republic of rome [Updated October 2003]  

2003 WBC Report  

 2004 Status: pending 2004 GM commitment

Nick Benedict, PA

2003 Champion

2nd: Alan Witte, NJ

3rd: Tom Phillips, NJ

4th: Frank McNally, MA

5th: Rich O'Brien, MD

6th: Sean Finnerty, NY

Event History
1991    Jim Doughan      20
1992    Robert Rudolph      23
1993    Sean Finnerty      23
1994    Chris Greenfield      25
1995    Michael Ehlers      37
1996    Michael Ehlers      41
1997    Chris Bartiromo      27
1998    Charles Dunn      32
1999    Brian Ecton     27
2000    Chase Bramwell     31
2001    Tom Phillips     32
2002    Sean Larsen     27
2003    Nick Benedict     21

PBeM Event History
2001    Rob Mull      16


Offsite links:

AREA Ratings

boardgamegeek 

 Laurels
Rank Name

From

Last
Total
 1. Tom Phillips

NJ

03
66
 2. Chase Bramwell

OH

02
66
 3. Nick Benedict

PA

03
48
 4. Sean Larsen

NJ

02
40
 5. Brian Ecton

VA

99
30
 6. Bret Mingo

MD

02
24
 7. Craig Moffit

NJ

02
24
 8. Rob Seulowitz

NY

02
20
 9. Alan Witte

NJ

03
18
10. Henry Rice

NH

01
18
11. Chris Bodkin

IN

00
16
12. Brad Anderson

OH

02
12
13. Sean Finnerty

NY

03
12
14. Kevin Barry

PA

01
12
15. Rob Mull

CO

01
10
16. Frank McNally

MA

03
  9
17. Chris Greenfield

NJ

99
  9
18. Rich O'Briean

MD

03
  6
19. Bill Dyer

IL

99
  6
20. Will Wible

VA

01
  3
21. Rob Knowles

NC

99
  3

Past Winners

Jim Doughan - PA
1991

1992: Robert Rudolph - PA
1994:
Chris Greenfield - NJ
2000:
Chase Bramwell OH
2002:
Sean Larsen - NJ

Sean Finnerty - NY
1993

Michael Ehlers - MD
1995-1996

Chris Bartiromo - NJ
1997

Charles Dunn - VA
1998

Brian Ecton - VA
1999

Tom Phillips - NJ
2001
     
 


Burn, Rome, Burn

This year's Republic of Rome tournament featured fewer heats but no less action. Senators on one board were so pre-occupied with burying each other's position that the Empire itself fell -- in the Middle Republic! Images of the Mithidratic War causing the gates of Rome to open haunted other senators for the tournament.

This year's finals were unusual in that Rome's internal affairs were substantially quiet. Almost no assassinations attempted, few prosecutions, and not a whiff of revolt or consul-for-life conspiracy. Frank McNally, Alan Witte, Tom Phillips, Nick Benedict, Rich O'Brien, and Sean Finnerty ­ not necessarily the six most peaceful faction patrons available at the WBC ­ instead were focused for much of the game on keeping Late Republic Rome alive.

The problems started early, with four wars being drawn in the second turn to add to a stalemated war remaining from the first. With five wars, four of them active, and three of them matching, Rome turned to its strongest general turn after turn. Inactive wars were never fought voluntarily. And the three matching wars were unfightable without entrusting one senator with all of Rome's legions, effectively inviting him to revolt.

Every turn, every additional active war that was drawn had to be defeated. And they were. Sometimes with modified rolls of 14 (the lowest possible roll to achieve victory), sometimes higher. But Rome squeaked by.

In case that wasn't nerve-wracking enough, halfway through this adventure the Second Cataline Conspiracy was drawn, and the HRAO rolled a 10. This gave us an unrest level close to double digits, and an HRAO's popularity of negative 8. Because the card is played in the forum phase (a rule that I suggest modifying for next year's tournament) no one could do anything about it. We needed a 15 on three dice to survive. And we got it. 15. About a 1 in 12 chance, but Rome carried on.

