The Great City of Rome Game Rules

Introduction

Hey there, fellow gamers! Today, I’m thrilled to take you on an exhilarating journey to the glorious city of Rome. In this game, we’ll explore the ancient world, build magnificent structures, and experience the wonders of Roman civilization. Get ready to immerse yourself in history and strategy as we unravel the secrets of this legendary city!

Objective

To claim victory in The Great City of Rome, your mission is to construct the most impressive and prosperous city the world has ever seen. You’ll start with a blank slate, and it’s up to you to develop and expand the city by constructing awe-inspiring buildings, establishing trade routes, and managing resources wisely. The player with the most points at the end of the game will be crowned the ultimate city builder!

Game Components

Here’s what you’ll need to play The Great City of Rome:

1. Game Board: The game board depicts the city of Rome, divided into various districts and locations where you can construct your buildings.

2. Building Tiles: These colorful tiles represent different types of buildings, such as aqueducts, forums, amphitheaters, and more. Each tile has a different cost and special ability.

3. Resource Tokens: These tokens represent the different resources required to build and maintain your city. You’ll need stone, wood, food, and gold to bring your vision to life.

4. Coin Tokens: These tokens represent currency in the game. You’ll need them to purchase building tiles and complete various actions.

5. Victory Point Tokens: These tokens keep track of the points you accumulate throughout the game. The player with the most victory points wins!

6. Player Markers: Each player will have a unique marker to indicate their progress on the victory point track and resource tracker.

Gameplay

1. Setup: Place the game board in the center of the table. Each player receives a marker, victory point tokens, and a set of starting resource tokens. Shuffle the building tiles and create a face-down tile stack beside the game board.

2. Turns: The game is played over several rounds, with each round consisting of multiple turns. On your turn, you can perform a combination of the following actions:

– Draw a Building Tile: Take the top tile from the stack and add it to your hand.

– Place a Building Tile: Pay the required resources and place a building tile on an available location on the game board.

– Activate Building Abilities: Some buildings have special abilities that allow you to gain resources, earn victory points, or interfere with other players.

– Trade Resources: Exchange resources with other players or the resource bank.

– Manage Resources: Ensure you have enough resources to pay for tile placement and activate building abilities.

3. Scoring: At the end of each round, players receive victory points based on the buildings they have constructed and their position on the victory point track. The player with the most victory points becomes the current leader.

4. Game End: The game ends when all building tiles have been placed on the game board. Final scoring takes place, and the player with the most victory points wins!

Conclusion

Now that you have a good grasp of the rules, it’s time to unleash your creativity and strategic prowess in The Great City of Rome. Build a city that will be remembered throughout history, and may fortune favor your endeavors. Good luck, and may your journey through ancient Rome be truly legendary!

• 80 Building Cards
• 6 Influence Cards
• 6 Action Strips
• 39 Coins
• 6 Brick Tokens
• 18 Point Tokens
• 33 Influence Tokens
• 1 Score Pad
• 6 Emissaries
• 1 Gold Emperor Pawn
• 1 Silver First Player Marker
• Building Reference
• Rulebook

What You’ll Find in the Box

Inside the box, you’ll find everything you need to start building your own Imperial Rome. Here’s a rundown of what’s included:

• 80 Building Cards: These cards represent the different buildings you can construct in the game. Each card has a unique effect and point value.
• 6 Influence Cards: These cards determine the turn order and provide special abilities.
• 6 Action Strips: These strips help you keep track of your available actions.
• 39 Coins: Currency used to purchase blueprints and resources.
• 6 Brick Tokens: These tokens represent the construction materials you’ll need to build your buildings. Collect them to complete projects.
• 18 Point Tokens: These tokens represent victory points. Accumulate as many points as possible to win the game.
• 33 Influence Tokens: These tokens are used to bid for blueprints and resources in the Emperor’s court.
• 1 Score Pad: Keep track of your score throughout the game.
• 6 Emissaries: These are your personal assistants. Use them strategically to gain advantages.
• 1 Gold Emperor Pawn: This pawn represents the Emperor. The player who controls the Emperor gains certain advantages.
• 1 Silver First Player Marker: This marker determines the first player of each round.
• Building Reference: A handy guide that explains the effect of each building card.
• Rulebook: The game rules, which explain how to play and win.

What’s the Point of the Game?

In this game, you and your friends are architects working to rebuild Imperial Rome. Your goal is to compete for blueprints and materials at the Emperor’s court, while using your resources wisely and strategically placing buildings to maximize your score. The player with the highest score at the end of the game wins!

Getting Started

Note: These instructions are for games with three or four players. If you’re playing with two players, you’ll need to follow the “2-Player Game” rules found on page 6 of the rulebook.

When you begin the game, select a color and gather two starting buildings and one emissary in that color. You can put the remaining emissaries and starting buildings back in the box. Remember, the second white and brown emissaries are only needed for the 2-player game. Also, keep in mind that deck IV is only used when playing with four players. If you’re playing with fewer than four, you can put this deck away.



