Rise of Augustus is a Set Collection, Bingo-style game.

Title: Rise of Augustus

Year Published: 2013

Designer: Paolo Mori

Publisher: Hurrican

Players: 2-6

Game Time: ~30 mins

Set-up Time: ~1 min

Ages: 8+

Theme: Ancient Rome

Mechanic: Set Collection, Bingo

How to win: Score the most points.

Game Description

In Augustus, you vie with your fellow players to complete “objective” cards for special powers and ultimately for victory points.

Rise of Augustus Set Up

Set out the reward cards in rows and place out 5 objectives.

Give each player 7 Legions and 6 objectives then they choose 3 objective cards to discard and keep the rest. (or just deal out 3 random ones)

The oldest player starts.

Rise of Augustus Game Play

The active player draws a token from the bag and says aloud what it is of the 7 colours to choose from… Swords, Shield, Chariot, Catapult, Standard, Dagger or Joker.

Everyone may move ONE Legion from their supply onto a space on an objective card that matches that symbol.

If the Joker is drawn a player can cover any space. Also, all the tokens are placed back in the bag and then the bag is passed to the player on their left and the game continues.

If a player fills all the spaces on an objective they say ‘Ave Ceasar’.

Complete Objective

Each objective has a number and in order from lowest to highest, the objectives are resolved in a 4-step process.

Remove Legion
Take the Legions off your card and put them in your supply.

Use Power
Some objectives have powers related to them which are all listed at the back of the rule book.  Some of the powers let a player add more Legions to other objective cards so if another is completed this way, they resolve it immediately after resolving this one.

Move Objective to Score Area
All this means is that you put the objective aside so all players can see it, but it stays separate from your current active objectives.

Claim Reward
If you meet the criteria a player can do this, there are 3 types: Colour, Number and Control.

Colour – Granted to the first player as soon as they get 3 of one colour of Region, 3 Senators or one of each colour region and a Senator.

Players can claim any number of these rewards.

Rewards

Number – These can be taken as soon as you have the exact number of completed objectives on the card. You can only have one of these so if you take a lower number you can never take a higher one later in the game.

Control – Taken by the player who controls these goods (Gold or Corn) first. Then, if a player matches the number of resources a player has, they take control of this card.

Choose a New Objective
Replace the completed objective in your play area with one available in the middle of the table. When a new objective is taken, replace it from the deck.

Game End

When a player has completed 7 objectives the game ends immediately and scoring takes place.

You get points for the…

Printed cost on any Reward tokens you control
Printed cost on any Objectives you completed
Total number of points on any ‘End Game Scoring’ Objectives you have completed

The most points win, with ties broken by the player with the most Senators on completed objectives.

Round-Up

This game is harmed by often being referred to as ‘Gamer Bingo’. Yes, it has a very obvious Bingo mechanism running the game but it’s not all just luck of the draw as Bingo is.

You have 3 cards, when a token is drawn you can only place ONE Legionnaire. Do you put it on the card that’s easiest to complete? Or put it on a harder one and hope you fulfil the rest of the criteria?

This is because, not all icons are created evenly, some occur more often than others so you need to keep an eye out for that…

Then you have to look at those Rewards and see which you can work towards picking up first.

If I have a criticism it’s the symbology on the cards in relation to the Rewards. It’s not always easy to see what’s what and the symbols for the bonuses on cards aren’t always that straightforward. (Although unneeded artwork on some cards points to possible expansions?)

That and the box is WAY too big.

But, those are small downsides to an otherwise very good game.

Rise of Augustus Rating

More than “Gamer Bingo”.

I give it 7/10