A total Thracian

Less than a week since our last visit to Ancient Rome - Andrew, Ian and I convened at mine to experience 50 tumultuous years of the empire, this time sans Sam. Would a three player game, now that we knew (most) of the rules, be more manageable? Andrew and Ian arrived on the dot of half seven, and I had already set up the game. We needed no rules explanation, but I had a few clarifications to offer, so I think we got started at 7.45pm.

Thank you Andrew for the photos - this is a close-up of my brief Emperorship.

In Time of Crisis the players are important Roman families, seeking to secure their place in the history books through fighting back the barbarian hordes, beneficent rule of the provinces and ultimately becoming Emperor, if only for a year or two. This is all achieved through playing cards which allow you to perform Military, Senate and Populace actions, and then purchase more cards to do better things in later turns. It's a deck-building game, though you choose your next hand from those cards as yet unplayed, rather than drawing randomly. Battle, and political control, are decided by dice, with the marvellous concept of 'exploding sixes' - sixes are an automatic hit and are also rerolled, allowing you to squeak a win in votes or battle on the slimmest of odds, if luck is on your side.

A barbarian fly, intent on sacking Thracia.

Andrew eschewed the common wisdom of playing three senate cards on his first turn, meaning he would not be able to buy a 2pt card. Unbowed, he used his two senate to recruit a governor more expensive than necessary - an investment in the future, perhaps?

Ian's early strategy was centred around improvements to his home province of Thracia, as well as buying lots of cards. Andrew and I were using our political points to trash cards as well as buy new ones, and by the end of the game we had lean decks not much bigger than those we started with, though far more powerful. Ian did trash some cards, but he also acquired quite a few, and seemed to have twice as much in his deck to work through by the end.

The early game here sees all players soaking up the neutral provinces - more points and better cards being the reward. But this weakens the support in Italia, where the governor is emperor, making it more and more enticing until someone cracks and decides to take a turn in the hot seat. In this game Andrew instead moved his army into Rome, effectively handing it his dance card, rather than going straight for governorship.

I chose to ignore this bagsie, and stepped up to grab some juicy points. My reign was short lived, as the presence of Andrew's army whittled away my support. Each turn you cling on as emperor advances your emperor turns (surprisingly), and there is an end game bonus for the most tenacious rulers.

Me as Emperor, with Andrew's army in residence. A bit too cosy.

I can't remember exactly what happened next - did Andrew wrestle the emperorship from me, or did Ian step in to the power vacuum? Either way, all three of us experienced the heady rush of being emperor at some point in the game, but Andrew got his eagle claws in and hung on in the last few rounds.

Along the way there was much battling - the Franks were unusually active, and kept wandering into Pannonia to annoy me - and much tussling over governorships. Ian caught some attention from the neighbouring Sassanids, and fought some healthy battles there. There were some epic rolls, some awful, some brilliant. At one point towards the end, Andrew fought my weakened army in Italia in an effort to hold on to his emperorship; but my chaps rolled six after six, and his two legions failed to land a blow. This was very exciting, and would have been absolutely disastrous for Andrew, except that he played a 'flanking manoeuvre' card, allowing him to re-roll the battle. It ended better for him.

An epic roll - four hits and three more rolls. Or were they votes?

Ian began to generate lots of points each turn, and was the first to cross the finish line of 60 points, which signals the game end. But only if you're emperor; so he needed to oust Andrew to secure his victory. Andrew clung on for two or so more turns (I say clung, but he was pretty confidently dug in I think), drawing level and overtaking him, and the game was done. Andrew's win was secured by his 10pt bonus for most Emperor turns against Ian's 3pts - had that situation been reversed Ian would have taken it. The less said about my score the better.

Andrew 81
Ian 72
Joe 50

Andrew fell off the end of the score track!

Despite the length - it was three hours all told, though with each play I'm sure we get more streamlined - this is a fabulous game, I think. Before we'd played, I sold it as King of Tokyo-esque, but having played twice now, as Ian pointed out the real spiritual cousin is Lords of Vegas. Turns feel similar to that GNN evergreen, with players using their limited resources to manipulate themselves into a favourable position, and then going for a big stand-up dice roll or two. There's no trading, but diplomacy and table-talk are encouraged and prove useful - in our game I got Andrew to use his tribute card to pacify my ever-pesky Franks for me, in exchange for me leaving him alone and instead bothering Ian on my turn.

There are more options than in Lords of Vegas, so you have more flexibility in how you approach certain situations; and with that more complexity, but never to the point where it feels overwhelming. Brass might be another good comparison, in terms of interaction, length and complexity.

I'm so pleased to have got this back to the table so swiftly, thank you chaps for making it possible - perhaps the next goal is a four player game to 60 points! Any takers? Could you be tempted back, Sam? We might need to make a Saturday evening of it.