I enjoyed reading this thread, and its predecessor, as I prepared to play my first game. The threads gave me some great examples of play. I hope you don’t mind my posting a mini-AAR here, as this is the most recent RoR thread.
I was going to play with my kids but ended up playing three open hands instead, using the Early Republic scenario. After reading these forum games, I decided I’d play completely cooperatively, eschewing any prosecutions, and trying to use the best Senators for the most appropriate tasks.
I still failed miserably! My HRAO flubbed his very first speech, inducing some unrest (3 or 4) with his clunky prose. No faction had a decent commander; my top military man had a rating of 3. Still, on the first turn I sent fleets to fight the First Punic War. At first I exulted when I rolled a reasonable number, but then I realized it was the “standoff” number. My commander had no special ability to negate standoff, so I ended up losing fleets.
In turn 2, my new Rome Consul’s oratory was no improvement over his predecessor’s, and unrest continued to grow; by now it was around 4 or 5. I lost ships from Storms at Sea and suffered a Manpower Shortage, but even so managed to muster enough fleets to try the 1st Punic again. This time a stalemate. Mirabile dictu, no other wars appeared, but things were still looking grim, as the treasury was dwindling as fast as unrest was growing.
Turn 3 was no better. An able Senator died at turn start. The year saw no new wars, but more bad speeches, more unrest, and yet another stalemate at sea. By this time my factions had Knights and concessions that generated more income, and so everyone started pitching into the State treasury, gaining a bit of influence in the process.
Turn 4 was worse. My Senators seemed to have all attended the same bad speechmaking academy. Two new Active wars broke out: the Gallic War and another one (I forget which). By this time I had a couple of good commanders, and with three active wars, one (a guy who negated disasters and such against Carthage) was appointed Dictator. I was able to muster enough forces to prosecute the First Punic War and the Gallic War, but I rolled badly in both. More losses, more unrest. I suppose I should have just combined forces on one war, but with three active and unrest around 10, I thought I needed a big win to turn things around.
In Turn 5, the 2nd Punic War appeared, giving me four active wars – an auto-loss if not fixed by the end of the combat phase. As it happened, I didn’t get that far. One last bad speech sealed my fate, as my Senator’s bad command of Latin led the People of Rome to revolt.
Overall I kinda liked it, but I got increasingly surly as things never went right. I also felt like the housekeeping-to-decision ratio was kind of high. I did have to make a few interesting decisions: who to elect to what, how to prosecute wars. But a lot of time was spent on administrative tasks, like calculating revenue, rolling the dice for each Initiative, placing and removing markers, managing Senatorial funds and concessions and knights. Also the “death bingo” didn’t appeal to me as much as I thought it would. I might try the “aging Senator” variant next time. Above all I do think I should try the game with other humans, or using the bots.
Anyway, it’s a good game – but I think I made more fun reading your session report than playing mine. :)