2011 · Ancient
Trajan
Players assume the roles of Roman leaders and develop influence across political, economic and military spheres. A mancala-style wheel governs actions: pick up the pieces from one bowl, sow them clockwise and perform the action of the bowl where the last piece lands. Six actions are available—building, trading, forum tiles, military campaigns, Senate influence and placing local influence tiles—and matching colors on placement tiles grants bonus effects. Players use those actions to score victory points by supplying forum demands, passing favorable Senate laws, expanding military control of regions and developing personal tableaux. Playtime is roughly 30 minutes per player and components are language-neutral.
- Players
- 2–4 best 4
- Playing time
- 60–120 min
- Age
- 12+
- Complexity
- 3.6 / 5
About the game
- Design
- Art
Photos from Ludoya tables
All photos in Ludoya
Where to buy it
Shop prices and second-hand copies, checked every day.
On Ludoya's tables
Full stats in Ludoya- 352
- Plays logged
- 374
- Players
- 1h 41m
- Average play
- 128
- In collections
- 25
- On wishlists
- 3
- Pre-ordered
6.9/10
from 89 Ludoya reviews
Garfield2.0 A soulless heavy euro game. Absolutely no theme. Too many choices to make. And because of that, everyone is close to each other on the scoring track. And if people do not plan in advance, there can be a huge downtime. Almost no interaction. My turns took about 10-30s, I didn't care what the others were doing and I won... [c] Theme: :nostar::nostar::nostar::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]Absolutely none --> Gameplay: :star::star::nostar::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]Not very entertaining --> Interaction: :star::nostar::nostar::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]Almost no interaction --> Artwork: :star::star::nostar::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]Nothing special --> Luck: :star::nostar::nostar::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]Only card drawing luck --> Strategy: :star::star::star::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]Too many options to be really strategic --> Components: :star::star::nostar::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]Nothing special --> Play duration: :star::star::nostar::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]A Mü too long --> Easy to teach: :star::nostar::nostar::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]A lot to teach --> Set-up time: :star::nostar::nostar::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]And a lot to setup --> No downtime: :star::nostar::nostar::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]With 4 players it can be 5-10min... --> [/c]
Mestremuten8.0 Rating: 4/5 Production value: 3/4 Is the game in my collection/Love to have?: 1/1
Sergio Fdez.8.5 Conclusión: Es un juego con los que el Sr. Feld a mí me cautivó. El impresionante sistema del mancala hace disfrutar mucho de este juego. El poco azar, junto con las mecanicas de colocación de trabajadores, colección de token, draft de cartas a la vez que coordinando las acciones con el mancala hacen un juego sesudo y divertido por partes iguales. En cuanto a los aspectos negativos, cabe mencionar que es un juego con falta de gancho. Se puede quedar un poco frío. En el Bora Bora, juego que bebe del Trajan, la temática y colorines le hacen mas atractivo. En todo caso para mi es un imprescindible en cualquier ludoteca que se precie. http://mesasdejuegos.blogspot.com.es/2013/06/trajan.html
Rules questions
Answered from the rulebook by Ludoya's rules assistant.
How do I choose and place my action markers — do I have to put them all on the same tray or can I split them?
You must choose one source tray (it must contain at least 1 marker), take all markers from it, then place them one-by-one into the next trays in clockwise order (one per tray, placing two in a tray only if you have more than six); the last marker placed determines the target tray. (See page 4.)
When does the time marker move and when does a round or quarter end?
After you announce the number of markers taken from your chosen tray, your right-hand neighbor advances the time marker that many spaces; a round ends when the time marker arrives at or crosses its start space, and a quarter ends after four rounds (when three demand tiles have been revealed). (See pages 4 and 8.)
Do the markers in the target tray have to exactly match a Trajan tile to accomplish it?
If a Trajan tile lies next to the target tray and the tray contains action markers matching the colors shown on the tile, you remove the tile, gain its VPs and may perform its special action; the number of markers or presence of extra colors does not prevent accomplishing the tile. (See pages 5 and 11.)
Can I take a Forum tile even if I can't meet its demand immediately?
Yes — the Forum action lets you take any forum tile to your mat, but people’s demands are resolved at the end of the quarter: you must spend matching forum tiles or eligible Trajan tiles to meet the three revealed demands or suffer VP penalties, and any forum tiles used to meet demands are removed from the game. (See pages 6, 8 and 11.)
How does the Senate action and the consul/vice-consul tiebreak work? Who wins ties for most votes?
The Senate action advances your disc one space and grants the VP shown; at quarter end each player totals votes from their senate track position plus senate tiles, the most votes becomes consul (chooses the yellow bonus) and second-most becomes vice-consul (takes gray side); ties are broken by higher position on the senate track and then by whose disc is higher in the stack. (See pages 7, 8 and 9.)
When and how are commodities, workers, legionnaires and Trajan tiles scored at game end?
After scoring the final quarter, final scoring awards 1 VP per commodity card in hand, 1 VP per worker in the worker camp, 1 VP per legionnaire in the military camp, and 1 VP per Trajan tile on the action circle, plus points for construction sets and bonus tiles; ties are broken by higher position in the senate. (See page 10.)
Similar games
Free, on web, Android and iOS
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Game facts (players, playing time, age, credits) from BoardGameGeek.