The End of the Triumvirate
The End of the Triumvirate Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents of the Box
1 Rules Booklet, 1 Playing Board, 60 brown Legions, 11 yellow Citizens, 15 Coins, 6 Civil Servants (B), 1 Calendar Stone, 1 Compensation Card I (front) and 1 Compensation Card II (backside), 1 Escape Card, 3 Consul Cards, 1 Battle Bag.
Also, for each player (red, blue, black) 1 Game Overview Card, 1 Character Piece, 2 Competence Counter and 8 Weapons (both identical wooden blocks), 9 Governors.
Brief Overview ("Kurzübersicht")
At the beginning of the game, each of the three characters contols 5 provinces of the Roman Republic, in which his governors are located. There are three different types of provinces which you can recognize from their background colours, namely political (yellow), military (brown) and competence provinces (reddish). In every province 2 legions stand ready for use by their owner, and in one of each character's provinces there even is a Civil Servant active who supports the production of supplies in that province. Every character is represented by a Character Piece, which is also placed in a specific province at the beginning of the game. In the Forum, a separate field, each character starts with 2 Citizens, which are placed in his section of the Forum. All remaining citizens are placed in the "Alii" ('the other') section. Also, each character is represented by 2 Weapons in the Battle Bag. Everybody's political and military competence is set at I.
All markers and pieces are distributed on the board just as shown by the image. It is especially important that the position of the governors (within the Supply box or outside of it) is correct! Each character now takes their remaining 6 Weapons and 4 Governor pieces and puts them as his reinforcements in front of him. Over the course of the game, earned (but not yet spent) money should also be placed here. Now Caesar starts with his turn.
This is the starting set-up for the game with three characters (default setting). The set-up for the game with two characters can be found under "Playing the Game with 2 Characters" below.
Gameplay ("Spielablauf")
Over the course of the game (which is played over several Years) the characters always play in turn with the same order: Caesar starts the game, followed by Pompeius, then Crassus, and then the cycle starts again with Caesar's turn. This order never changes. The characters are usually not active during their rivals' turns – so there will be time to already contemplate the next turn.
A character's turn consists of three phases:
During the Supply Phase (I) a character's provinces produce supplies (according to type gold and/or legions). In addition, he receives Supplies from Rome: also gold and/or legions.
During the Movement Phase (II) he moves over land and sea to collect gold, to relocate his legions throughout his own provinces, or possibly to invade the provinces of their opponents in order to conquer them.
The final Action Phase (III) can be used to perform a number of actions, such as Persuading Citizens in the forum, to produce Weapons, or to increase his military and/or political competences.
A character's turn ends by moving the Calendar Stone (TEMPUS FUGIT) one step down the track towards Elegio. If in this way Elegio is reached, regular game play is briefly stopped while a new Consul is elected.
After this election the Calendar Stone is again placed on the VIII (three characters)/VII (two characters), three Citizens are removed from the forum section of the just elected Consul, and the game resumes.
The Game can be won in three different ways, and immediately ends when one of the following conditions is achieved:
a) Political victory: A character who was already once Consul again manages to either assemble 6 Citizens in his Forum section, or to become Consul for a second time.
b) Military victory: A character conquers his 9th province.
c) Competence victory: A character reaches the value VII in both competences.
The Three Phases: Details ("Details des Spielablaufs")
Each character's turn consists of three phases which are followed through in the following order:
I. Supplies / II. Movement / III. Action
I. Supplies
At the beginning of his turn, the active player receives supplies.
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The active character (the one whose turn it just became; at the beginning of the game, this is Caesar) changes the position of all Governors in his provinces: Every single one is moved either out of the Supply box (if it was standing within) or onto the Supply box (if it was standing without). EXCEPTION: In provinces with a Civil Servant the Governor is not moved but stays put on the Civil Servant, that is, the Supply box remains empty and visible.
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In all provinces where the Supply box is now empty and visible (because the Governor is standing outside), the active character receives Supplies. Depending on the type of province (as shown by background colours and the icons within the Supply box) this will be 2 Gold (political province), 2 Legions (military province), or 1 Gold and 1 Legion (competence province), which are all placed in the producing province. So normally each province will produce supplies every second turn of its owner. If the Character is located in a Competence or Political Province while it is producing Supplies, the Gold from that province is put directly with the Character's reinforcements (remaining Governors and Weapons).
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In addition, the Character receives irrespective of his provinces Supply from Rome – he can choose to receive 2 Gold, 2 Legions (placed anywhere, together or separately), or 1 Gold and 1 Legion.
In case there is not enough money or there are not enough legions left in the game, the Character can decide which Supply to receive and which not. Be careful! While there can be any amount of money lying around in a province, the number of legions is limited: At the end of each Character's turn the number of legions in each province is reduced to no more than 6, and each beyond 6 will be removed. So in case there are now 8 Legions sitting in Illyricum, it is high time to go and use them.