After most of the wars in the deck had been defeated, and the Cataline crisis was resolved, the focus shifted back in the last two turns to jockeying for position.

Nick Benedict's faction was clearly the moneybags. Owning the shipbuilding concession from the start, he profited greatly from the Alexandrine war, and he also held at least one of the grain concessions. And the office of the Pontifex. He had been burning tribune cards, Pontifex vetos, favors, and bribes for most of the end game to keep his position. A secret deal with Alan Witte's faction (15T up front, a bunch of priesthoods, and 5T every time the deal was invoked) to vote against any prosecution or recall of the Pontifex played a key role in sustaining him.

Going into the final turn, Nick spent 100T buying influence, leapfrogging both Alan Witte and Tom Phillips. (Sean, Rich, and Frank had suffered from luck so extraordinarily bad that someone ought to have looked into it. Repeated death chits, bad battle rolls, bad cards, bad dice. The omens were ugly). This placed the bulls-eye squarely on his back, and Alan saw his opportunity to leapfrog him into first place with a persuasion. Nick spent no cash, seeing that Alan's resources were greater. Alan needed a 2-9 to persuade. And came up with a 10.

Into the Senate phase. An immediate assassination attempt on the Pontifex failed, making Nick immune. We moved to prosecutions. Only one of Nick's senators was eligible for prosecution, and the Pontifex duly used his veto. The only way to reduce Nick's influence was with a recall of the Pontifex, requiring 2/3 majority.

The HRAO calling the votes (Rich's faction) pointed to Nick first. With no other potential use of gold, he poured his entire treasury into the vote. Other factions started to vote in favor of the recall, adding talents here and there. And then it came to Alan.

If he used almost all of his talents, Alan's vote would recall the Pontifex and throw the game back open, but with a failed persuasion attempt and no talents left, he would be very unlikely to win. With the words "I stand behind my Pontifex" his faction voted no on the recall, and the game was over.

Next Year

Some players at the tournament devised an innovative way to structure next year's tournament. Instead of one finals board, there would be two. Playing simultaneously, and ideally in different rooms.

Timing: Both games end at the same time. When one board ends according to the rules, the other board is declared immediately over, regardless of the stage of the game.

Winning: The player with the most impressive victory on his board would be the winner. Consul-for-Life or Successful Revolt victories rank ahead of Highest Influence victories. Since one game is declared immediately over when the other game ends, it is impossible for two games to end in CFL or a revolt. If both games end in a "highest influence" result, the winner would be the one with the highest index score:

Index = Faction Influence * Percent of Total Influence

Example 1: Player A on Board 1 becomes CFL. The finals are over, and he wins.

Example 2: Board 2 ends because the deck is exhausted. This ends Board 1 immediately, and both boards end in "Highest Influence". Player A on Board 1 has 60 influence, and all other players on Board 1 have 240 combined. Therefore Player A gets 60 * (60/240) points, or a fourth of 60, or 15. Player X on Board 2 has 40 influence, and the other players on Board 2 have 100 combined. So Player X gets 40 * (40/100) or 40% of 40, or 16. So Player X would win.

Implications:

This will have a number of implications on game play, most good but some bad. All factions will strive to be winning the game all through play, which is more historical than waiting for an artificial "end". The middle of the game should therefore be more intense. And the random end should eliminate the "end of the world" assassinations and artificial play - instead, these should occur throughout the game rather than as a last resort onslaught. Also, an increased premium is placed on CFL or revolts - moreover, to do so as quickly as possible.

The bad news? You're not fully in control of your destiny. If someone CFL's at another table before you are in position to win, that's bad luck. But CFLs are very rare, bad luck is part of the game, and it's your own fault for not executing your own CFL earlier.

That being said, this is a new proposed format and the new GM is open to suggestions or changes. Send your comments or suggestions to Nick Benedict at nibenedi@wharton.upenn.edu.

 GM      Scott Pfeiffer [1st year]   200A S. Main St, Greenville, SC 29601 
    scott@pfeiffergantt.com   NA

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