Description

Rome is going to hell. Redneck barbarians are raiding the borders, the economy is in freefall, and the sewer workers are on strike...again. To top it all, mercenaries and slaves have delusions of grandeur (they want to be paid, for Jupiter's sake!), while those petty pencil pushers at the Senate indulge in never-ending rhetoric displays. As a wealthy patrician, you're pretty sure it is expected that you lend your help to Rome in this dire time of need, but then again will your "friends" do the same? The Ides of March are around the corner...'

Vae Victis is a semi-competitive game of decline and treachery for 1 to 6 Roman patricians. The phrase "Vae Victis" — Latin for "woe to the vanquished" or "woe to the conquered" — suggests that those defeated in battle are entirely at the mercy of their conquerors and should neither expect nor request leniency. Keep that spirit in mind when playing this game. Players take turns alternatively, and on their turn, they must go through three phases:

1. Doom phase: The player rolls the three doom dice, eliminates one of them, then applies the result of the remaining two dice.
2. Support phase: The player can take up to two actions in any combination in the action spots LIMITES, AERARIUM, or DOMUS PALATINA, possibly pushing their luck!
3. Influence phase: The player can take up to two actions in any combination in the action spots THERMAE, FORUM, or CURIA.

After this, play passes to the next player. Play continues until a winning condition is met, with the conditions being as follows:

• All players lose if one of the wars is lost or one of the tracks reaches the final space. No player can decide to lose a war or make a track reach its final space if they can avoid it — unless they are the traitor (see below).
• A player loses at the end of any turn if they've run out of coins.
• A player wins at the end of their turn if they simultaneously fulfill the requirement of their goal card "SENATE" and their goal card "WAR".
• A player wins at the end of any turn if all other players have lost.

Note that any player can be a traitor to Rome, and they win if a condition is met that results in all players losing the game.