Kampf um Rom - Das Kartenspiel
Designed by Gerhard H. Kuhlmann
Published by Kuhlmann-Geschichtsspiele 2000
English translation by Mik Svellov v1.0
 
 
Introduction
The Fight for Rome - the Card game is dealing with the preservation, loss and development of cultural achievements in Europa covering the period from the 4th to the 10th Century (the transition from the Antique to the Middle Age). Each player pursues the goal of developing as many Achievements of the best quality as possible, by placing his own counters onto the game board. Disasters and invading barbarians may impede cultural development by the play of cards to ruin specific Achievements. The winner will be the player who has collected the highest combined value of Achievements (as he is leading the way into the Middle Ages).
 
Tip to easier learning: The GAME OVERVIEW in the center of the rules [translation below] give a brief description of the most important rules. The proper rules serves to elucidate and complement specific points in reference to the overview.
 
 
Components
Playing cards (1-60)
Game board
these Rules
a cardboard sheet with 17 Tokens in each of the colors red, white, black and yellow
 
 
The cards
40 Development cards (1-40) with the latin name of the People in black text, and below that the 3 possible Achievements in CAPITALS. One of these Achievements may be developed by playing the card (see [4]).
 
12 Invasion cards (41-52) with the text partly in red. Playing this card allows the player one attempt at destroying an Achivement developed by an opponent (see [6]), and to develop one of the listed Achievements yourself.
 
8 Catastrophe cards (53-60). Removes a token from another player (see [6]).
 
Tip: The cards are taken from the board game "Kampf um Rom". Some of the information printed upon the cards are not used in the card game. The only information needed from the Development and Invasion cards are the three Achievements written in capital letters. The effects of the Catastrophe cards are listed by number in the lower right corner of the game board.
 
 
The game board (see [1] and [2]).
 
GAME OVERVIEW (centerspread)

[1]	The game board from the card game "Kampf um Rom" show the cultural Achievements acquired, developed or lost again during the European time period from the 4th to the 10th Century AD. The number in each space indicates the value of that particular Achievement (counting towards victory).
[2]	Each Achivements space are connected by solid black lines with arrowheads pointing towards one or two other Achievement spaces. The lines indicates the historical proces the developments followed. From the "basic achievements" on the left side of the board (JAGD, VIEHSUCHT, ACKERBAU, MEERESFISCHFANG, each with a value of 10) or from the Religions further below (6 rectangles each valued 20) may further Achievements of higher value be developed by following the connecting lines.
[3]	The goal is to occupy as many of the highest valued boxes with tokens of your own color ("developing achievements"). Tokens from other players may be removed (destroyed) through the play of Invasion- or Catatrophe cards.
[4]	How do you develop an Achievement? On each of the cards 1-51 are there printed three Achievements with capital letters which may be developed. You choose one of them when you play the card in your turn. You then place one of your tokens in the corresponding Achievement box and return the card to the discard pile. All Achievements that may be developed through play of a card has as rectangular box with square corners and their names written in CAPITALS (examples: JAGD, STEINBAUWEISE, FERNHANDEL, RÖMISCHES RECHT). Other Achievements does not have corresponding cards (ie. "Mittelalterliche landwirtschaft"). They have light colored boxes with rounded corners, and they may be developed by the play of any Development or Invasion card (remember the limit of 1 token per box! Combat methods (oval boxes) are discussed on page 6).
[5a]	Which Achievements may be developed by a player? To place a token in an Achievement box of higher value must the player first have placed one of his tokens in the Achievements boxes of lower value which leads up to this Achievement.The player must be able to trace an unbroken line of arrows from a basic Achievement to the new box. If the player for example, has a token in the "ACKERBAU" space may he (by playing the corresponding card) develop "STEINBAUWEISE" and place a token in that space. In order to be able to develop "STEIGBÜGEL" must the player first have placed tokens in the spaces "VIEHZUCHT","SATTEL" and "Reiterkampf".
[5b]	Dotted lines indicates that both exit-spaces must have a token of the players color for the new space to be developed (ie. "VIEHZUCHT" and "ACKERBAU" in order to develop "KUMMETGESCHIRR"). Some connections has an arrow in both ends indicating that either Achievement may be the prerequisite for the other. If you have developed "MEERESFISCHFANG", "SCHIFFAHRT" and "FERNHANDEL", you may develop "STEINBAUWEISE" without having acquired "ACKERBAU". In order to develop a Religion must the player have at least 3 tokens on other Achievement spaces.
[6]	The Achievements of other players may be destroyed by playing Catastrope or Invasion cards. The effects of the Catastrophes are described in the lower right corner of the game board. Invasion cards enables the player to perform two actions in his turn. Each card lists 3 Achievements in the same way as the normal Development cards. The player may remove a token from any one of these spaces and also develop one of the Achievements following the normal rules. You may remove a player's token from a box and immediately develop the same box yourself.
[7]	A player may prevent the destructions from Invasion or Catastrope cards, when he has developed Combat Methods. To do this he simply discards any Development or Invasion card from his hand. In addition he must flip one of his tokens in any Combat Method space over (invalidating the token). A player may prevent and action, but does not have to.