1. When you’re playing this game, you’ll need to add four influence cards into deck I. Here’s how you do it: put the 3-value card between the third and fourth cards in the deck, the 6-value card between the sixth and seventh cards, the 10-value card between the tenth and eleventh cards, and the 14-value card at the bottom of the deck. Make sure not to look at the cards while you’re putting them in the deck. The 4-value and 8-value cards are only used in the 2-player game, so keep those in the box.
2. The player who is the oldest gets to go first and takes the first player marker.

I’m going to tell you how to play “The Great City of Rome.” Here’s how it works.

First, the player to your right will draw a number of buildings from deck II. They will look at the buildings and choose one to add to their hand. Then, they will pass the remaining buildings face down to the player on their right (that’s you!), who will also choose one building. This continues until all players have chosen a building. The first player will take the last building. Make sure to keep your hand of buildings a secret throughout the game.

Next, shuffle the six action strips and place them in a stack. Put the stack in the middle of the table next to the decks.

Then, place the emperor pawn in the recess at one end of the action strip stack.

That’s it for setup! Now, let’s move on to the game play.

Alright, so let’s talk about this game and how it works. I’m going to break it down for you into 14 rounds, each with three phases. Here’s how it goes:

1. The first phase is called the Upkeep Phase. This is when we get everything ready for the round. We make sure everything is in order and ready to go.
2. Next, we move on to the Emissary Phase. Here, we send out our emissaries to gather information and make alliances. It’s all about getting connected and finding out what’s happening in the game.
3. Finally, we reach the Action Phase. This is where things get really exciting! It’s time to make our moves and take action. We strategize, plan, and do whatever it takes to come out on top.

1. Upkeep Phase

First things first, you need to flip over the top action strip A and put it at the bottom of the stack B.

Next, you have to draw the top building from each deck and put them faceup in front of their respective decks. These buildings will be the offer for this round.

If there’s an influence card on top of deck I, you’ll need to place it in the middle of the table next to deck I.

Remember: The buildings from deck I are special buildings, and you can recognize them by the gold outline around the symbols in the top corners. Since there are 14 buildings in deck I and the game is played over 14 rounds, each of these special buildings will be available in the offer every game.

Now, let’s move on to the Emissary Phase.

Starting with the first player and going around clockwise, each player takes turns placing their emissaries on any unoccupied space of the topmost action strip.

The closer you get to the emperor, the sooner you can pick a building in the next turn. But there’s a catch: you’ll have fewer bricks and cogs to use for actions. On the other hand, if you’re farther away from the emperor, you’ll have more bricks and cogs, but fewer building options. Bricks and cogs are essential for performing actions in the game. Each action strip has five spaces – three bricks and two cogs – arranged differently on each strip. Now it’s time for the action phase. Once everyone has placed their emissaries, we take turns resolving actions. The player with the closest emissary to the emperor goes first.



Note: Pay attention, because in the action phase, the first player marker isn’t important. It’s the emissaries who decide the order of play.

Choose a Building From the Offer

First, you need to pick one of the buildings that are left in the offer. Grab it and add it to your hand.

Do Your Actions

Now, it’s time for the fun part. You get to perform up to two actions: a build action and a produce action. You can do them in any order, but remember, you can only do each action once per turn. Finish your first action before moving on to the second one.



When it’s time to take action in the game, there are two symbols you need to know about: bricks and cogs. Bricks are used for building, while cogs are used for producing.

To collect bricks and cogs, you need to pay attention to where your emissary is on the action strip. The symbol on the space where your emissary stands, as well as the symbols on all the spaces between your emissary and the emperor pawn, determine what you gain.

Keep in mind: You have the option to perform both actions, regardless of whether your emissary is on a brick or a cog space.

Getting More Bricks and Cogs

Before taking action, you can choose to spend some coins to get extra bricks and cogs:



Have you ever wondered how much each brick costs? Well, let me break it down for you. Each brick, my friend, costs just two coins. Yes, you heard it right, only two coins! It’s incredible how something as simple as a brick can be so affordable.



Hey there! Let me break it down for you. Each cog () in the game will cost you one coin. But don’t worry, you can return the coins you spend back to the general supply. Plus, here’s a little tip: every coin you have at the end of the game will be worth one point. So, think twice before buying those additional bricks and cogs.

Build Action

Now, let’s talk about the build action. When you choose to perform this action, you can construct one building from the cards in your hand. To build a building, look at the top-left corner and see how many bricks you need. Remember, any extra bricks you have will be lost, so they won’t carry over to the next round.

Oh, and one more thing: since you can only perform the build action once per round, having more than three bricks won’t give you any extra advantage. So, choose wisely and make the most out of your resources!



To construct a building, you need to position it in a way that it is next to one of your existing buildings either vertically or horizontally. Keep in mind that the location where you build must be empty, and once a building is in place, it cannot be moved or replaced except for aqueducts.

