Derek 'Dez' Maggs 
It has been said that Rome wasn’t built in a day, but now you can build the Eternal City in an afternoon! The legendary founder and first king of Rome, Romulus, has put forth his vision of the city’s future, laying its boundaries over the fabled seven hills and establishing the curia, or wards, for the three tribes of the city. But a city without buildings can hardly be called a city, so the new king has called upon you to make his vision a reality by building spacious insulaes, crowded marketplaces, and glorious monuments. The wisest and most clever builder will certainly become the most influential person in Rome!
Setting Up
- Lay out the City board, Market board and the Curia board near each other.
- Each player chooses a colour and takes the player board, buildings, and ownership tokens of their colour. Place one of your Ownership tokens on the “0” space of the Scoring Track and another on the “0” space of the Population Track. Keep the remaining 8 Ownership tokens in a supply near your player board.
- Decide who will be the first player. By default, the owner of the game chooses who it will be, and can choose themselves!
- The starting player takes 5 coins. Going clockwise, each player gets 1 coin more than the previous player. So, in a four-player game, the first player takes 5 coins, the second takes 6, the third 7, and the last player gets 8 coins.
- Place the rest of the Coins in the bank.
- When playing with 5 players (requires the 5th Player expansion), you will play on the entire board. When playing with fewer players you will use less of the board, and not use particular rows or columns of Lots. Depending on the number of players, you will need to remove some of the Lot cards from the game:
- For four players, remove all the Red lot cards (Column J and Row 10).
- For three players, remove all the Red and Purple lot cards (Columns I and J and Rows 9 and 10)
- For two players, remove all the Red, Purple, and Blue lot cards (Columns H, I, J and Rows 8, 9, 10)
- Shuffle the remaining Lot cards together and deal six to each player.
- Place Ownership tokens of your colour on each Lot that appears on the Lot cards you were dealt with. At this point, you will have two Ownership tokens left.
- Each player has their own pile of Lot cards that they acquire during the game. Players can look at these piles to determine who owns each Lot.
- Split the rest of the Lot cards into three approximately equal piles. Place one pile each on the Round 1, Round 2, and Round 3 spaces on the Market board.
- Using the Round 1 pile, turn over six Lot cards and place them face-up on the “for sale” area of the Market board.
Playing the Game
Foundations of Rome is played over three rounds, each representing about 10 years in the early history of the city.
During a round, the players take turns, starting with the first player and going clockwise. The round continues until the stack of Lot cards for that round (on the Market board) runs out. At the end of the round, players will score Glory points, recorded on the Scoring Track. After the third-round scoring is complete, the game ends.
Player Turns
On your turn, you must choose one of these three actions:
- Take Income;
- Buy a Lot; or
- Construct a Building
After you complete your action, you turn is over and the player to your left begins their turn.
- Take Income
You may petition Romulus for more resources. He will give you 5 coins from the bank. In addition, you receive 1 coin for every Coin symbol on the Buildings you have in the city.
- Buy a Lot
You may not take this action if all of your Ownership tokens are already on the City board. You will have to take income or construct a Building instead. You may purchase any of the Lot cards available on the Market board by following these steps:
- Pay the number of coins shown above the Lot you wish to purchase. These coins go to the bank.
- Place one of your Ownership tokens on the matching Lot on the City board.
- Take the Lot card from the Market board and add it to your Lot card pile.
- Slide the other Lot cards to the left to fill the empty space, if needed.
- Fill the last spot by turning over the top Lot card from the deck for the current round.
When the last Lot card for the current round is drawn, do not refill the Market when taking this action until the end of the round.
- Construct a Building
You can only construct Buildings on Lots that you own.
Each player has their own supply of 24 Buildings at the start of the game. Buildings come in different shapes and sizes. In order to build one, you must first own a set of adjacent Lots that match the shape of the Building.
To build, choose the building you want from your supply and place it on top of the lots you own. Return your Lot ownership tokens to your supply for later use. You may build on empty Lots you own without restriction. You may also “build over” a Building you constructed earlier, but only if the new Building is bigger than the one you are building over.