II. Movement
To pick up Gold, to relocate Legions, or to conquer other Characters' provinces a character may move.
Movement only takes place through the Character piece. Legions and Civil Servants can be taken along, but cannot move on their own. The active Character may use up to 4 movement points during his turn. Each movement of a character on an adjacent area costs 1 Movement Point. Areas count as adjacent if they have a common border or are connected by an arrow. This is the case for Italia and Sicilia, Sicili and Africa, Asia and Macedonia, as well as Syria and Aegyptus. Sea areas can be crossed. Each Sea Area also cost 1 Movement Point. A move may not end on a Sea Area. Legions can be taken along without additional costs. EXCEPTION: If the character moves across one or both Sea Areas without taking Legions along, it costs him 1 Movement point less than the number of Areas he is entering (and for which he would otherwise pay 1 Movement point each). Civil Servants can always be taken along for free. If a Civil Servant is placed in a Province by a Character upon entering the Province, the local Governor is placed on top of the Civil Servant, the Supply box becomes vacant, so that in the next turn it would provide Supply. However, Civil Servants do not have to be placed – in theory, a Character could move about with any number of Civil Servants tagging along. If there happens to be Gold in a Province entered by a Character, he immediately picks it up and puts it with his reinforcements.
One can only enter an enemy province – and thus attack – if the Character is accompanied at least by 1 Legion. In a given turn, several attacks are allowed, if the Character has sufficient movement points.
In an attack, the following 5 steps are followed:
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Draw Weapons: Up to 3 Weapons are blindly taken out of the Battle Bag. If either Attacker or Defender have less than 3 Legions involved, less Weapons are drawn, corresponding to the lower number of legions on either side. So if the defender only has 2 Legions in his province, only 2 Weapons will be drawn, even if the Attacker has 4.
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Weapons' Effects: For each 1 Weapon drawn of the Attacker's colour, 1 defending Legion is eliminated. For each 1 Weapon drawn in the Defender's colours 1 attacking legion is eliminated. Weapons of the third colour are neutral and have no effect. They are put back in the Battle Bag, and no replacement is drawn. Weapons which have thus had their effect are returned to the players and put – well visible – with their other reinforcements.
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Character Protection: If the Character of the Defender is in the attacked province, he now eliminates 2 attacking legions. If there aren't 2 attacking Legions left, he will eliminate correspondingly less.
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Main Battle: The same number of attacking and defending Legions is eliminated, up until the point where only one side (or neither) has Legions left.
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Result of the Battle: If there are attacking legions left at this point, the Province has been conquered. If not, even if the defending legions has also been eliminated, the attack has failed.
The possible results of the battle are as follow:
The attack has failed: The attacking character moves his Character Piece (and any accompanying Civil Servants) back into the province from which the attack originated. This will cost no additional movement points.
The province has been conquered: The attacker replaces the former governor with one of his own colour while the governor's position (in regard to supplies) remains the same. The character who has lost the province receives the Compensation Card I ("Entschädigungskarte I") and executes it, i.e., puts a weapon of his own colour into the Battle Bag. In case he already holds the Compensation Card I he receives instead the Compensation Card II and executes it instead. For that he simply flips over the Compensation Card I, where the Compensation Card II is depicted. He may now increase one of his competences by 1 step. In case there is a Civil Servant in the province, it remains in the province and comes under the control of the conqueror. The defending character, who has in this way lost the Civil Servant, may as an additional compensation put 1 (additional) Weapon into the Battle Bag. If however has no weapons left in their reinforcements since they are already all in the Battle Bag, he will not receive any additional compensation.
Escape: In case the defending character was in the province just conquered, he has to flee. He receives the Escape Card ("Fluchtkarte") and executes it, that is, he moves into one of his provinces without having to spend a movement point. He loses 1 step in each competence in which he was 'leading'. What this means exactly will be explained under "III: Actions".
A character who has only one province left may not be attacked. A character may always use up his movement points irrespective of success or failure of battles. Therefore, up to four attacks are possible in one turn.
[The diagram on p.8 shows how Pompeius moves with four legions and one civil servant over sea first to Macedonia (to maybe pick up another legion) and then invades with his fourth movement point Achaea.]
III. Actions
The active character may execute up to three actions. In any given turn, the 1st action will cost 1 gold, the 2nd action 2 additional gold, and the 3rd action 3 gold. So to actually take three actions would cost 6 gold. It is not allowed to take more than three actions. The type of the province the character is in determines what sorts of actions he can take.
