Liberatores: The Conspiracy to Liberate Rome Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Game Components
• Component Description
  • Senate Board
  • Identity Card
  • Citizen Card
  • Servant Card
• Game Setup
• Goal of the Game
  • Republican
  • Agent
  • Competitor
• 3 Player Rules
• Card Abilities
  • Caesar Ability
  • Instant Ability
  • Passive Ability
• Turn Overview
  • Endorse a Citizen
  • Bribe a Citizen
  • Hire a Citizen
• End of Turn
  • Refill Citizen display
  • Compare Influence
  • Day of Action
• Game End
• Roleplaying Tips
  • If you are the Agent
  • If you are the Competitor
  • If you are a Republican
  • I think this game is too Easy!
• Frequently Asked Questions

Introduction

Players: 3-6. Time: 40-60 min.

Liberatores: The Conspiracy to Liberate Rome is a game of suspicion and treachery, players are senators that are part of the Liberatores -- secret conspirators of ancient Rome, planning to overthrow Caesar and restore democracy to the Roman Republic.

During the game you will be bribing citizens of Rome to support your cause, or endorsing them to Caesar in exchange for resources and privileges. Sometimes you will hire citizens to work in your household, and maybe send servants to watch over your fellow conspirators.

Amongst you is at least one Competitor that wants to rule in Caesar's place, and a faithful Agent who wants to protect Caesar, therefore you must observe everyone carefully and take note of every suspicious move.

Can you balance your income to the growth of Caesar's influence, and find out who is the traitor before time runs out? Choose your actions wisely, since the fate of the Roman Republic is in your hands.

"Alea iacta est" (the die is cast)

Game Components

• 1 x Senate Board
• 6 x Player Boards
• 6 x Player Identity Cards
• 36 x Citizen Cards (including "Brutus", "Cassius", "Mark Anthony")
• 40 x Servant Cards (20 x Courier, 20 x Informer)
• 2 x Starting Influence Card
• 1 x Day of Action Card
• 48 x Coin tokens (24 x $1, 12 x $2, 12 x $5)
• 30 x Influence Tokens (24 x 1 influence, 6 x 5 influence)
• 1 x Difference Marker
• 1 x English Rulebook

Component Description

Senate Board

1. Caesar Supporters Area
2. Liberatores Supporters Area
3. Influence Difference Track
4. Difference Marker
5. Citizen Deck Location
6. Citizen Display
7. Supply Area: A. Servants; B. Money; C. Influence

Identity Card

1. Your Identity
2. Representing Icon
3. Goal

Citizen Card

1. Name
2. Illustration
3. Citizen Influence
4. Bribe Cost
5. Hire Cost
6. Ability Type
7. Citizen Ability

Servant Card

1. Name
2. Hire Cost
3. Ability Type
4. Servant Ability

Game Setup

1. Put the senate board in the center of the table, and all money & influence tokens nearby within easy reach of all players.
2. Each player takes a player board and $10 worth of coins.
3. According to the number of players, shuffle the specified amount of identity cards, and deal one face down to each player. Aside from checking their own cards, all players should keep their identity secret from each other.

	Agent	Republican	Competitor
3 Players	0	2	1
4 Players	1	2	1
5 Players	1	3	1
6 Players	1	3	2

Refer to Page 7 for rules on 3 player games.

4. Place all "Informer" & "Courier" cards in two separate stacks face up under the servant supply location below the senate board. (The "Informer" is not used in 3 player games.)

5. Place "Brutus", "Cassius", "Mark Anthony" above the Senate board. ("Brutus" is not used in 3 player games.)

   Shuffle all remaining citizen cards (33) and place them face down under the citizen deck location below the Senate board. Then place the "Day of Action" card on the bottom of the citizen deck.

6. According to the number of players, add an influence card to the indicated side and remove the specified amount of citizen cards from the top of the citizen deck:

	Citizens to Remove	Total Citizens Used in Game*	Starting Influence
3 Players	7	28	Liberatores +6
4 Players	8	28	- / -
5 Players	1	35	Caesar +6
6 Players	0	36	Caesar +6

*This number includes named citizens above the Senate board.

7. Place the removed citizen cards back into the game box without looking at them. Put the Influence marker on the influence tracker, reflecting the current difference in influence between the Liberatores and Caesar.
8. Reveal 3 cards from the top of the citizen deck, and place them in the Citizen Display area under the Senate board.
9. The player who has most recently eaten a Caesar salad will be the starting player, or otherwise the oldest person becomes the starting player. You are now ready to start the game!

