2023 · Wargame

The Barracks Emperors

Players represent rival political factions vying to control claimants to the Roman throne during the Crisis of the Third Century. Play uses a trick-taking core where all tricks are available simultaneously in an interlocking grid; players deploy influence cards from their hands to capture emperor cards arrayed on the board and to trigger special abilities on each card. A drafting phase modifies hands each round, requiring players to weigh the immediate value of a play against how that same card might benefit opponents on other tricks. Scoring comes from captured emperors, and the game supports 1–4 players with variants for different player counts.

groupPlayers

1–4 best 4

schedulePlaying time

30–120 min

psychologyComplexity

2.8 / 5