Party Like It’s 44 BCE With These Roman Empire Games
If you’re looking for a reason to make this Ides of March into a vaguely-themed game night, these games will be your new Roman Empire.
The Ides of March are on the 15th, and I’m going to be honest with you… I can never remember which day the Ides is exactly until it comes around and everyone on Tumblr goes bananas. But this year it’s on a Saturday, which makes it a perfect excuse to have some friends over for a themed game night. Do we need excuses? No. But if you’re looking for one, and your Roman Empire is the Roman Empire here is that excuse.
Pandemic: Fall of Rome
You know Pandemic. The ultra famous and popular game about keeping a deadly world-wide pandemic at bay while defeat is always gaining more and more ground around you. If you love that exact game but have had enough of the whole ‘pandemic’ theme for your lifetime, this is the same game with a Roman twist. Instead of illness, you’re trying to outrun all of the factors that lead to the fall of Rome. Historically, it doesn’t go well, but maybe you’ll figure out how to keep the empire together.
Foundations of Rome
Foundations is a city-building game where your job is to build an entire civilization of ancient structures. Set up is quick and the game is easy to play, and once you get started your city really starts to come together… Physically. The building pieces and board are nice and really makes it feel like you’re putting a community together.
Kleos
Games about normal people are good and fine, but personally my interest in ancient Rome is much more rooted in the mythology. Kleos is a strategy game of area-control where you play as one of the Olympians. It focuses on the Greek pantheon, but if you prefer the Roman names, it wouldn’t change a thing about gameplay and remain just as fun.
Lex Arcana
If you’re crew is more of a ‘tabletop RPG’ group than a ‘board game’ group, Lex Arcana may be worth checking out for your next one shot or campaign. It’s a game set in an alternative timeline where the Roman empire never falls. And also there is magic.
Cthulhu Invictus
What if you want to play as members of Roman society, where magic-adjacent things happen… and Cthulhu is there too? Cthulhu Invictus brings the Call of Cthulhu rules to a new (old) setting with new cults, occupations, and creatures and monsters based in ancient mythology. Personally, I love the idea of making a Cthulhu style horror game into a period piece, and I think this time period would be very fun to fight pretend monsters in.
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