Roma: a Game that Shows the Power of Dice and Cards

Roma is an interesting two-player game that is themed in the days of Roman Glory. The theme honestly is not critical to the game, as this is more of a game based on card and dice play than it is on a historical theme. Your ultimate goal is to earn more points than your opponent, but of course there are several ways to accomplish this. You should keep this in mind as you play the game.

The one part of the theme of a "battle" does affect how the game is set up. All the pieces used in setting up the game are put between the players. These include the money disk, six dice disks (numbered one to six), and a card disk. Put the six dice disks in order in the middle of a row and then the card disk on one side and the money disk on the other side. Each player also receives four playing cards from the deck to start the game. These cards are not all yours to keep though. You will keep two and pass two on to your opponent.

Now would be a good time to discuss the cards. I am not going to reveal everything about these cards as discovering some of the actions of these cards is part of the fun of the game. On every card you will notice two numbers on the upper left corner. The first is the "cost" to play the card. The second number is it's defensive value. These will be addressed a little later in this article. The artwork on the cards is of very high quality and does contribute to the theme the designers have chosen. As I mentioned earlier the theme is not necessary, but I guess it's a nice little addition.

After keeping the two cards you choose and receiving two cards from your opponent, the final part of setting up the game is completed. The youngest player places their four cards face down next to four of their six dice disks. Then the older player places their four cards face up on their side of any of the six dice disks they choose (they do not have to be the same disks that the their opponent choose). Each player begins the game with 10 victory point tiles, if they ever run out of tiles they lose immediately. Now it is time to start the game.