Bill, Keith and I gathered to play Gangs of Rome last Friday night at Half Day Studio.
We decided to play the "Careless Is as Careless Dies..." scenario, which works well with three players. Bill's objective was to escort his Dominus off one of two board edges, past the other players. Keith and I were technically allied, but only one of us could win in the end, depending on who brought down the Dominus.
Bill loosely deployed his fighters in the center of the table, surrounded by mobs. Keith and I set up our fighters to block the open table edges that Bill's Dominus could escape from.
The gangs that Keith and I took were relatively restricted due to the scenario. We each had to have three fighters and 65 points. This meant that Keith's gang, which met the points limit exactly, couldn't take any Denarii. My gang costed 63 points, so I was able to take a Throwing Blade and a Thrown Javelin.
During the first turn, Bill chose my side as the one he planned to escape from. He moved his gang towards me, while Keith hurried to keep his gang members close. I was able to launch a couple mobs into Bill's gang, and even manage to do two damage to the Dominus (who, with only six Flesh and no defenses, was extremely easy to target and wound...)
Keith's fighters threw themselves into the fight, forcing Bill to defend his flank. Bill also sent out a fighter to try and stop one of my gang members from using her Throwing Blade.
Despite Bill's efforts, I was able to use the Thrown Javelin's range and the Dominus' lack of defense to strike the old man down, technically ending the game.
However, we did continue the turn to see how it would end. Keith lost all three of his models in fights with Bill's gang. And Bill lost a fighter when not one, but two mobs went into a rage and tore the poor woman limb from limb!
It was an interesting game, although Bill was at a slight disadvantage as we were using one less mob and one less defending gang member than the scenario required. It also seemed a little too easy for attacking gang members to hit and wound the Dominus with ranged attacks.
Thanks for sharing. The new starter has tempted me to buy this game, but I ma not sure if I am a fan of the core conceit/gimmick of the game.
ReplyDeleteThank for reading! If you're talking about the random coins/cards, I was also on the fence about it at the beginning. After picking up my gang, however, it feel like the randomized attributes and skills on the cards aren't game breaking.
DeleteAlso, if you take a bunch of higher point fighters, that means you have less points to spend on coins/equipment, which is where the real meat of the game lies.
I unfortunately got a couple duplicates in my coin plates, but I traded one with another player for a duplicate he got, and Warbanner has said they're planning to release the coin plates both individually and as a bundle purchase in the near future.
The starter is probably the best way to get in, since the fighters and coins are non-randomized and spread over the current set, you get enough fighters to field more than a standard sized game gang, and it comes with a pretty cool terrain piece.