 
Rules
 
1. Preparations

• Place the game board in the center of the table.
• Each player receives 17 tokens in one of the colors
• Shuffle all 60 cards, and deal a hand of 5 cards to each player. Do not show the cards to the other players.
• Place the remaining cards as a drawpile within easy reach of everyone.

2. Start phase
The youngest player decide whether he want to become the first player or be the 2nd, 3rd. or 4th player, and places one of his tokens on the corresponding circle on the bottom left of the game board. The other players will likewise place one of their tokens on a circle, in seating order around the clock. The players will play in this order until the end of the game.
 
All players may now do a single exchange of cards by discarding any number of cards from their hand and drawing replacements from the deck. All discards are then shuffled into the draw pile.
 
 
3. Action phase
This is the phase where the players develop Achievements (by placing tokens) as well as where they try to destroy other players' Achievements. The Action phase follows this system:

1. Play a card from the hand;
2. perform one action, place the played card on the discard pile, develop Achievement and/or destroy;
3. draw a new card from the deck.

Following the order determined in the Start phase will each player perform these 3 steps as his turn.
 
Which type of card should be played depends upon the action the player wants to perform:

• To develop an Achievement must the player play the corresponding Development card.
• To destroy an Achievement developed by another player and to develop an Achievement yourself, you must play an Invasion card.
• To release a Catastrope, must you play a Catastrophe card.

Players, whose Achievements are threaten by destruction, may prevent this - if they want to and are in a position to - even though it is not their turn at that moment.
 
 
How to develop Achievements (see [4] [5] )
Destroying Achievements with Catastrophes or Invasions (see [6] )
Preventing destrution attempts (see [7] )
 
 
Maximum number of tokens in Development spaces

• Spaces with Basic-Achievements (spaces with value 10) may contain any number of tokens.
• All spaces numbered 20 or more may contain a maximum of 1 token less than the number of players in the game. Example: The space KUMMETGESCHIRR contains two red and a yellow token. This is a 4-player game so there is only room for 3 tokens and no more tokens may be placed in this space.

Developing Combat Methods
The oval spaces (combat methods like "Römische Legion" or "Hunnischer Reiterkampf") may be developed by discarding any Development or Invasion card. The space has the value of "0" but has a special function. Whoever develops a Combat Method may immediately add a second token of his color to any Achievement space of his choice in which he already has one, as long as there is room for another token in this space. Example: Red develops the "Iranischen Reiterkampf" and has already a token in FERNHANDEL. There is also a yellow token in this space. In a 4-player game will there be room for another red token in this space, but with 3 players would it not be possible.
 
This is the only way in which two tokens of color may occupy the same space.

• There can only be one single token in each of the 6 Combat Method spaces.
• Exception: There can be one or more invalid tokens (reverse side up) in a Combat Method space, and still be room for a single (valid) token of any color.

 
4. End phase
As soon as the last card has been drawn from the deck may the players develop Achievements only. Other actions are no longer possible:

• Catastrophes have no effect.
• Invasions can only be used as Development cards
• Card exhange is no longer possible. Doubling tokens by developing Combat methods is still permitted. The players may discard the card they can no longer use, but will not receive replacements. The game continues until the last card has been played.

 
5. Scoring

• Count the value of all valid occupied spaces for each color of tokens. Only spaces with unbroken connections to one of the basic Achievements are valid. Example: Whiten does not score for the tokens he has in the spaces "SATTEL" and "Reiterkampf" if he no longer has a token in the space "VIEHZUCHT".
• Spaces with two tokens of the same color doubles their value.
• Finally is the value in the circle of the player order added or subtracted from the player's score.