Each row or column in your city can hold a maximum of four buildings. This means that your city can grow to a maximum size of a 4×4 square. However, you have the option to not build during your turn, which means your city may end up with fewer buildings.





When I create a public building, I should use the effect of that building right away. You can find information about the different effects of public buildings in the building reference.



Whenever I see a building with one to three star icons above the bottom bar, I know it’s a special one. These buildings are unique and have some special effects that can really help me out. When I decide to construct one of these buildings, I grab the same number of influence tokens from the supply and place them next to my city.

Let’s Get Producing!

When it’s time to produce, I can activate each of my production buildings once. These buildings have different abilities that can give me an edge. But there’s a catch – I need to have at least two cogs to do any producing. If I don’t have enough, tough luck! Take a look at the building reference to learn about each building’s specific abilities.

Remember: I can only produce once per round, so having more than two cogs doesn’t do me any good.

Wrap It Up

Once I’ve finished with my actions, I remove my emissary from the action strip and place it next to my city. That’s it for my turn!

Important: If you don’t use all the bricks and cogs, you lose them and they won’t be carried over to the next round.

Now it’s my turn! I get to play when my emissary is closest to the emperor pawn. I’ll keep taking turns until there are no more emissaries left on the action strip.

The Round Ends

Once all players have had their turns during the action phase, the round comes to an end. The player who has the first player marker will pass it to the next player in a clockwise direction, and then the next round will begin.

Scoring Influence

If there is at least one influence card in the middle of the table, we need to do influence scoring before the next round starts.

If you have the most influence tokens, you win the influence scoring. Take the influence card and put it next to your city. Then, give back all your influence tokens to the general supply. When the game is over, you get points equal to the values on your influence cards.

If there’s a tie, the influence card isn’t taken that round. It stays in play until one player has the most influence tokens at the end of the following rounds. This means that there can be more than one influence card in play. The player who wins the next influence scoring takes all these influence cards.

If there’s a tie for the influence scoring at the end of the final round, the influence card (or cards) aren’t taken.

Now, let’s talk about the end of the game. After the influence scoring in the 14th round is resolved, the game is over.

When the game ends, you get points based on your buildings, coins, and influence. You can find a detailed explanation of how to score points for each type of building in the building reference.

Keep track of your points in each category using the score pad. The player with the highest number of points is the winner. If there’s a tie, the player with the most influence tokens breaks it.

If there’s still a tie, the player with the most coins wins. And if there’s still a tie after that, the tied players will share the victory.

Residential

When it comes to the layout of your city, it’s important to consider the formation of residential areas. Residential buildings that sit side by side, either horizontally or vertically, create these areas. But don’t worry if a single residential building stands alone – it can still count as a residential area if it doesn’t have any neighboring buildings of the same value.

In your city, you can have multiple residential areas, each filled with residential buildings of the same value.

To calculate the points earned for a residential area, you multiply the sum of the values of the buildings within that area by the number of differently colored public buildings that are adjacent, either horizontally or vertically. These points contribute to your overall score.

Hey there! Let me break down an interesting rule for you. So, if there’s more than one public building of the same color next to a residential area, we only count one of those public buildings when we calculate points for that area. Pretty straightforward, right? But here’s the twist: that one public building can count for multiple residential areas adjacent to it. Cool, huh?

Now, when it comes to final scoring, only the color of the public buildings matters. The special public buildings might have some fancy effects when you build them, but they’re treated the same as regular buildings of the same color during final scoring.

Here’s an example to help you visualize it: imagine we have an Arena and the Colosseum next to the same residential area. Only one of them will count towards the score for that area. Makes sense, right?

Oh, and here’s another thing to keep in mind: if a residential area doesn’t have any public buildings next to it horizontally or vertically by the end of the game, it won’t score any points. So it’s important to plan your buildings wisely!

Aqueduct

Hey there! Are you ready to learn about aqueducts? Aqueducts are an important feature in the game that can earn you points. The more aqueducts you have in your city, the more points you’ll score. Make sure to check out the building reference to find out exactly how many points you can earn for aqueducts!

Temples

Now let’s talk about temples! They also play a big role in scoring points. Each temple has its own unique set of conditions for earning points. Be sure to refer to the building reference to understand how you can score points with each temple. It’s worth taking the time to familiarize yourself with this information!

Coins

Coins are another way to earn points in the game. At the end of the game, you’ll receive one point for each coin you have. So make sure to collect as many coins as you can throughout the game to boost your final score!

Influence Tokens

Lastly, we have influence tokens. These tokens can also earn you points. For every two influence tokens you have at the end of the game, you’ll receive one point. Keep an eye on your influence tokens and try to accumulate as many as possible to maximize your score!

Let’s Talk about Influence Cards

When you play Influence Cards, you earn the number of points that is indicated on the cards.