Forge Alliances with local tribes and stave off invasions to protect your home. Otherwise, everything will be lost in ‘Pandemic – Fall of Rome’.
There are many versions of Pandemic and a variety of themes available as well. From disease in Iberia, to staving off the imminent rise of Cthulhu, to a real-time rapid dice game. I do think there is a version of Pandemic for everyone. And today, I wanted to talk about Pandemic – Fall of Rome.
In this version of Pandemic, you act as one of the Romans, defending Rome from the neighboring tribes as they attempt to invade. Preventing the fall of Rome means forging alliances with these tribes. It doesn’t stop the tribe from attacking you, but you will have a new way to remove the pieces. Still, it’s a precarious alliance.
There are five different tribes that the players must befriend. And the players win if they can befriend all the tribes before time runs out. If you couldn’t tell, “Fall of Rome” is a cooperative game with the player winning and losing together.
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This is a general overview to provide context for the review, not an in-depth how-to play. Some rules may be glossed over or missing.
The one thing that is nice about the Pandemic series is that playing one game can prepare you for the others. Of course, there are differences between rules, but the core of the game is very similar. If you know one version of the game, it becomes easier to learn the other versions.
Game Flow
Fall of Rome goes from player to player in the same order until the game ends with victory or defeat. The game will do an invasion at the end of each player’s turn (which I will talk about in more detail later). There is also a major event that can happen at random times based on card draw. And this major event intensifies the situation, putting more stress on the players.
SetUp
To start the game, there are several things that need to be done for setup. The first step is filling the board with the relative pieces; this includes tribes and the markers for the two tracks. Then it’s time for the initial invasion. Of course, the game wants you to start during the crisis rather than before. To set up the initial invasion, nine cards and the corresponding color tribe pieces are needed.
The first three cards will place three of the respective enemy units into the revealed location. Then the next three cards place two units in the revealed locations, and the last three cards place one unit. One important thing to note is that this initial invasion happens before players set up. This can help players make setup decisions to start the game on the best foot possible.
Speaking of which, the next step is setting up the players. Player roles are one place I see quite a bit of variation. The rules say to give each player one random role. I have seen people choose their roles as well as a deal, two, or pick one type of situation. While the second two I mentioned are not in the setup rules, it’s important to make sure you’re going to have fun with the game.
Isn’t that the point of playing? Players will also be given a card hand from which they will choose their starting location.
Lastly, the deck needs to be set up. There are three levels of difficulty, ranging from 5 to 7 revolt cards. These cards are seeded through the deck, which ensures a base amount of time to occur before the game runs out. While revolts won’t directly end up in a loss, they definitely hurt the players.
Player Turns
During the players’ turn, they can do up to four actions. This can be any combination, whether that be the same action 4 times, 4 unique actions, or any combination in between. There are eight types of actions to choose from:
- March – Move to an adjacent space.
- Sail – Discard a card to move from a port to a port that matches the color of the discarded card.
- Fortify – Discard a city card that matches your piece’s location to add a fort from the supply (max 1 per city).
- Recruit Army – Add legions equal to the recruitment rate at your location if there is a fort in the city.
- Battle – Roll 1 battle die per legion in the city (up to three) and apply the result of the die roll (these are specialty dice that show what gets removed).
- Plot – give or take a city card matching your location to another player in that city. Both players must agree to this action.
- Forge Alliance – discard the required number of cards matching the tribe’s color (the tracker is in the bottom left corner of the board). There are no other map impacts upon allying.
- Enlist Barbarians – discard a card matching an allied tribe’s color to replace all that tribe’s pieces in your city with legions (this is limited by legions in the supply).
While there seem to be a lot of actions, quite a few of them are barred by specific conditions where either something is needed in your city (recruit army, battle, plot) or an alliance with a tribe is needed.
After taking actions, the player will draw two cards to their hand. These cards will be either cities, events, or revolts. Revolts must be executed as soon as they’re drawn (I’ll talk more about that in a little bit). Then, they invade cities. Cards are drawn; the number of cards drawn is based on the current invasion rate.
game end
There is one way to win the game and four ways to lose it. To win, players need to handle the threat of the five tribes. For each tribe, check to see if an alliance has been formed or if they have no units in cities on the board. It’s important to remember it can be any combination of these conditions so long as the tribe fulfills one of these categories.
