VIAE: Roads of Rome

GaGarfieldstar2,0

Not interesting enough to keep it. Pseudo-strategy killed by randomness and take-that. Playtested only. Rules are horrible. Almost no example and a lot of open questions. Almost not playable without watching a playthrough. And I'm not sure what I should think about the game. You have target cards that you have to fulfill to score more points. But if you are lucky someone else is fulfilling it for you and you gain the points. So it's a little bit random and luck based. But my biggest concern is the random Deceptio cards which have a lot of 'take that' elements. Just by playing a card you gain 3 VP (which is a lot) and others loose 1? WTF? And if you need control over a city but another player has it, you have to hope for a Deceptio card that lets you switch that or remove... It looks like an area control or combat game, but it's neither. It doesn't matter how many cities you control in a province and you can't attack others. But I will give it a try. The components are great and it looks very thematic. But I'm not sure if I will keep it, depends on what other players will think about this game. [c] Theme: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]Ok --> Gameplay: ★★★★☆ <!-- size 7]Very good --> Interaction: ★☆☆☆☆ <!-- size 7]Almost none --> Artwork: ★★★★★ <!-- size 7]Great --> Luck: ★★★★☆ <!-- size 7]Random cards everywhere, dice rolling and other random stuff --> Strategy: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]Not very strategic beside fulfilling your target cards --> Components: ★★★★☆ <!-- size 7]Very good --> Play duration: <!-- size 7]playtested --> Easy to teach: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]Should be quite easy --> Rules quality: ★☆☆☆☆ <!-- size 7]Horrible, no examples, a lot of guessing --> Setup time: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]Ok --> No downtime: <!-- size 7]playtested --> Replay value: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]Random cards everywhere --> [/c]