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Fortuna
Author: Michael Rieneck & Stefan Stadler
Publisher: The Game Master / Huch & Friends
Year: 2011


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Two to four Romans are engaged in a competition to be the first to reach the centre of Rome, in order to claim their victory in Ceasar's palace. A variety of cards enable them to obtain resources and perform actions. And throwing dice, something the Romans enjoyed a lot! If the dice gods are good-tempered, they allow a player to advance a few steps on his way to Rome. But not only speed is of the essence: having the right privileges can give a player just enough victory points to beat the competitor who reached the palace first. There are many roads that lead to Rome: which player is most efficient in turning the challenges he meets on his way to his advantage?

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The board shows a fictitious map of ancient Rome, surrounded by fields that yield the resources grain, wine and water. Just outside the city there's a barrack where the centurions are stationed, and a temple loaded with virgins. Each player starts with one of each of these items on his player board.

Each player has three action cards on his side of the main board, one of which is placed facedown. In his turn the active player flips over his facedown action card, and chooses one of the three cards in front of him. The easiest actions involve taking resources, centurions or virgins (for the latter two a player has to pay).

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After performing the action, the player exchanges this card with a face-up card of one of the other players; the used action card is placed face-up in front of the other player, while the new card is placed facedown among his own action cards.

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Subsequently, he rolls his die, which indicates which of the six favour cards he is allowed to use. The favour cards enable a player to advance on the road to Rome. When throwing a '1', a player can only supply water and advance one step. When throwing a '6', he may choose from all six possible favour cards. But: favour cards that have been used are turned facedown and cannot be used again in the same round.

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As a consequence, the last player can choose from only three favour cards; the best ones have probably already been taken... And it is not certain that his dice roll allows him to choose a card that he is able to carry out! If he is not able to pay the required resources, centurions or virgins, he has to pay a penalty of one gold. If he doesn't have that: one step back on the road to Rome!
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Therefore it is advantageous to be the starting player; this is always the player with the 'fortuna' action card in front of him. It is possible that the card was already there, or it could have ended up there as the result of an exchange by another player or by himself. The other players play in order of decreasing wealth: this makes it important to make sure you have plenty of money.
After performing an action but before rolling the dice a player may use a centurion to perform a second action. He may only choose one of his own, face-up cards, and the card is not exchanged or turned over after use.

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There are action cards enabling a player to marry, or to build a building. Getting married, which costs money, allows a player to choose favour card '5' if his die roll permits him to do so. This card sends him one step in the direction of Rome, without any payment. Buildings also cost money: the aqueduct yields one water cube at the beginning of each round (with a maximum of one water cube per aqueduct); the palace can only be built by married people, and allows the owner to take two steps instead of one on the road to Rome when favour card '5' is selected. And the basilica allows a player to keep an additional privilege card from the selection.

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Privilege cards come into play when a favour card is selected that contains privilege tokens. These privilege tokens are distributed at the end of each round: all favour cards that are still face-up (have not been selected this round) receive one token, to a maximum of three tokens per card. When a player selects a favour card with privilege tokens, he draws the corresponding number of privilege cards, but he may keep only one of these; or two, if he possesses the basilica. These privilege cards contain conditions for additional victory points at the end of the game (points for each building, virgin, centurion, if married, etc), or they allow a player to immediately advance on the road to Rome, or to take the indicated resources from the general supply.
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The game is over when the first player reaches the palace in Rome. This yields him 15 points. The round is completed, and only the players that are already in the city of Rome (position X on the road) count the victory points resulting from their privilege cards. The player with the highest score wins!


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Only one die won't bring you far: you don't want to rely too much on the whims of the dice and the gods. Fortunately it is possible to obtain an additional die, at the cost of one virgin. When throwing the dice, he may roll both and select the most favourable outcome. A player may possess a maximum of three dice for ultimate control.

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As soon as the first player purchases his second die, others will follow. This immediately annihilates the player's advantage: all players have equal opportunities again- or do they? Even with two dice (a third dice is rare) a player can roll low numbers, and as a consequence have limited choice from the favour cards. He could even be confronted with only facedown cards that cannot be executed a second time: his turn is wasted!

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With the action cards the conditions are created that enable the execution of the different favour cards in the centre, it's as simple as that. If a player is married and he rolls a '4', he is not allowed to use the favour card '5' that allows married players to take a step forward. The cards with the lower numbers, however, are often unavailable because they have been used by a previous player: the water card '1' is practically always used because there is always somebody with a poor die roll, or somebody with a 'loaded' aqueduct. The same goes for wine- and grain cards '2' and '3', and these even allow up to two steps.

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Everybody would like to be the starting player to be able to choose from all available favour cards. The disadvantage of the starting player is that all players might have the popular action cards still facedown in front of them - meaning that they can't be exchanged yet. A player flips over his facedown card only in his own turn, so this card cannot be stolen from him as long as it is facedown. This is actually the only card of which the player is sure that he can carry it out next round; the other two cards can be exchanged by other players, it even happens that a card changes owner more than once per round.
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If a player is so unlucky that he has to exchange a card that is useless to him, he can only hope that his other two cards are still there on his next turn, or that they've been exchanged for something useful. This limits the options, despite the fact that there are no less than 12 action cards in the game. It can be very frustrating.
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The action card 'corruption' can be used to resolve such a situation: the card enables a player to perform the action depicted on a card currently positioned in front of another player, and this may even be a facedown card! This card is, together with the 'fortuna' starting player card, a very desirable one!
But the family card is also interesting: a player activating this card can get married, but if he already is joint in wedlock, he may first roll his dice, and only after he knows what favour cards he may choose from he decides to take either a wine, a grain, or three gold.

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The privilege cards can make the difference between winning and losing the game. A player who manages to reach the palace without victory cards (15 points) probably loses the game from his competitor just inside the city walls (10 points) and with several good privilege cards. Therefore the players will always aim to select a favour card containing privilege tokens. It is then very frustrating if you keep drawing privilege cards that give you resources or additional steps, but no victory points!
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At first glace there seem to be many tactical choices to be made. But at second glance the game is rather reliant on the die roll; there is a discrepancy between the action cards that more or less can be tactically chosen and the luck of the die at the favour cards. A player has no way to alter his course: he knows what his goal is and where the harbour is, but he is floating around because his engine keeps failing: a helpless feeling.

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The two player game is clearly more strategic. The starting player card is always on one of both sides, but player order is not as important because there are more cards to choose from.

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A player can exchange his action card with the other player, knowing that he has absolutely no use for it, and this is even more fun if this is accompanied by removing an action card that was actually very useful for him. The starting player has an additional ability in the two player game: after selecting a favour card, he may flip over a second favour card without using it. This is a great way to seriously disadvantage the other player!
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‘Fortuna’ therefore can be recommended for two players; with three or four there will always be a player for whom the engine will not start, just like other light development games in this category such as 'The Settlers of Catan' / 'Die Siedler von Catan'. In such games the luck of the die can bother a player through the whole game. 'Fortuna' has a nice game mechanism and a nice atmosphere, but because of the use of dice it will not appeal to everyone. But hey, the game has not been called for nothing after the goddess of fortune and chance!
© 2011 Richard van Vugt / translation Barbara van Vugt

Fortuna, Michael Rieneck & Stefan Stadler, The Game Master, 2011 – 2 to 4 players, 10 years and up, 60 minutes


The dominant influence of the dice takes away almost all possible tactics
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