I find it funny that there are so many ways to lose Pandemic. The first is if any tribe goes to expand their presence on the maps and they have no cubes left in their supply. It’s an important note that this is not when the supply runs out but when you would go to use a unit from it. The next is when a player cannot draw two cards after their action. Both conditions are limited to my components.
The other two ways to lose are when a condition is fulfilled. This includes the decline marker reaching the eighth space on the decline track or when Roma is sacked. I mean… It’s called the Fall of Rome for a reason. It only makes sense that the Fall of Rome would cause the players to lose.
Concept: Revolts
One key aspect of Pandemic: Fall of Rome is the revolt cards. This card will increase the intensity of the game and make it that much harder for the players. The first action on the revolt card is to move the invasion marker up (well… right) one space, which results in more cards being drawn during the invade cities step at the end of player turns.
Then a revolt occurs. Surprise, surprise. The bottom card of the invasion deck is drawn, and 2 matching units are placed on the city. Legions at this location can defend the city, where a legion can be removed to prevent a tribe unit from being placed. If the city contains four or more cubes, it is sacked. This is a one-time trigger, so having three cubes at the location and adding another three cubes will not trigger multiple times.
I only specify because we did play that way, where we sacked the city at 4 cubes, 5 cubes, and 6 cubes, and made it so much harder.
Lastly, all the cards in the invasion deck discard (not the player cards) are shuffled and placed on top of the current invasion deck. They must go to the top of the deck for the same cities to get invaded.
Concept: Invading and Sacking a City
Invading cities is one of the most interesting concepts in ‘Fall of Rome”. Each tribe follows a designated path. When drawing an invading card, units will be placed on the city if the tribe has already reached that city or if they have a unit in the previous city. If the city shown does not meet these conditions, then the path needs to be traced back to the next city that they can invade, and the unit goes there. It truly feels like a march towards Rome.
But invading is a bit different than sacking. For sacking, when a city would have four or more cubes. Do not place the fourth cube; instead, move the decline marker down one on the decline track and then place one of the tribes’ units in each adjacent city. If this causes another city to be sacked, the process will happen again, but the spread of the tribes’ units won’t go to the city previously sacked in the chain.
Who Will Like IT?
Pandemic: Fall of Rome is a game that does something different with the centralized pandemic rule set without straying too far. For those who like the core Pandemic system but want to spice it up a little, Fall of Rome works well to fit that need. This is a game where players can adjust the difficulty to ramp up or ramp down the game. It’s also important to note that this is a co-operative game.
What I Think
What Did I Like?
I feel like this version of Pandemic feels so organic compared to some other versions. Having 5 viruses and surges in random locations doesn’t feel as cohesive as a path that the threat is marching along. Also, having 5 different tribes marching toward Rome is an interesting twist on the “virus”.
What Didn’t I Like?
On an internal level, I want Rome to fall. My reasons are twofold: one being history and the other being I just want chaos. But that doesn’t really have anything to do with the game. While I adore the constant March toward Rome, the path is predictable because it’s laid out for players. This makes it a little easier to plan because players know where they will be impacted. The game might be able to get ahead of the players, but the pathing will always be known.
My Take
I think Pandemic: Fall of Rome feels like a fresh take on the Pandemic system and one that I enjoyed. It is not my favorite Pandemic variant, but I do still enjoy it. The theme and design of the board are also something I find attractive. But I’m always a sucker for a game with wooden cubes.
Other BReakdowns
How was the rulebook / learning the game?
The rulebook for Pandemic: Fall of Rome is well laid out and very clear. I would be surprised if it wasn’t given that the publishing team has experience with rulebooks for games of a similar nature.
MCG Rating
7/10
It has been so long since I’ve written an article like this. While I do enjoy Pandemic: Fall of Rome, I am more likely to go to another game on the shelf. Even when it comes to pandemic variants, there are a few others that I would pull out before I would reach for Rome. Mainly because those variants push the system just a little farther (and a bit harder).
*See my rating scale here
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