Action options in a political province:
a) The character improves his political competence. He moves his competence marker on the yellow track up 1 step.
b) The character persuades Citizens in the Forum. He moves one Citizen from the unaligned section ("Alii") into his section. Instead, he may also move a Citizen out of another player's section into the neutral section (for example when there are no citizens left in the neutral section). The action "Persuade Citizen" costs an additional 2 gold if the character is not "leading" in political competence.
Action options in a military province:
a) The character improves his military competence. He moves his competence marker on the brown track up 1 step.
b) The character produces weapons. He puts 2 weapons of his colour into the Battle Bag. The action "Produce Weapons" costs an additional 2 gold if the character is not "leading" in military competence.
Action options in a competence province:
a) The character improves his political competence. He moves his competence marker on the yellow track up 1 step.
b) The character improves his military competence. He moves his competence marker on the brown track up 1 step.
"Leading" means that the competence marker of the character is highest up on the respective competence track relative to the other characters. It is possible for two characters to lead together, as long as at least one character is lower down on the track. Therefore, at the beginning of the game, with all competence markers at I, nobody is "leading" in any competence.
[The box on p.9 gives an example of competences and "leading" in action. Caesar and Crassus lead together in political competence, and Crassus is leading all by himself in military competence. Say Caesar is in a competence province. He could for 1 Gold (1st action) increase his political competence and lead alone. If he increased his military competence by just 1, he wouldn't have any immediate benefit. He would have to spend at least 5 additional gold (for the 2nd and 3rd actions) to move up to Crassus and lead jointly with him. For the costs of increasing the competences it is not relevant whether the Character is leading. Pompeius is in a military province, and unfortunately only has 3 gold. With his 1st action he could spend 1 gold and increase his military competence by 1 step to II, and for his remaining two gold increase it in the 2nd action to III. But if he needs very badly to put weapons into the Battle Bag, he could as his 1st action directly put 2 weapons into the Battle Bag for a total of 3 gold and not take any other actions (1 gold for the 1st action, with 2 additional gold because he is not leading in military competence. Crassus is in a political province. He has accumulated a lot of money, and since he is leading in political competence, he can simply use his 6 gold for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd action and persuade three Citizens to support him in the Forum (no additional costs since he is leading in political competence).]
When the character has performed up to three actions, he moves the Calendar Stone 1 step down the track towards ELEGIO. Moving this piece indicates to the other players that his turn has ended. If ELEGIO is reached this way, a new Consul is elected. If ELEGIO has not yet been reached, it is the next Character's turn.
If now, at the end of one player's turn, more than 6 legions are sitting in any province, their number is reduced to 6 and the others are returned to the other legions not in play at the moment.
Elegio – The Election of the Consul
The character who now has the highest number of citizens in his section, is elected Consul. In case of a tie, of all the characters tying the one is elected whose last turn is longest past.
If the newly elected consul already was Consul in an earlier year, with his second consulate he has achieved the political victory. (See below, Ending the Game/"Zusammenfassung der möglichen Spiel-Enden") If he was elected for the first time, he receives a Consul Card as well as a new Civil Servant from the surplus whom he may deposit in any of his own provinces (as if he had placed it there during his movement phase). Thus, there is now an additional Civil Servant in play. The new Consul gives a short speech to herald the new year. Then, three of the citizens in his section are returned to the neutral section. If over the course of the game a character who already had been a consul once ever manages to assemble 6 Citizens in his section, he wins the game, regardless of whether other players also were elected to consul as well. Finally, the active player moves the Calendar Stone back to its starting position indicating that a new year has begun. For 3 characters, this is VIII, for 2 characters the VII. With this, a new year begins and the next Character takes his turn.
Ending the Game ("Zusammenfassung der möglichen Spiel-Enden")
A character wins the game if he achieves one of the following victory conditions.
a) Political Victory. If a Character is selected to Consul for the 2nd time, or if he already holds a Consul Card and 6 Citizens are in his Section in the Forum.
b) Military Victory: If a Character owns 9 provinces (and has used up all his governors).
c) Competence Victory: If a Character reaches VII in both competences.
Playing the Game with 2 Characters: Set-Up and Special Rules
The game with two players is played basically like the game with three players, except for a few changes.
Caesar (red) begins the game with 5 and Pompeius (blue) with 6 provinces (see diagram map), and play in alternating turns. Each year ends after only 7 turns, so Calendar Stone is put on the VII at the beginning and after each year. The Character Crassus and the four provinces Asia, Syria, Aegyptus and Cyrenaica are not used. 15 legions and 3 gold are removed from the game so the pool available to the players is smaller. In the Forum there are only 9 Citizens, initially 2 each in Caesar's and Pompeius' sections. Put 2 Weapons of each Caesar and Pompeius into the Battle Bag, as well as 2 weapons in Crassus' colour, which count as neutral if they are drawn and are promptly returned to the Battle Bag.