action, and Caesar!

   

 

It’s been a good week for gaming. On Monday T and I were slated to play the third of our French and Indian War games. That evening I got a late text from T saying he was still at work, but nonetheless keen for a game, and would be around closer to 10:00pm. I’d already set up F&IW, but which the best will in the world, could not see us finishing a game starting that late (unless by some miracle of the dice I could pull a points victory in the first year; doubtful at best).

Postponing another 6x6 game to an undetermined future date, I broke F&IW down again, and set up a very recent acquisition, Caesar! (PSC Games, 2022). On the box, it boasts “Seize Rome in 20 minutes!” It didn’t disappoint.

I’d only read the rules that afternoon, and decided to shoot it for a “Stripped Down for Parts” post, so the game hadn’t as yet even made it into the Wardrobe of Regret. It just took a few minutes to punch (very good, if simple, components), and set up the board. The game is all about placing influence to gain favours and control territories. The players take turns placing influence tokens on the borders separating provinces. The tokens have a symbol that has to match the type of symbol (crossed spears, Sword, Shield or Ship) on that place on the board, with the line across the token matching the line of the border. The two values affect influence on each of the provinces on either side of that border (a province will have three to six such token places.

When a province is closed off by influence at every shared border, whoever placed the last token claims the yellow which will give you an extra benefit of some kind (a third token in your draw, an immediate second go, etc.). The winner of the contest for the province (whomever has the most points accrued on the inside of the borders) places one of their markers onto the space vacated by the Province Bonus token. The game ends when all of the provinces have been claimed or one player is out of their coloured markers. Whoever has the most markers on the board wins.

Pompey victorious

In spite of being relatively simple and fast-playing – seriously, even counting the rules explanation before we began, the whole game still came in at under half an hour – Caesar! is a challenging puzzle of a game. I understand that this won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but it you like this kind of game, it’s a perfect palate-cleanser for between more serious games or a neat little filler game for those early finishes.

I like to think that I have a good brain for these kinds of games, but after my two-minute run-through of how it works, T proceeded to wipe the floor with me, handed me my hat, then did a little dance on my freshly-filled grave (see photo for the sad end of Caesar and the shrouding glory of Pompey). I think a rematch will be required in the near future.

 

I had some time on Wednesday and so did B, so we caught up for a tutorial game – two games actually – of Undaunted: Normandy. B was new to the series but recently acquired Undaunted: Stalingrad (Osprey Games, 2022). B has a good mind for rules,  and I don’t think he would have had any problems diving into Stalingrad on his own, but having said that, I struggled a little with the concepts and terminology of the Undaunted series on my first excursion, so I was happy to help him out. As a bonus, the game would count as a 6x6 tick and my sixth Normandy game (closing out my first chosen game, only half-way through the year).

We actually played two games; Scenario 1: Le Reye, which is the perfect introduction to the basics of the game, how pieces move and interact, scouting and the importance of drawing new cards, shedding Fog of War cards where you can, and maintaining Rifleman squad cohesion. Needless to say, B won his first outing quite handily by pinning my second Rifleman squad before I could secure one last point.

A close-run thing.

We broke for lunch, then I set up Scenario 5: Crossing the Vere. This is interesting because I think it’s the first scenario where not all your assets appear on the board (or in your deck) from the get-go. And there is some true asymmetry to the scenario with each side having differing objectives. B’s GIs had to take (control) the two bridges crossing the Vere River, but first they had to scout all the way up to the river, then get their Riflemen across a coverless stretch, all the time taking fire from my Riflemen and whatever else I could bring to bear (did I mention my German forces had a mortar?). It’s a good combined arms scenario for both sides, and became a gruelling slug-fest as we each managed to take out (pin) one of the other’s Riflemen squads, but ultimately B, managed to get his surviving squad to the second bridge and used an inspire action to flip the tile from Scouted to Controlled, taking the bridge and the game. Nonetheless a satisfying game.

That night I was back again at B’s for kind of a re-run of last week’s Bolt Action (Osprey Games, 2012) scenario; same set-up of terrain, but different troop dispositions. The Americans, played by K, H and D, had between them three rifle squads with attached LMG teams (one held in reserve), a bazooka team, a single Sherman, and an armoured car (a Greyhound, I think) for their platoon command. The Germans (B and myself) had an anti-tank gun sighted for the main road into the town, two MMG crews, and a sniper team in the belfry of the Church, all set up on the table already (in defensive posture), with two rifle squads, our platoon command in a staff car, and, in place of the lethal Panther from last week, a rather under-armoured open-back Marder self-propelled anti-tank gun (potentially lethal, but unlikely to survive a real exchange). The snipers and two MMGs were already in place as provisional defensive measures, while everything else was set up to come on as reserve units

Suppling suppression fire.

The Americans called in an artillery barrage to “soften up” their target. The barrage took out the MMG team holding the German’s right flank right off the bat. The GIs then concentrated their attack on that flank, bringing the majority of their forces over the now covering-fire clear field as quickly as possible to try to take that objective (the stout red building on the outskirts of the town, and hereto the German force’s defensive anchor-point).

It took some time for the German reserves to make their way up to where they could do any good. One squad edged their way up to the red building, hoping to gain occupancy before the Amerikanisch soldaten could arrive. The other squad cautiously made their way straight up to the hedgerow opposite the church (centre), and began laying grazing fire on the GIs near the red building, who were being supported by the light cover of the Greyhound. The brave Marder crew brought their machine around into the open, putting a round through the Greyhound’s thin armour, only for it to explode harmlessly some distance away, but shaking the crew terribly.

Just another manic Marder.