Starting Influence card (Starting influence 6): Add this card to the Caesar Supporters Area at the start of a 5/6 player game. In a 3 player game add this card to the Liberatores Supporters Area. This is not a citizen card.

Goal of the Game

Players will have one of the following 3 identities in this game, each with a different goal:

Republican

You joined the Liberatores because you cannot stand Caesar's growing power and ambitions anymore. Bribe citizens of Rome to support your cause, overthrow Caesar and restore democracy to the Roman Republic!

Goal: Kill Caesar, AND prevent the Competitor from getting more influence (personal influence) than you or any other Republican.

Agent

You are a loyal servant of Caesar, and you are working inside the Liberatores as an undercover agent to hinder their progress and protect Caesar from harm.

Goal: Save Caesar, by preventing the Liberatores from getting more influence than Caesar.

Competitor

You are an active member of the Liberatores working hard to overthrow Caesar -- but your friends don't know about your plans for assuming leadership after his fall. Make Rome great again!

Goal: Kill Caesar, AND have more (personal influence) than any other Republican or Competitor at the end of the game.

See page 12 for details on the different victory conditions.

3 Player Rules

In a 3 player game, the "Agent" identity card, "Informer" servant cards, and "Brutus" citizen card are not used. The Agent will be a virtual player that takes a turn after the 3rd player. After choosing a starting player, place the Agent card between the starting and 3rd player as a reminder.

• When it is the Agent's turn, he will always endorse Caesar and send the rightmost citizen to support Caesar. He will not gain coins or influence tokens, and players will not gain coins.

• The 1st and 3rd players will be neighbors to each other. The Agent cannot be the target of any abilities, and players cannot interact with him in any way.

• During the game, if Caesar has 15 influence or more than the Liberatores; or if Caesar is not overthrown at the end of the game, then all players lose together.

  If Caesar is overthrown, compare influence between the Competitor and the Republicans normally.

Card Abilities

Card abilities are of 3 types: Caesar, Instant, and Passive abilities; note that some card abilities can only be used after you have sent a citizen to Caesar.

• When a description mentions "You", it will be referring to the owner of the card.
• "Hire": after you have paid the required cost to the supply, you may choose to place the hired card in front of you, or give them to another player. (The receiver cannot refuse.)
• Each ability can only be used once per turn.
• Most citizen abilities give their owner benefits, these are the white citizen cards; a few have negative effects for their owners, these have a red text description box, and are called red citizen cards.
• When a citizen card is discarded, return them back to the box, they are not to be used again.

Caesar Ability

These abilities can only be activated after you have endorsed a citizen to Caesar on your turn. They represent favors that must be granted by Caesar to use. He is still in charge of Rome for now...

• You can choose to activate any number of Caesar abilities on your turn, in any order you like.
• Any effects will only apply until the end of your turn.

Instant Ability

These abilities will be activated immediately when you receive the card, no matter how or where you obtained it from.

• If you hire a citizen with an Instant ability and give it to another player, that player will immediately activate the instant ability.

Passive Ability

These abilities will be in effect at all times as long as the card is in front of you.

• Some abilities will also have a condition that needs be met before activation.
• If more than one ability needs to be activated, you can decide the order to resolve them.

Turn Overview

The game will last for 7 rounds around the table, so that each player will have exactly 7 turns. (For a 6 player game there will only be 6 turns per player.)

On your turn, you must choose a citizen from the display and perform one of the 3 main actions:

1. Endorse a Citizen to Caesar
2. Bribe a Citizen to the Liberatores
3. Hire a Citizen to a player

After taking your main action, you can then use other abilities of the citizens in front of you (including "Wife", "Pincerna").

Endorse a Citizen

When you endorse a citizen to Caesar, move the rightmost citizen on the citizen display to the "Caesar Supporters" area to the right side of the Senate board.

Caesar's influence will be increased by the amount indicated on the citizen card, and adjust the difference marker accordingly.

If the marker is on +15 of the Caesar side at the end of your turn, then the game ends and the Agent player will win. (See page 12 for details.)

You can now activate all cards that have a Caesar ability.

He is delighted that you introduced a citizen to support him, and will grant you some favors in return. Most notably the "You" ability on your player board is your only source of income in this game.

If you don't have enough money, you must endorse a citizen.

Example 1: Lucius decides to endorse a citizen to Caesar, so he moves the rightmost citizen card "Recruiter" to the "Caesar Supporters Area" and Caesar's influence increases by 2. The "You" ability on his player board is activated so Lucius gets $7 and 1 influence token, his neighbors get $1. He also decides to activate "Legatus", so he pays $3 and gets 1 influence token.

