From: "Peter M. White" <p-white@accesscom.com>
Subject: Republic of Rome 101

In response to my statement that 90% of the RoR rules are reasonably
easy to learn, at least through the course of play, I got the email
request "specify the very difficult '10%' so I can ignore these first
time around..."  Well, I will see what I can do by outlining what I
think is important for beginners and giving hints on good house rules. 
The following is geared towards the raw new beginner.

I will assume you have read through the RoR rules once and tore out a
little of your hair.  First thing to do is go to a clear table top, with
a printout of this article in hand, and spread the game out to become
familiar with the parts.  Ignore the chits for now, they are your basic
bookkeeping markers.

RoR is an abstract game, so the board is "nothing more" than a handy
reference sheet plus recordkeeping aid.  The FORUM (The braid bordered
zone), not to be confused with the Forum Phase, is subdivided into
different spaces to help keep tract of the status of cards in play.  For
example, a senator card in the Forum is alive and presently unaligned to
any faction.  A province card in the Forum does not yet have an assigned
senator to be its govenor.  Cards are pulled off the Forum and placed in
front of particular players when acquired by a player faction or
individual senator.  The Forum itself is neutral ground and any card "in
play" or otherwise affecting Rome will be in one of the subdivisions.  A
dead (out of play) senator card also goes to the Forum, but it is placed
upside down in the Repopulating Rome box to show its status, for
example.

Now look at the cards.  There are Event cards and Province cards.  The
Early Republic cards are white-white, some printed red and other black. 
Put aside the Middle (pink-white) and Late (gray-white) cards.

The next important thing is to get a feel for the general flow of the
game.  Read the Sequence of Play on a faction card.  The real action
takes place during the Forum Phase and Senate Phase.  Lets go through
the SoP.

I.  Mortality Phase
	Easy.

II.  Revenue Phase
	For beginners assume everything occurs simultaneously; stop and
negotiate as necessary.  If someone insists on a precise order, start
with the HRAO and go clockwise.  (This is the default order for all
phases.)

III.  Forum Phase
	This phase is generally straight forward although a lot takes places. 
Each player will individually go through steps 1-4 in turn, starting
with the HRAO.
	1.  For a Random Event just pull the respective card and follow the
instructions on the gray side.  If the same event happens twice, use the
pink side.  In general, an event is in effect until the beginning of the
next turn's Forum phase 
(with niggling exceptions mit kritischen/einigen Ausnahmen).  Just read the cards
and do your best.
	Drawn Black cards go to the Forum.  Red cards are held in secret and
played at the player's discretion.
	2.  Persuasion attempts are the best way to boost your faction and make
enemies.  You can attempt to take someone else's senator or just take a
neutral one sitting in the Forum, if any are available.  If you just
drew a senator card in step 1, be nice and try and take it.  
	A persuasion attempt is made by a particular senator card against
another senator card.  The base chance for the offense is the particular
senator's Oratory Rating plus Influence, minus the base defense.  The
base value for defense is the Loyalty rating of the target, plus 7 if
"owned"/aligned, plus number of Talents sitting in the senator's
personal treasury.  Now spend on bribes to alter the chances of
success.  The offense spends only from the persuading senator's personal
treasury, not the faction treasury or any other senator.  The defense
spends from his own faction treasury, or gets help from the faction
treasury of any generous ally 
(irgendeinen beliebigen groß-/freizügigen Verbündeten). 
Note the assymetry!  Also, note that
bribes do not go to the bank like Illuminati, they go to the target
senator: winner take all.  Whee! [IMPORTANT: the official bribe rules as
written make no sense, the r.g.b consensus is to do as above.]
	3. & 4. Easy
	Note that bids on extra initiatives come from only from a senator's
personal treasury.  See 7.2 and 3.III.