If you build over one of your Buildings, remove the Building from the City board and return it, and any of your Lot ownership tokens used, to your supply. You may reuse that Building again later as normal. When building over one of your own buildings, any Lots you own remain owned by you, even if the shape of the building changes. There is no cost (in Coins) when constructing a Building. It is assumed that Romulus supplies the materials and labour required to build it!
The End of the Round
When the current deck of Lot cards runs out, the round will soon come to an end. Continue taking turns and playing normally, including buying Lots from the Market board, until all of the Lots available for purchase have been bought. Do not refill the Market board when you buy the final Lot for that round.
Once the Market board is empty for the round, each player takes one final turn to collect income or build.
End of Round Scoring
After the round is over, players score Glory points for the Citizens living in the Buildings they have constructed and for the Civic Buildings they have built, as well as earning Coins from their Buildings that provide income.
Residential Building Scoring
Each player counts the number of Citizens they have on their Buildings on the City board, marking their total on the Population Track. Each player scores points equal to their population total. Additionally, the player with the most Citizens scores a bonus.
That bonus changes each round:
- Round 1 – 4 Glory
- Round 2 – 7 Glory
- Round 3 – 10 Glory
First Impressions
What do I think of Foundations of Rome? In a word, WOW!
From the massive box, the highly detailed building, the stunning artwork, the epic table presents & last but certainly not least, one of the best game designers, Emerson Matsuuchi. This game is something special!
Experience
I set up Foundations of Rome before my friends came over to play. If you’ve ever read my previous reviews you’ll know, I am normally very selective with my groups when playing a game to review. I try to choose people that have some kind of fondness or attachment to the theme.
Due to the quick turnaround of this review, I just put out an open call to anyone that could make it to my house last weekend. I had a nice blend of people, a couple of euro gamers, a relative noob and myself.
It was short notice, so I was happy to get 3 others but was a little nervous about my noob friend. She has only been playing board games for about 4 months and I think previously she had only played small box games and Lords of Waterdeep once.
As they walked in, they were a bit taken back, Foundations of Rome was sitting there set up and looking amazing on the table. I had hoped to get several games in, so thought pre-setting up the game would be smart, but I think it was worth it just to see the looks on their faces. So many old Roman building sitting in front of them, highly details and beautiful accurate to the period. It is truly breathtaking on the table.
Playing
After explaining the rule, which I must say, at first read-through, seem quite easy. I was a little scared this maybe game that was all show.
Once we started playing, I realised I couldn’t have been more wrong. This game is anything but easy!
The rules are incredibly detailed, so much so even our noob said, ‘wow this seems pretty easy.’ Those could have been famous last words and though the gameplay is challenging, the rules do a beautiful job of elegantly explain and make this game feel easy. It is quite easy to learn the basics, but it is by no mean an easy game to master!
The more we dove into Foundations of Rome, the more strategies we picked up and the game seemed to evolve. That is the beauty of this game & the skill of the designer, Emerson Matsuuchi. It seems to evolve with you, the more you play & learn the more you get out of it. So much so that my copy of the prototype is currently visiting with my noob friend, she was so excited that she has already played it several times with her gaming group.
Aesthetics
As I previously said, the Foundations of Rome has an amazing table presence. Those models, even in prototype, are eye-popping and leap off the table. Even though this is a prototype, the level of details in the design is exceptional and I can’t wait to see the finished product. As if they use injection moulding to make these building with this level of detail, they are going to be among the best and most period-accurate models I’ve seen in a long time.
The additional artwork looks to have been painted and fits the period perfectly. My only compliment is I wish the colours weren’t as vibrate, I would have preferred a more natural and period-accurate. But that is me being super picky as I’m unable to find something I don’t enjoy in or find aesthetically stunning!
Final Thoughts
Overall, I loved the Foundations of Rome. It is an Intelligent and ever-evolving game, amazing board presence & most importantly, Incredibly fun. In all honesty, if I had played this game last year, it would have been my top game of 2019. It has become an instant favourite of mine.
This is my first Boardgame Review for 2020 and if this is how 2020 is starting, this year will be the Year of the Boardgame!
If you would like to get yourself a copy of Foundations of Rome, like two of my gaming group have already. Check out their Kickstarter Link here
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