Caesar's Empire Rulebook

Table of Contents

Contents
Set-up
The Game
The Turn
Treasures
Scoring Routes
Going Through Cities
2-3 Player Variants
End of Game
Credits

Double-sided game board (2-3 players and 4-5 players)
5 player boards
125 Roads
5 score tokens
40 City tokens
40 Treasure tokens

Set-up

Open up the game board and place it on the table where all players can reach it easily. There is a side for 2-3 players and a side for 4-5 players. This is indicated on the pommel of the gladius in the bottom left hand corner of the board.

Place each of the City tokens on their space, as indicated by their colour and value.

Flip the Treasure tokens face down and shuffle them. Then, place one on each City token, randomly, face up.

When playing with 4 and 5 players you will use all the City and Treasure tokens included in the box. When playing with 2 and 3 players you will only use the Cities shown on the 2-3 player side of the board. Before placing the Treasure tokens, take two Gold Treasure tokens and one of each of the other types and put them back into the game box. You may then place one of the remaining tokens on each City token.

Each player takes a Player board of the colour of their choice as well as their score token and the 25 Roads of their colour.

Take each player's score token and draw one at random. This is the first player.

Place each player's score token on the "0" space of the score track.

The Game

In Caesar's Empire, players will be building Roads to connect Rome to new Cities across the map. Every new City you reach will provide City and Treasure tokens that will be worth points at the end of the game. You also score points for the path that leads back to Rome. The game ends when Rome is connected to every City on the board. After adding the value of City and Treasure tokens to the points scored during the game, the player with the most points wins!

The first player starts the game and play proceeds clockwise around the table.

The Turn

During their turn a player must connect Rome to an available City by placing one or more Roads along a path of their choosing. These paths are represented on the board by dotted lines.

Building a Road on this path requires 1 Road.

Building a Road on this path requires 2 Roads.

Roads must be placed starting from either an empty City space (meaning a City whose City token and Treasure have been claimed) or from Rome. You can place a Road leading from any empty City space, even one that doesn't have one of your Roads next to it or if you were not the player that claimed that City.

These Roads may not pave over other players' Roads, nor may they pass through an available City (meaning a City that still has its City and Treasure tokens).

When connecting to a new City, the active player takes that City's token and places it next to their player board. The City's Treasure token is placed onto their player board. These will be scored at the end of the game.

Treasures

There are 9 different types of Treasure: Meat, Wheat, Gems, Olives, Grapes, Wood, Oil, Wine, and Gold Coins. You must place these Treasures on one of the circular spaces on your player board. Place each new type of resource you obtain in a different column. If you obtain a Treasure token of the same type as one of the Treasure tokens you already own, place it in the space just above it.

There is, however, one exception: Gold Coin tokens must be placed on the spaces at the bottom of your player board. These tokens have a bonus effect that activates when you collect them.

Over the course of the game, you will build up collections of Treasures of the same type or of different types. At the end of the game, these collections will earn you the number of bonus points shown by the numbers below the token spaces, as well as those to their left. The point system is explained at the end of this booklet.

Scoring Routes

After taking your City and Treasure tokens, you will then score the route that leads back to Rome. Each Road included in the route will score one point for the player it belongs to.

In this example it's the Purple player's turn. They connect Rome to a new City. They first take the City and Treasure tokens. Then they trace the route back to Rome: both the Yellow player and the Purple player gain 1 point.

If there is more than one possible route leading back to Rome, the one with the fewest Roads is scored. If there are multiple routes that include the same amount of Roads leading back to Rome, the active player may choose which one is scored. However, if you claimed a Gold Treasure token this turn, points scored from Roads are doubled for all players!

In this example it's the Purple player's turn again. They connect Rome to a new City. They first take the City and Treasure tokens. Then, they trace the route back to Rome. As a Gold Treasure token was taken, the value of Roads are doubled this turn. So, the Purple player gets 4 points and the Yellow player gets 2 points.

Going Through Cities

When connecting Rome to a new City, your Roads can be built through one or more empty City spaces.

In this example, the Yellow player is trying to reach the blue City of value 3. To do so, they have placed two Roads to build their route through the red City of value 2.

As that particular City has already been taken, the Yellow player may build Roads through it, connecting Rome directly to the next available City - the blue City of value 3. Not only does this connect Rome to a new City as required, it also makes the Yellow Roads the shortest path back to Rome so only the Yellow player will score points this turn.

Once a player has placed their Road, taken their new City and Treasure token and scored their points, their turn ends and the player on their left begins their turn. Players continue to take turns collecting new Cities until there are none left on the board. Then, move on to final scoring.

2-3 Player Variants

You may use either of the following rules, or even combine them, in your 2 or 3 player games:

When setting up the Treasure tokens, shuffle them and place them as you would for a 4 or 5 player game. Put the tokens that remain back in the box. This will make some Treasures more abundant, and others may be completely absent from the game!
During final scoring, if you own all the City tokens of the same colour, you no longer score only the points shown on the token with the highest value; instead, you gain the sum of the points of all the City tokens of that colour.

End of Game

Once all Cities have been connected to Rome, final scoring can begin. Players must then add their City and Treasure points to the points they earned during the game to determine the winner.

City Points

Cities are divided into several colours. If you own several City tokens of the same colour, you only score the points of the highest-value City of that colour. The other tokens of that colour score no points.

Treasure Points

Next, count the points earned by your collections of Treasures of the same type, then those of different types. A single Treasure token can belong to more than one collection at the same time. Gold Coins are counted separately.

Collection of Treasures of different types (excluding Gold Coins):

Number of Treasures	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Points	0	2	5	9	14	20	32	46

Collections of Treasures of the same type (excluding Gold Coins):

Number of Treasures	1	2	3	4
Points	0	2	10	20

Gold Coins:

Number of Gold Coins	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Points	0	4	9	16	25	36	49	64

Worked example: At the end of the game, this player would count their points as follows:

Collections of Treasures of the same type: 3 Grapes (10) + 2 Gems (2) + 2 Meat (2) + 2 Gold Coins (4) = 18 points
Collections of Treasures of different types: a set of 3 Treasures (5) + a set of 4 Treasures (9) = 14 points
Cities: counting only the highest value of each colour: 3 + 6 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 6 = 22 points

This means this player gains a total of 18 + 14 + 22 = 54 points, to add to those they scored during the game.

Road Bonus

The player with the most Roads remaining gains 10 points. In the event of a tie between two or more players, each of them gains 10 points.

Compare the final score of all players. Whoever has the highest score wins the game!

In the Event of a Tie

The player who owns the most Cities of different colours.
The player who owns the most Gold Coins.
The player with the most Roads remaining.

I await impatiently the news of your exploits. Alea jacta est!

Credits

Game Design: Matthieu Podevin
Production: Jamie Parsons
Art Direction: Quentin Saint-Georges, Alexandre Bonvalot & Joëlle Drans
Illustrations: Alexandre Bonvalot & Joëlle Drans
Graphic Design: Quentin Saint-Georges & Joëlle Drans
Marketing and Communication: Georgina Parsons
Community Management: Kayla Soule
Management: Owen Hermsen
Proofreading: Raphael Alcantara, Georgina Parsons, Owen Hermsen & Kayla Soule
Videos: Jean-François Belvoix & Jonhatan Picard
Published by: Holy Grail Games
Direction: Eric Dubus, Olivier Melison & Jamie Parsons
Ambassadors and Demonstrators: Ludovic, Stephane, Gaz, Andy, Patrick, Georgina, Matthieu, Kayla, Owen
3D Sculpture: Antonio Moreira & Jose Petrosa (Corvus Belli)