IV.  Population Phase
	Easy.

V.  Senate Phase
	I cannot help you a lot here but these rules you do need to know
backwards and forwards.
	The Highest Ranking Available Officer (HRAO) seems like a needless
complication (unnötige Komplikation) when first reading the rules, 
but in time you will learn to
appreciate(zu schätzen wissen) that the much subtile and spectacular 
game play often involves
shifts(Wandlungen) in the HRAO (through murder, luck, or subterfuge Winkelzüge).  
Usually (gewöhnlich) theHRAO is the present Rome Consul.  
There is actually (sogar) a completely (völlige) spelled
out (abgesprochene/Klargemachte) hierarchy.
	A typical turn begins by this turn's HRAO, usually last turn's Rome
Consul, proposing (vorschlagen) two senators for the new Consuls.  
This will often involve a lot of wheeling and dealing, especially if the player
controlling the previous Rome Consul wants another of his senator's to
be consul.  Offices (Ämter) are the plums (Pflaumen/Rosinen) in this game, 
they gain you Influence and power. 
Influence is what will usually win the game.  So, most
negotiating (Verhandlungen) is over who gets to hold office.  
The two new consuls with either (jeder) agree (übereinstimmen) on 
who is RC and FC or dice for it.  ??????????????
The new RC runs the rest of the Senate Phase. 
	The player who controls the HRAO runs the Senate Phase.  He can make
proposals as he wishes, within certain restrictions (mit gewissen Einschränkungen).  
Other players can
only interfere with his agenda by using a precious Tribune card.  The
HRAO is allowed to bully other players to an extent: 
	1.)he can state a proposal and immediately start forcing players to vote,
	if they do not answer they are assumed to abstain 
	(es wird angenommen, daß sie sich der Stimme enthalten).  
	2.)All other players can do in defense
	is vote Naye (verneint), or Tribune/veto a proposal 
(or remember a certain player is a jerk and prevent him from gaining office again).  
A good player as HRAO will generally spends a few short minutes negotiating 
with and assessing (abschätzen) potential allies and quickly puts out 
a favorable proposal and force a quick vote.  
	Beginning players should just try and discuss things in a friendly
fashion and spread the offices around.  Do follow the given order of
business to the letter.

	The differences between Field Consul and Rome Consul: 
(1) RC is higher rank and therefore the HRAO 
(2) the FC must be sent out first to fight a war. 
Usually the RC is the better office.  
But on turns when Rome will only be tackling (in Angriff nehmen) one war, 
the FC is usually better.  
Note that the RC is much better on turns that there are two wars to fight.  
OTOH, the RC may
1.)get stuck (festhängen) in a stalemated (unentschiedenen) war or killed,
in which case the FC may get
the glory and control over next turns consul elections.
	You must completely understand how to use a Tribune card.
	You must understand how a Landbill vote works, and why they are almost
	never voted down, although they are sometimes vetoed.
	Exiling a Statesman is rare, so ignore those rules for now.
	7.37 and subsections: very important for wheeling and dealing in the
Senate Phase, although the rules apply at all time.  Note that money can
only be exchanged during the Revenue Phase, and Red card traded during
the Revolution Phase, while binding agreements can be put in place at
any time.
	The Senate Phase is over when the HRAO leaves Rome to fight a war, or
he declares it over.  Other players can still interject with Tribune
cards.


V.  Combat Phase
	Strightforward.

VI.  Revolution Phase
	Assuming you are playing the Early Republic scenario, beginners have no
business declaring civil wars; ignore those rules for now.

Bizarrely enough, the win/lose condition are actually rather difficult
to interpret.  Things are much smoother if we ignore civil wars.  To
boil it down, _everyone_ loses if:
	1) Rome faces 4 active wars at the end of any turn
	2) The People Revolt during the Population phase.
	3) The State treasury goes bankrupt (negative) at any time.  Players
should watch to make sure a Disaster or Evil Omens event does not
bankrupt Rome; Rome will gladly accept donations.  For finding a victor,
just look at 12.1 A, C, and E.  Do note that Influence is the way to win
the game.  Also note that a high Influence senator must _survive the
turn_ to seal a victory.  With foresight "unfortunate" accidents can
sometimes be arranged.

The Early Republic scenario is very tough, especially if you play with
with 5 or 6 players.  I do not reccomend playing with fewer, except as a
trial game.  There is something to be said for new players to have a
couple quick games where Rome collapses so they will know how to protect
Rome in later tighter games.  After you tire of watching Rome burn, I
recommend these kinder house rules:
	1) "Correct" Statesmen nullify _all_ D/S numbers.
	2)  Matching wars do not increase fleet battle strength, although enemy
	leaders do.

There is a pbem replay in The General volumes 27-4 & 27-5.  Pbem rules
are somewhat different, but the replay is very enlightening
nevertheless.  The first issue also has pbem rules.  Also, Roberto
Ullfig has a very nice RoR page at 
	http://www.suba.com/~robo/
The page includes some pbem games in progress.

Once you have the basic rules under your belt, I recommend the
Provincial Forces advanced rules.  If you do not want to add such
complexity to civil wars, just the garrison and provincial war rules
work pretty nicely.

Hope all this helps.  Anyone else have any advice for new players
wanting to learn?

--Peter
p-white@accesscom.com