Meanwhile, the German command group brought the staff car to a row of houses marking the as-yet undisturbed left flank of the German defence and entered the furthest-most house, the one with a view of the road leading into the town, and, having committed all their resources to the present altercation at the other end of the town prepared to make a desperate stand against the anticipated flanking attack from that direction.

The two American squads moved quickly to secure the church and the red building, their respective targets for the action. Before they could secure the red building, the seasoned soldiers of the second German rifle squad launched a melee attack. Taking some losses, they nonetheless overwhelmed the American invaders (in Bolt Action, a melee action is an all-or-nothing affair, with the laurels going to whomever has the most hits; at three-to-two the Germans lost a couple of men, while the whole US squad was either killed or captured). The other American squad had also reached their objective, the church, and secured the chapel. At this point the anti-tank gun – which had yet to see action – sprang to life, its crew swinging the gun around and firing into the church. The high-explosive shell penetrated the building before exploding, sending shards of pews and soldiers flying, and killing three instantly (and collecting a couple of pins). The German squad behind the hedgerow, then opened-up with small arms, taking down another two. As the light was failing (and the hour at the table was getting late), the game was called at that turn, the last action being the American reserve squad entering the town at the end of the street from the desperate command group, laying in ambush. B adjudicated a marginal victory for the Germans; the Americans in the chapel were in no state to hold on to their prize, and while the fresh Reserve section would likely have been able to wrest control of the brown house at the far end of town from the command group (outnumbering them five-to-one), it would have been too little, too late.

There are no atheists in a foxhole.

Another satisfying game, although it didn’t feel quite like a victory. There are a lot of pluses to the Bolt Action system, though. I like the activation mechanic of drawing a marker cube from a container (in our case, an oversized coffee mug) containing one such cube for each of the units of both sides. The cube drawn activates a unit of that side, then at the end of their activation, the cube is placed with the order played face-up, filling its second roll as a reminder which units have acted that turn (run, advance), or if they are on a reactive stance (ambush). Osprey Games cut their teeth on miniatures rules before branching out into board and card games, and their experience shows in games like this.

All in all, a good week for gaming. After missing out on a 6x6 game on Monday, I was good to get a game slot ticked off with Undaunted: Normandy, and I got to play a brand-new game – Caesar! – in record time from receiving it in the mail. It was a week of losses and near-defeats, but it was a lot of fun. Life is good.

Stripped down for parts: Caesar! Seize Rome in 20 Minutes!

   

 

Note: I wouldn’t normally give this treatment to a game as small and unassuming as this one, but it’s such an artfully wrought thing, and one that manages to look great while sticking to a very simple design brief, that I had to show it off. I’d like to give a shout out to Mitch and the team at MilSims Games for putting a copy of this aside for me.

It could be argued that Paolo Mori’s Caesar! Seize Rome in 20 Minutes! (PSC Games, 2022) isn’t a wargame. The theme of the game is the contest between Julius Caesar and his once-friend then bitter rival, Pompey for control of the Roman Empire; a martial contest for the ages. I don’t feel qualified to make grand pronouncements on what constitutes a wargame and which games fall short of that (I don’t have a YouTube channel), but I will stand, hand on heart, and declare that Caesar! unquestionably has a place on this blog; it is both a fast game and a good game.

This is a neat little game in a neat little box, which is itself sturdy, colourful, and contains its components admirably. The cover illustration is cartoonish without looking cartoony. It conveys that this is a fun game about a serious subject.

The rules are printed on a glossy stock and are easy to read, simple to interpret, and helpfully-illustrated. The rules for the base game run to five digest-sized pages. Two more pages cover the “Expansions of Rome,” the addition of Poison and Centurion rewards to the mix of yellow counters, which may apparently be added separately or together into the game, and a further four pages of solo rules. This was unexpected, but I’m very grateful the game has a dedicated solitaire mode.

The board is a stylised map of the Mediterranean, divided into provinces with clear, straight lines. Over these lines are superimposed circles, each with a symbol representing a particular type of influence that can be applied there (Sword, Shield, Crossed Spears and Ship) Some are adorned with Laurel wreaths; these are Wild tokens that can be placed in any Influence space.

Nice mounted board. Small but perfect in every detail.

These symbols correspond with symbols that appear on the red and blue Influence tokens belonging to Caesar and Pompey respectively. The yellow tokens are Province Bonus tokens that are placed randomly in each province, and which can be claimed by the player who places the last Influence token to “close” a province, regardless of who wins the contest of influence. The tokens are printed on a good weight of brown-core card stock, and I’m happy to report they punch out easily and cleanly. My one criticism would be the choice of black print for the symbols and numerical values on the on the rich red and blue of the Influence tokens. I managed to read them without difficulty, but I can see how others might struggle with it.

A third sheet of rectangular counters are included. These are for use with the solo game. I haven’t explored their use as yet, but these also punch out nicely.

The mysterious solo counters.

Each player’s Influence tokens reside in a drawstring bag, printed with the portrait of Caesar or Pompey, as appropriate. 

Caesar (left, and Pompey (right)

The players each start the game with two tokens drawn, which they of course can look at, but which are shielded from the other player’s view by a screen. The screen also includes brief descriptions of the functions of the yellow Province Bonus tokens.

And that covers it. This is a simple and very fast-moving game. The components do what they are meant to and the whole package pops on the table with its use of primary colours and its adherence to a fairly no-thrills approach. In a world of monster, big-box games with dozens or hundreds of miniatures, it’s nice to find a game you can probably play through twice in the time it will take to set up the next chapter of Frosthaven.

Veni, vidi, lusi.