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Originally published in 1997, Caesar and Cleopatra has had a revamp. Still a card game for 2, KOSMOS is reuniting two of the most powerful forces. No, not Cleo and her hunk. I mean they were each bossing it in their own political sphere, no denying that. But I’m talking about passion and power. And whilst those desires play out between these crazy kids, territory hungry Rome versus indie Egypt is at the core of this game.
But as was usually the case back then, the mortal realm isn’t enough. Earthly resources can only do so much in their minds. So in Caesar and Cleopatra, each side has the ear of the Gods, and those deities love to stir things up. So what’s happening down on the table?
The card is mightier than the….card!
Being a card game, the core components are just that - a stack of influence cards, action cards, mission cards, and patrician cards. There are a few tokens in a fabric bag, as well as handy player aids, but the cards are the focus. And each side of this blazing battle has their own set of influence and actions. The 5 shades of patricians, however, are stuck playing influential piggy in the middle.
And as mentioned above, Caesar wants to gobble up Egypt into its growing empire, whereas Cleo wants to be a sister doing it for herself. She’s an independent woman and no man is going to tell her what to do…….well, unless she loses……but that’s the risk you take when you play at the grown-up table!
Turns have four steps:-
1. You must play an influence card face down and/or another face up on your side of the columns of patricians; and
2. You may play an action card – before or after step 1 – on a specific card. These include assassinating face up influence cards, revealing face down influence cards, invoking the Gods’ wrath on both players etc.
3. You must draw one bust from the bag and place it on the matching colour of patricians in order to trigger a vote of confidence and gain their support (i.et he top card from the group). If at any time there are 8 or more influence cards on a group of Patricians, this also triggers a special vote.
4. Draw back to six cards (by drawing from the influence and/or action deck) in your hand
The game ends when all the patricians have pledged their allegiance to players or both players have no more influence cards in their hand and their influence decks are empty or they can’t be placed. Points are then totalled for the patricians you have each persuaded to support you, patrician majorities (with bonus VPs if you have all the patricians of a specific colour), and completed missions.
Final Thoughts
In our house, 2 player is our main player count. And so games that are specifically designed for foe v foe always grab our attention. Most games are playable at 2 – designers are good at tweaking rules and approximating a higher layer count. But games where the experience and focus is head to head feels exponentially more personal. KOSMOS are reliably solid when it comes to their 2 player range (Targi, Aqualin, Lost Cities etc), and here, the battle plays out between two infamous rivals with no room for coat-tailers.
We haven’t played the original game and so comparing the two is difficult for us. But it does mean that we have evaluated our experiences of the new version on its own merit. And we have been enjoying it. The mix of open and hidden information means that you are constantly re-evaluating what your opponents might be gathering under a particular column of patricians. Revealing all the cards under a group when a vote of confidence is called in order to determine the winner of that patrician can lead to some surprises! And that in turn forces you to choose between reacting and planning ahead. It does mean that you can be at the mercy of lady luck in terms of which bust is pulled from the bag. But some randomness keeps it fresh for many. One of our favourite games is Battle Line, and this tug of war over columns of patricians has echoes of that. But the votes and hidden information gives it a different feel.
Being able to play influence and actions in a different order also adds another layer of tactics to each turn. Patricians are the cool kids you want to attract to your lunch table. Once they’re sharing your sandwiches, it will take some canny actions to lose them, but it can be done. And if you have an action in your hand that will synergise well with what’s on the table at that moment, you can compound its strength by placing influence cards at the optimal time. Knowing your card could trigger a special vote of confidence in addition to the standard vote can also mean that multiple patricians are gained (or lost) on a given turn. And that can help with end game majority scoring as well as shaking up the momentum. Sometimes games which have a trigger that almost halts play for something to be checked can make it feel a little too staccato. But the votes are so intertwined into the game play that it doesn’t feel stop/start in a bad way.
Secret missions add extra variability to game set up, and the veto action and Philosopher (which flips the winning condition for a patrician to the lowest total!) are canny tactics that can be powerful if used at the right time. And we liked the fact that burning through too many influence cards can bring about the end game, so you have to balance actions and influence throughout if you want the time to win as many patricians as possible (or do the opposite and halt the rush of support for the other side!).
Ultimately this game is definitely power over passion, head over heart. But whilst it could be played out in many different settings, we quite like the nod to the historically fiery relationship between Caesar and Cleopatra!
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