Example 2: Antoninus only has $2 left, so he must endorse "Lena" and send the citizen to Caesar. Caesar's influence increases by 3, Antoninus gets $7 and 1 influence token, his neighbors get $1. Now Antoninus has $9 so he activates "Pincerna" and pays $4 to discard a "Courier".

Bribe a Citizen

When you bribe a citizen to the Liberatores, choose any citizen on the citizen display, and pay the listed bribing cost to the bank to move the selected citizen to the "Liberatores Supporters" area to the left side of the Senate board.

The Liberatores' influence will be increased by the amount indicated on the citizen card, and adjust the difference marker accordingly.

Example: Marcus decides to bribe a citizen to Liberatores, he pays the $7 bribing cost of "Legatus" to the supply and moves him to the "Liberatores Supporters Area", so the Liberatores' influence increases by 4. Then Marcus activates his "Wife" and pays $2 to hire a "Courier" and sends the servant to Lucius.

Hire a Citizen

When you hire a citizen, choose any citizen on the citizen display, and pay the listed hiring cost to the bank to move the selected citizen in front of your player board, or in front of another player's board. (The receiver cannot refuse.)

If the conditions are met, a citizen's ability may be used immediately on the same turn that you gained the citizen card.

Remember, servants are not citizens. You must perform one of the 3 main actions before you can activate your "Wife" to hire a servant.

All mentions of "hire" for both citizens and servants, will let you choose to place them in front of you, or give them to another player.

Example: Lepidus decides to hire "Veteran" for himself, so he pays $4 to the supply and places the citizen in front of him. The instant ability of "Veteran" is activated, and Lepidus uses it to steal 1 influence token from Lucius. Then Lepidus pays $2 to hire an "Informer" and gives the servant to Antoninus.

End of Turn

Your turn ends after you have preformed a main action, then decided not to use any more citizen abilities.

Refill Citizen display

Move citizen cards to the right in order to fill the empty space of the citizen display, then reveal a new citizen card and place it on the leftmost space.

Compare Influence

At the end of the turn, if the difference marker is on 15+ of the Caesar side, then the Agent wins.

Nothing happens when the marker reaches 15+ or more on the Liberatores side.

When comparing the influence, only the cards in the "Caesar Supporters" and "Liberatores Supporters" areas are counted. The personal influence tokens & citizens each player has will not be counted.

The difference marker is just a reminder of the actual difference between the two sides. You should check the total of both sides every few rounds to make sure the marker is on the correct value.

Day of Action

When you see the "Day of Action" card at the end of your turn, discard "Day of Action" and immediately add "Brutus", "Cassius", "Mark Anthony" to the citizen display from left to right in this order. (Brutus will not be used in a 3 Player game.)

Move the supply area the the left to make space for the cards. The servant cards can still be hired.

From now on, the Agent can't win by increasing the inluence difference to over 15.

Now there are only 6 turns left in the game. The game will end after all 6 citizens are chosen by main actions.

Today is the day we have been waiting for! Have you done your part of the plan? There is still some time to approach citizens to make a final push, but think carefully about the true loyalties of your friends! A wrong decision in the last minute may change everything...

Game End

The game ends when one of the following conditions are met at the end of a player's turn:

• Before the "Day of Action", and Caesar has 15 influence or more over the Liberatores:

  The conspiracy is exposed! Members of the Liberatores are expelled, and the Agent player wins.

  After the "Day of Action" card is revealed, the Agent cannot win directly by increasing the difference over 15.

• After the "Day of Action", and there are no citizen cards left on the Citizen Display:

  It is time for action! Follow the instructions below to see the results of your schemes.

1. All players reveal their identity cards.

2. Resolve all servant & end of game abilities in front of each player, and adjust the influence of the 2 sides accordingly.

3. Compare influence of both sides:

   If Caesar's influence is equal or greater than the Liberatores, then he is not overthrown, and the Agent player wins.

   If Caesar's influence is less than the Liberatores then he is overthrown, go to step 4.

   Remember, citizens in front of players are not counted towards the total.

4. Between all Republican & Competitor players:

   If any Republican player's remaining personal influence tokens equal or exceed that of the Competitor, then all the Republicans win together, and democracy is restored to the Roman Republic.

   In 6 player games, the 2 Competitors are not on the same team. Compare their influence to the Republicans seperately.

