Tonight I played Rome Fate of an Empire. I do not give too hoots for the Roman Empire theme, but the elevator pitch of "what if civilisation builder, but Mage Knight" was too hard to not pass up.

I did phenomenally badly by scoring a whopping 10 points. I just didn't feel like I could ever get going. Turns out once I looked in the back of the booklet that I was playing as Livia, whom is one of the most difficult leaders to play as.

Despite doing so badly I enjoyed my game. It is hard, which I was expecting. Livia's abilities and cards felt thematic as being the wife of the emperor her options were limited, and the indebted state of the nation just hindered my progress more. I could see, by the end, where I could have played better.

All in I think this is a really good game with a deep complex puzzle to solve in a small box. I am very much looking forward to getting it onto the table again at some point and giving one of the more beginner friendly emperors a go.

I think if you enjoy Mage Knight and want something that isn't mage knight but has that same sort of engine building, resources management type of gameplay then this is a great game to have when you dont have time to bring it to the table. I dont really play Civilization builder because they are often a bit long for me to play, but with my limited experience this one felt fun enough.