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Aquileia
Author: Cielo d'Oro
Publisher: Zoch Verlag
Year: 2011


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Aquileia was originally built as a defence outpost, but in peacetime the city developed into a popular trading city. In fact, it became the second most important city in the Roman Empire, right after Rome of course. That sounds like a location where a lot of money and prestige can be earned! And that is exactly what the three to five patricians playing this game are after. In those days, the road to fame involved building prestigious villas and doing really well in the gladiatorial combat and horse racing.

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The board is divided into six areas where players can place their five henchmen (pawns) in the placement phase, with the aim to carry out the corresponding actions in the subsequent action phase. At the market, players can exchange money, buy cards or claim extra dice. Slave- and weapon cards can be used during gladiatorial combat, horse cards at the races, and the dice at both these events. There is something special about the money, though. There are three denominations: bronze, silver and gold, which is not too uncommon, but they can not be exchanged as such!

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In other words: if a player has to pay two bronze coins he has to pay exactly that, and not for example pay one gold coin and get some change back. Only on one specific action field at the market money can be exchanged at will, but that means that only one player per round gets the opportunity to do that!

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In the arena, the gladiatorial combat takes place. Three positions are available. Two have a starting strength of one, and one has a strength of two. Subsequently, all the players involved throw three dice (2x gold, 2xsilver, 2x bronze on each die). Each 'bronze' on the dice counts as one additional strength. Next, all players are allowed to play weapon- and slave cards to increase their strength, and the extra dice can be used if available. The player with the highest total wins the gladiatorial combat and receives three bronze coins, and victory points or one slave card. The runner up gets two bronze coins, and the card or the victory points (whichever the winner did not choose). The consolation prize for number three is one bronze coin.

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The horse racing in the stadium works similarly. There are two sides: silver and gold. Each team has three positions available to place pawns. Then the involved players all roll the three red dice, and members of the golden team get extra points for each 'gold', and the silver team for each 'silver' they roll. The golden players can further increase their strength by playing golden horse cards, and the opponents can play silver horse cards. The individual player with the highest total wins the race: he receives three coins in the colour of his team (silver or gold), and he may select one of two victory point cards. The runner up wins two coins in his colour, and gets the other card. Number three gets only one coin in his team's colour.

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In the theatre each round one card is auctioned. The cards yield victory points at the end of the game. The player who selected this action with his pawn places the first bid of exactly one coin. Each subsequent player may see his bid by playing the exact same coin, and raise it by one coin of his choice. If he is not willing or able to do so, he must pass. The last one standing takes the card!

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The forum is where the building takes place. There is room for five pawns, and some of the positions have an additional advantage, like building two buildings simultaneously or immediately gaining victory points for the new building. The building costs are always a number of coins, and often also some slave cards. Players can build a bank (yields money during the game), or a workshop (yields victory points during the game), or a villa (yields victory points at the end of the game).

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In the harbour, the sixth and final area, players can claim money and victory points for all the banks and workshops they have built throughout the game. This is the only location where you have to pay money to place a pawn: there are three positions at the cost of, respectively, one bronze, one silver and one golden coin.

After six rounds the game is over. Players receive points for cards they have collected: for each coloured card, the player may add the victory points of all his villas of that same colour to his total. If a player has two blue cards, and two blue villas of values 3 and 6, he may add 2x3 and 2x6 points. But if he has blue villas but no blue cards, he scores nothing at all!

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At first glance, Aquileia seems to be just another worker placement game. What makes this game better than the competition is the use of three different types of coins that are not interchangeable. Golden coins are most valuable, and a player with 20 golden coins is undoubtedly very rich. However, he will probably not get very far in the game because most things yielding victory points cost bronze and silver coins as well.  Since there is only one location on the board where you can exchange coins, it is better to just make sure that you have a varied income. That means that the arena (bronze coins) as well as the stadium (gold or silver) remain interesting throughout the game. The dice do play a role, but bad luck with the dice can always be compensated using slave-, weapon- or horse cards.

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For the auctions at the theatre it is also crucial to have some of each type of coins: money is visible for all players, and if the active player sees that he is the only one with a silver coin, he already knows that no-one is able to match his initial bid of one silver coin. This makes it really easy for him to win the auction!

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Money is only the first step on the road to victory: it has to be transformed into points. To accomplish this, you'll have to spend the money again on the forum, by building villas or workshops. Because there are five locations to place pawns, players are never at risk to miss out on a change to build. Players that have already collected some coloured cards at the races or the theatre will probably choose for the villas that yield points at the end of the game. Players without cards had better invest in workshops, where points can be collected when placing a pawn in the harbour. This costs one action, and one coin, but this action can be repeated every turn, which can turn out to be really lucrative if you start building early in the game.

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Aquileia is full of interesting choices. Because the number of options is limited and not too overwhelming, the game plays smoothly even with five players. It also helps that the design of the board is very clear and accessible.
© 2012 Barbara van Vugt

Aquileia, Cielo d'Oro, Zoch Verlag, 2011 - 3 to 5 players, 10 years and up, 90 minutes


The game could have undergone a 'Tobago' treatment; as it is now it looks rather bleak and meager
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