   If each Republican player's remaining personal influence tokens number fewer than each Competitor player's remaining personal influence tokens, than the Competitor with more influence wins the game. A tyrant is replaced by another dictator.

   However, if the 2 Competitors have the same amount of influence in a 6 player game, then the Republicans win.

Example: All identity cards are revealed, Lucius is the Agent, Marcus and Lepidus are Republicans, and Antoninus is the Competitor.

All card abilities that are activated at the end of the game are activated.

Lepidus uses "Cassius" to send the "Veteran" in front of him to support the Liberatores. He has 2 "Couriers" so he gives 2 of his personal influence tokens to the Liberatores.

Lucius has "Mark Anthony" in front of him, so Caesar gets 3 influence tokens from the supply. He has 2 "Couriers" so he gives 2 of his personal influence tokens to Caesar. He has 3 "Informers" so Liberatores gets 6 influence tokens from the supply.

Marcus has 2 "Couriers" so he gives 2 of his personal influence tokens to the Liberatores.

Antoninus has "Brutus" in front of him, so he gets 1 influence token from the supply. He has 1 "Courier" so he gives 1 of his personal influence tokens to the Liberatores.

The final total for both sides is:

• Caesar: 41 (citizens) + 3 (Mark Antony) + 2 (Couriers) = 46
• Liberatores: 36 (citizens) + 5 (Couriers) + 6 (Informers) = 47

Caesar is overthrown!

Next we check the remaining personal influence of players:

• (Republican) Lepidus: 2 - 2 (Couriers) = 0
• (Republican) Marcus: 3 - 2 (Couriers) = 1
• (Competitor) Antoninus: 2 + 1 (Brutus) - 1 (Couriers) = 2

Since the Competitor has more personal influence than any Republican player, Antoninus wins the game, and will become the next ruler of Rome!

Roleplaying Tips

The number of turns in this game is limited, thus your actions and resources are also limited; yet there is no way to confirm a player's identity card during the game!

You can only find clues by observing what the other players are doing, talk to them and never miss any suspicious behavior.

If you are the Agent

• Hide yourself carefully since making your identity known prematurely is a bad idea; but if you don't act at all, Caesar will be in grave danger!
• Provoke mistrust and disagreement between the Competitors and the Republicans, if they are busy fighting each other then they can't stand the wrath of Caesar!

If you are the Competitor

• Lead the Republicans, and let them work voluntarily to your plans!
• Remember Caesar's lesson; do not make enemies of everyone in the Senate.

If you are a Republican

• You will be very busy trying to overthrow Caesar amidst traitors, but only you have teammates helping each other to achieve a common goal!
• Servants are your friends, they can help you hinder the Agent and the Competitors; but first you have to find out who they are...

I think this game is too Easy!

• There are extra starting influence cards included in the box, you may adjust the difficulty by trying out different starting conditions for each side.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: The Bureaucrat's ability forces me to give my neighbors $1 each, but what if I don't have enough money?

If you have $1 then you choose who to give $1. When resolving card abilities, you do as much as you can.

Q2: If I used all my money to hire a servant, can I send it to a player who has a "Bodyguard"?

No. Since the "Bodyguard" ability requires you to pay the receiver $1 before you can send a servant or citizen, if you can't pay then you can't send them. The same goes for a player with "Mark Anthony".

Q3: After I have endorsed Caesar, can I resolve "Sophist" before I use the "You" ability to get $7 and 1 influence token?

Yes. Card abilities may be resolved in any order you wish, so you can choose a order that benefits you the most.

Q4: Can I use the "Spy" to hire a "Veteran" supporting Caesar, then immediately use "Veteran" to steal 1 influence token from another player?

Yes. All instant abilities will be activated when you get it.

Q5: I have endorsed Caesar this turn, can I use "Praetor" to hire "Legatus" from a player, place it in my home, then use "Legatus" to pay $3 and receive 1 influence token?

Yes. As long as you have already endorsed Caesar this turn, you can activate Caesar abilities in any order you wish.

Q6: At the end of the game, can I use "Cassius" to send "Brutus" to support Caesar?

No. If you don't have any other citizens, then you should send "Cassius" to Caesar.

Q7: After I have endorsed Caesar, if I have 2 "Legatus" in front of me, can I pay $6 to get 2 influence tokens in a single turn?

Yes. Each citizen card can be activated once per turn, as long as the conditions are met.

Likewise, If you have multiple copies of the same citizen with passive abilities such as "Bodyguard" and "Bureaucrat", every copy will be activated.