Each of us plays a house (so its a 4 player game). The goal is to get your influence to 12 to win the game. We each started at 7 influence. The house also has slaves (earns gold), gladiators (costs gold) and guards who will attempt to block schemes others attempt on you.
Each Gladiator has 3 stats Attack, Defence and Speed. The value listed determines the number of dice rolled. As you take hits you lose dice. Also players hold a hand of cards (the number held is based on your Influence). These cards consist of schemes (ploys played on others), Reactions (played to block schemes) and more guards which you can keep hidden so players may think your defenceless to schemes.
Each turn there is a market where new items/slaves/gladiators will become available. Each player then places a number of gold into their hand & all players then put their hidden amount over the board. When all players have done so, the bids are revealed. The winner then takes the item/individual. If there is a tie, the highest bidders then bid again. If on a second round there is no additional bids, the auction fails & the card is discarded.
The game comes with plastic figures of the gladiators, but Kevin brought out his own beautifully painted ones for us to use.
When arena games are announced all the players may place wagers on the table for either gladiator at 1:1, an Injury 2:1 or best of all Decapitation at 2:1.
Even the best laid plans can fail as we saw Kevins uber Gladiator fall to one of Will's lowly slaves.
I think all of us had a lot of fun playing this. I would definately like to play a longer game, as we found some players with the right cards could fly up the influence track. There is a lot of opportunity for interactions, backstabbing & battling in the arena.
Bob has also posted an article on this game.
No comments:
Post a Comment