Review: Spartacus: A Game of Blood and Treachery

Spartacus: A Game of Blood and Treachery was at Dragonmeet. Possibly the only reason I played this type of game was because I was playing by convention rules – i.e. play as many games as you can, good or bad. By ‘this type of game’ I mean board games that are based on already established and popular franchises such as TV shows, movies, miniatures and video games. My main reason for apprehension is that normally when the franchise is popular, the board game is an afterthought, something that fans will buy anyway, no matter if it is good or bad. Due to this attitude, ‘this’ kind of board game is often bad. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule. For example, I have heard a lot of good things about Firefly: The Game. However, it is so long and complex that I have never found the time or been in the mindset to plunge myself into it, despite being a browncoat. Therefore, I had many doubts before I had even begun to play Spartacus. I left Dragonmeet that day with a copy of the game in my bag. [box type="info"] • Designer: Aaron Dill, John Kovaleski, Sean Sweigart • Publisher: A1 Games • Number of Players: 3-4 • Playing Time: up to 150 minutes [/box] I had stopped watching Spartacus the TV series after Season 2. I have heard, however, that in the later seasons it turned from everyone’s ‘guilty pleasure’ into a series driven by character development. It became complex and gripping with politics and intrigue. Essentially, that is what the board game is about too. Although you can still attempt to play it ‘fight and blood’ style, but then you would only touch upon the top layer of what it has to offer. The other exciting part of the Spartacus board game is that it employs mechanics that I have never seen in board games before. The game tries to replicate as much as possible the experience of owning, training and profiting from gladiators. It does so quite successfully by adopting a well rounded approach to the subject and integrating not just fighting, but also politics, intrigues and bidding into the game. In this review, I will delve slightly deeper into the rules then I usually do, to highlight the most interesting game mechanics. Every player starts with one of four House Dominus with their own predetermined number of slaves, gladiators, guards and money. Each Domini also has their own special power, so they are generally well balanced. The aim of the game is to reach a certain value of influence, which could be decided by the players. From then on the game is divided into three main phases – Intrigue, Market and Arena – as well as the Upkeep phase that signifies the beginning of the next round. The Intrigue phase is the main ‘let’s mess other players up’ part of the game. Each player receives a number of Intrigue cards depending on their influence number. The cards can be played on other players or on yourself. However, each card also has a required level of influence and the player must be equal to or greater than this influence to play that particular card. If the player really wants to trigger an action that is above his/her current influence, he/she can buddy up with another Dominus to combine their influences which then allows to perform the action on the card. However, usually this kind of help comes at an expense. The players will negotiate in slaves, money and gladiators to decide how much the support costs. This is where it gets interesting. The player does not have to tell anything about the actions that he/she wants to trigger to any other players. For all they know, the action they helped to unlock could be played on them. Or the owner of the card could lie about the card’s description. Moreover, after the action has been successfully performed, the player can deny the Dominus that helped him/her the prior agreed fee! Of course, the enjoyment of the Intrigue phase relies on players being really into scheming and taking risks. If you are not the kind of person that likes bluffing and messing your friends up, you will not get the most out of this part of the game. However, keep this in mind: players don’t have to have the most brilliant poker face or lie through their teeth. Just simply playing cards absolutely works as well. Even if this could potentially put the player at disadvantage compared to others, they can catch up during other phases, through, for example, good resource management. Speaking of resources and assets, the Market phase is where players can buy or sell gladiators, slaves and armour. Again, I find the game mechanic for buying quite interesting. The market cards are revealed one at the time and players make bids on the cards, revealing what they are prepared to pay at the same time. As all Domini assets are open on the table, it is possible to predict who might want another slave and try to outbid them for it. There is also a danger of pricing a card too highly when no one else wants it, like in real silent auction! Not seeing all available market cards at the same time also adds an intrigue to the game – should you bid on Crixus or wait to see if a better gladiator will be revealed next (maybe, Spartacus)? Finally, there is fighting, the Arena phase. In the base game there are only ever two Domini fighting in each Arena phase.  Expansion set The Serpents and the Wolf introduces mechanic that allows four Houses to fight at the same time. However, players that were not invited to participate in the gladiatorial events can still do some scheming and play some part in the event. Everyone can bet on the outcome of the game. The game rules state that you can not bet on yourself to lose, we did not know this the first few times we played and have continued this way as it is more fun. On a few occasions, we have seen players betting against their own gladiators and earning a substantial amount of gold through this cheeky (and bloody) endeavour. Combat itself is resolved by rolling dice. The number and types of dice will be specified on the gladiator’s card. If the gladiator takes damage, the number of dice equal to that damage has to be discarded. Unless there is a huge difference between the gladiator stats, it is usually hard to predict the outcome of the match, which makes betting on the winner that much riskier and payoff that much sweeter. Combat is also how Domini can earn money and influence from their gladiators. The more matches the gladiator wins, the greater his earning potential becomes. As much as I like this idea, it does not have a major impact on the game. In all the games I have played, gladiators have not managed to be in enough fights to earn the status of the ‘champion’. Especially, as betting on decapitation gives a juicy reward, so players would sacrifice their gladiators for a bag of gold coins – as horrible as it sounds. Therefore, there was not really an incentive to level up the gladiators as actions that required money proved to be a more efficient way to gain influence. Perhaps this should teach us not to mess with the rules of the game! Although it is hard to estimate the importance of money at the start of the game, the players will soon discover that spending money recklessly will put them at a disadvantage almost immediately. Firstly, almost all phases of the game involve the exchange of money between the players or between the players and the bank. Some intrigue cards require money to be played, while the Market is all about spending money and even during the Arena phase players bid for the hosting privileges and also place bets on the outcome. If you have no money you become a silent observer for the most part of that round, or possibly even the game. While it is possible to earn some cash throughout the game by selling your assets or the unused intrigue cards, it will be hard to catch up. Although it might feel overwhelming at first, it is quite easy to get into the general gameplay of Spartacus. The division of the game into phases helps to ease new players in, as the game could be easily explained on a phase by phase basis. While it is possible to play with three players, the best experience is ultimately with the full house of four players. The intrigues and bidding work better with more people. Spartacus: A Game of Blood and Treachery is an adult board game. Cards, as a amusing as they are, are a compilation of House Batiatus’ ‘best’ quotes, some featuring a certain part of Jupiter’s anatomy. Also, I personally would be quite uncomfortable with children playing a game that puts slaves and gladiators in the same category as spikes and helmets, no matter how historically accurate that might be. As you might have guessed, the characters from the TV show make an appearance. Houses Domini are the actual Houses from the series, and gladiator cards are also the characters we know, love and hate. Four little gladiator miniatures come with the game, and the rest of the game pieces – cards, tokens and dice – are of good quality. I always like when player cards (Domini cards in this case) come as a thicker cardboard rather than a dense paper. Considering, how much they are used throughout the game, it is nice to have something that will not bend, crumple or tear too easily. [box type="tick"]Interesting game mechanics that work well within the theme[/box] [box type="tick"]True to the TV series with style, art and humour[/box] [box type="alert"]Gladiator rewards limited[/box] [box type="alert"]Without money, the player is a passive observer to the game[/box] If you are as doubtful of franchise inspired boardgames as I used to be, I hope this review has helped to put some doubts out of your mind. Spartacus: A Game of Blood and Treachery is not a game for everyone, but for the purposes of a good fun night, if unleashing a slightly mischievous and treacherous side of you is something that you enjoy once in a while, then you should try this board game. [box type="info"]The author purchased the copy of this board game[/box]]]>