Ludus Senatus: Review
Information:
Mechanics: Hand Management, Area Control, Tableu Management
Player Age: 12+
Player Count: 2 - 4 Players
Time to Play: 10 - 20 Minutes
Game Designers: Brian Compter
Disclaimer: A preview copy for the game was provided by the publisher. The components and rules can change in the final version.
Disclaimer: A preview copy for the game was provided by the publisher. The components and rules can change in the final version.
Objective:
Every person of power wants to be seen as successful and understanding of the political weather. That is your objective in 'Ludus Senatus', you want to have your majority vote match the majority vote of the tableu in the middle of the table once there are a total seven votes in the centre (these votes are either yea or ney). You want to do this over multiple rounds to gain five points; two points if you are the only player matching the vote and one point if you are not the only player that understands the current voting climate.Set Up:
- If there are only two players, remove two cards- Shuffle the deck and deal each player three cards face down
- Create a face-up discard pile of one card
How to Play:
On a turn, there are two actions that you can undertake.Firstly, you can move one of your cards to the centre tableu (keep the position of the card i.e. hidden face-down or exposed face-up) and gain either the top card of the discard pile or the top card of the deck as a replacement. This is how you modify the centre votes in your favour.
Secondly, you may flip one of your face-down cards to a face-up position and activate the symbols on the bottom of the card in any order.
From left to right in the below image, these symbols allow you to:
- Peek at any face-down card (either in the centre tableu or from another player)
- Flip face-up or face-down any card.
- Swap a card from one tableu to another tableu, this can include the discard pile.
Use these actions effectively to skew the votes in your favour.
Once there are seven cards in the centre (five in a four-player game) each other player gets one chance to flip face-up and activate one of their cards then the round ends. Once the round ends all face-down cards are flipped up and players check to see if their majority vote matches the majority vote in the centre tableu. If you are the only player to match the majority vote then you gain two points, however, if you share the majority vote then you only gain one point. Multiple rounds are played until a player reaches five points and are crowned the victor.
Final Thoughts:
Pros:- Quick and portable
- You control the speed of the rounds
- deceptively, there are multiple strategies and decisions to be used that modifies the tableu’s in your favour.
Cons:
- Quite a bit of randomness with flipping over the cards
On the surface of reading the rules there appears to not be much room for decision making. But I vote NEY! to that observation. There are many layers of tactical decision making in this quick lightweight game. It is crucial to manipulate the different tableu's to hinder your opponent while benefiting yourself. Some incorrect planning and you can even lead to your own demise. This is a quick and portable game of tableu manipulation that ranges from 2-4 players. I vote YEA! on backing Ludus Senatus when it hits Kickstarter.
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Ludus Senatus on KickstarterLudus Senatus on BGG
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