The player with the highest total score has completed the greatest distance on the road to the Middle Ages and has won the game.
 
 
Special cases and peculiarities
 
Card exchange Before the first Action phase may cards be exchanged as described in the Start phase. - If a player is unable to perform an action - that is, if he cannot play a card to develop or destroy an Achievement or play a Catastrophe card - may he show his hand to his fellow players. If it is confirmed that he cannot play, may he draw a new hand from discard pile (shuffle the cards first) whereafter he places his old hand at the bottom of the pile. The player may still take his turn, but if he is still unable to perform an action may he not exhange cards again. He must instead discard a card and draw a new card as his turn.
 
- Voluntary: The player may, in his turn, discard any two cards with the same symbol in the upper left corner and select one card from the discard pile. The player will thus play with one card less.
 
Loss of card after preventing a destruction attempt ( see [7] ) The player who prevents the destruction of an Invasion or a Catastrophe will continue the game with a reduced hand.
 
Other particularities / Explanations of borderline cases. If there are more than one token of the same color in a Achievement space that is attacked by the play of a Catastrophe or Invasion card - and the attempt isn't prevented - are only 1 token removed.
 
If a player has a flipped token in a Combat Method space may another player declare the Combat Method instead. If this token is later flipped may a new player declare the space again, but the same player can never declare the same Combat Method twice (which is why the flipped token stays in the space).
 
A player doesn't lose the double token if he loses the Combat method.
 
A player has declared "Römische Legion" and doubled the space "Fernhandel". Later she loses "Steinbauhandel" which she didn't prevent. But she will prevent the next Catastrophe.
 
Special cases with 3 players:

1. All spaces valued 10 or 20 are full when there are 3 tokens in the spaces. All other spaces are full when there are 2 tokens in them.
2. Catastrophe cards 59 or 60: Only 1 token is removed from a space.

 
 
Board Information
 
Box - upper left corner
Card Exchange:

1. (only once, before the 1st card is played at game start) 1-5 card may be discarded and the same number of cards drawn from the deck. Reshuffle the deck.
2. Show your hand to prove that you cannot play a card and reshuffle them into the draw pile. Replenish your hand back to the same number. The player may still perform an action.
3. Two cards with the same symbol may be discarded to fetch any single card from the discard pile. The card may be played immediately.

 
 
Catastrophes = Remove tokens

53	All tokens from VIEHZUCHT. The active player may retain one token there.
54	All tokens from ACKERBAU. The active player may retain one token there.
55	One token from one Religion, or: The player may switch any number of own or foreign tokens between two vertically adjacent Religion spaces.
56	One token from STEINBAUWEISE or FERNHANDEL or Hauptstadt.
57	One token from any space (with exception of Religions and Combat Methods).
58	All tokens from MEERESFISCHFANG. The player may retain one token there. Or he may remove one token from SCHIFFAHRT.
59	Two tokens of different colors from any one or two spaces (with the exception of Religion and Combat Methods). Only 1 token is removed in a 3-player game!
60	as 59

 
 
Board Dictionary
Ackerbau = Farming
Bewasserungs-landwirtschaft = Irrigation agriculture
- Christentum = Christianity (Greek, Roman, Arian, Syrian)
Griechische Philosophie = Greek philosophy
Hauptstadt = Capital city
Hochsee-Schiffahrt = Ocean navigation
Hunnischer Reiterkampf = Hunnic cavalry
Iranischer Reiterkampf = Iranian cavalry
Jagd = Hunt
Jüdische Religion = Jewish religion
Komposit- oder Reflexbogen = Composite or reflex bow
Kummetgeschirr = Collar harness
Mathematik = Mathematics
Mittelalterliche Kampfweise = Medieval combat techniques
Mittelalterliche Landwirtschaft = Medieval agriculture
Meeresfischfang = Ocean fishing
Reiterkampf = cavalry
Römische Legion = Roman legion
Römische Recht = Roman law
Römische Stadtbefestigung = Roman city fortification
Sattel = Saddle
Schiffahrt = Navigation
- Schrift = Writing (Greek, Latin, Gothic, Aramaic, Hebrew, Arabic)
Steigbügel = Stirrup
Steinbauweise = Stone construction
Viehzucht = Cattle breeding
Waldkampf = Forrest fighting