Errata: Is Glory to Rome a “strategy” game?
Glory to Rome is a game that consistently earns my praise and gets significant table time. This week’s question asks whether it is a balanced strategy game or whether it is mere fluff with broken cards and random actions.
A Non-Roman asked, “How can you like Glory to Rome so much? It’s so random and the cards are overpowered. In my games, the win seems to be determined purely by a luck of the draw.”
It is definitely true that GtR has some randomness to it. Though not quite as random, it is designed by the same individual who created Innovation. Some combinations of cards are brutally effective together and can give a player a distinct advantage. But one of the beauties of GtR is that there are numerous such combinations. So in a given game, it’s likely that each player has secured their own brutal combo.
The one skill that you must develop to be competitive, though, is pool control. If you take actions without any thought as to what you are putting in the pool, you will only help the player on your left. It’s imperative that you look for the actions the other players are likely to take and the materials or clients they may want from the pool. Do not take those actions and make them available. If you do, you only help them win and the game will be made artificially more random.
Pool control is probably the key strategic element. Once you approach the game from that perspective – and planning your own turns around the pool – you will find that strategy always wins the day. Of course, you have to get your own plans accomplished as well. So managing the pool while implementing your own strategy is the key to victory. Just as in other games (i.e. Puerto Rico), you want to take the action that betters your standing in relation to the other players, not necessarily the one that gives you the greatest absolute benefit since it may benefit another player even more.
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I agree with your assessment. Glory to Rome is one of the LEAST random games I know, and anybody who says that GtR is all luck of the draw, or just about who gets the broken combo, simply does not know how to play the game.
A brilliant strategy card game. Pool control, while an important skill, is perhaps not the most important to be competitive. In my humble opinion, it is instead most vital to understand what strategies your opponents are pursuing, what super-power options they may have available to them, how they work, and how to render them least effective and/or exploit them. This might be pool control in one game to deny someone a Merchant, on the other hand it might benefit you to give your opponent a Merchant client if they aren’t paying attention to the Basilica you just built. In another game, it might be an all-out Craftsman blitz. Or in the next game, the key could be to identify the importance of hiring more Legionnaries than the other guy in order to create a deterrent by means of mutually-ensured destruction.
@Johnathan. True. I think knowing what your opponents are doing is absolutely key. But that’s true of many strategy games. Knowing how to respond to it, especially by controlling the pool (whether feeding them clients you like or depriving them of clients or materials they want), is absolutely critical.
You’re right, though. There are tons of strategies in the game and each game can differ wildly. The Craftsman blitz (where everyone gets one or more craftsman clients) can be a strange and awesome beast.
The one thing that I have seen underplayed has been merchant. It seems that everyone at the table forgets about their vaults and how they are pure points in the vault with no need to build anything. Combined them neglecting the vault along with the vault bonuses at the end of the game, I have clenched many a game with just a few buildings and a full vault.
But not only does pool control help, but also being aware of what clients everyone has. I always find myself asking, “If I play this card, who is more likely to follow, and who can follow without playing a card.” So not only am I trying to control the pool, but i am also trying to not give my opponents follow actions.
There are of course many strategies to attempt, but i like to get a variety of clients so that I can follow anything that is played (which also sets me up for a win condition if I get the right card). And in order to do so it helps to get an early game Patron as a client. Which is easier said than done.
I think that their is a lot of strategy here.
Pool Control
Vault Management (and remembering who has vaulted what)
Denying follow actions
Clientele management
and we must not forget the Legionary. Try to steal those cards you know someone was hording and trying to build.
And when doing this… the most important of all (which i have fallen victim to more than i care to admit)… DON’T PLAY THAT CARD YOU WANTED TO BUILD!
Of course it has a skill element. And in one sense, it doesn’t matter if it should be small, just make it a “best out of N” contest and skill will floats to the top, to the degree you want to.
But I am a “non-Roman”, and after learning Innovation was made by the same designer I ditched the plan of buying it. It feels too swingy to me – and I see people complain about “super cards” in innovation as well. The fans say it has strategy, but so say the fans of Nightfall, and that one just hasn’t.
If it had an online implementation, or an AI, we could perhaps get a better idea of how much skill matters.
Harald, I totally agree that Innovation and Glory have a similar feel. They both have cards that in one game might be totally overpowered, and in the next play through might be much less effective.
And, whoa! You managed to pick out Glory, Innovation, and Nightfall as non-skill games. I’ve reviewed all three, and I have to respectfully disagree. Glory has a ton of strategy and control that must be exercised. Innovation is highly tactical. It’s true that long term strategy can be very difficult, but short term (even single turn) tactics are paramount to success.
And Nightfall, well I think it has just as much strategy as any good deck-builder. Much more, than say, Dominion. It’s all about the chain and making sure not only your own colors work well together, but that they work well with the player going before you, and work poorly with the player going after you. Plus, there is strategy on when to chain cards from your hand. Just because you can chain, doesn’t mean you should.
That’s not to say that you will suddenly like Glory, Innovation, or Nightfall. After all, not everyone will like a particular game. But there is definitely strategy in all three.