Caesar & Cleopatra

• Designer: Wolfgang Ludtke
• Publisher: Kosmos
• Players: 2
• Age: 8+
• Time: 30 min
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Theirs is one of history’s most famous stories: a bittersweet struggle between love and power. Caesar wants to expand Rome’s influence over Egypt. Cleopatra fights for her kingdom’s independence. Who will be able to win the loyalty of Rome’s powerful patricians and determine the fate of Egypt? Both players have the same resources at their disposal, including the wrath of the Gods … but who will wield them more effectively?

Caesar & Cleopatra is designed by Wolfgang Ludtke and was originally published by Kosmos in 1997.  I still have my copy of the original game and it makes an appearance every now and then when we’re in a nostalgic mood.   It’s from the revered 2p line of square box games.  A new version has come out recently with some updated rules, new artwork, and a mild retheming that makes that game a heck of a lot more family friendly – no more orgies!

The basic idea of the game is for each player, representing Rome and Egypt, respectively, to sway as many of the Roman Senate Patricians to their side. This is accomplished by the playing of ‘ Influence’ cards, either face-up or face-down, on the five Patrician groups. 

Most rounds, a ‘ Vote of Confidence’ is held and the player having the most influence placed upon the group being voted upon wins the top Patrician of that group. At the end of the game, players receive victory points for the number of Patricians they have swayed to their side, as well as points for having swayed a majority of each of the five houses and for having captured an entire house’s loyalty. 

In addition, a player receives a secret ‘ Victory Bonus’ card at the beginning of the game which rewards the player with bonus victory points if a certain task is completed (obtaining a majority of Patricians from a certain house).

Each player receives an identical set of cards consisting of 37 Influence cards, which range in value from 1 – 5 and includes two special ‘ Philosopher’ cards (which reverse the outcome of a ‘ Vote of Confidence’) and an ‘ Action’ deck containing ten cards with varying actions, allowing players to perform such dirty tricks such as forcing a player to remove a card; revealing face down cards, enabling one to re-organize his already placed influence cards; etc. Players also occasionally have a veto card which can halt an opponent’s action..

The five patrician groups are placed in the center of the table.  Each player takes a set of cards numbered 1 to 5 and then secretly places one underneath each of the five patrician columns.   Each player then takes another set of cards 1 to 5 to form their starting hand.  To this hand, they add in any one action card of their choice.   Now, take all the remaining influence cards and shuffle them together to form a draw pile.  Do the same with the remaining action cards.  Each player is also dealt two mission cards at random from the eight available in the game.  The bag is filled with the seven colored busts – one for each type of patrician as well as a grey and black bust.

Each turn, a player must first play two influence cards, one face up and one face down.  (If you’ve played the original version – this is a new change). You can place the cards below any of your patrician groups, or both under the same group.  You are limited to no more than 5 influence cards under any one patrician group though.   If you play to a patrician group and it now has 8+ cards, that group will immediately have a vote of confidence.

If this occurs, players reveal all the face down cards in that column and then total the value of the ‘Influence’ cards they had committed to that particular house. The player with the highest total wins and captures the top Patrician card from that house. However, the winning player is forced to discard his highest value Influence card which was committed to that house, while the losing player only loses his lowest value card. This has a balancing effect on the houses in regards to strength and keeps the game close.  If there is a tie, no one wins.  

The one exception to this ‘vote of confidence’ procedure is if a player had committed one of his ‘Philosopher’ cards to the house. In this case, the vote totals are reversed and the player with the lowest point value in Influence cards wins the vote and takes the top Patrician card!  If each side has Philosopher cards, they cancel each other out… 

The player can also optionally play an action card.  This can happen before or after the playing of the influence cards, but not in between the two influence cards.  You must announce what card you are playing and what you wish to do with it – so that your opponent can decide if they want to Veto that action (should they have a veto card in their hand to do so).

Next, draw a bust from the bag.  If it is one of the five colors of patricians, there is a vote of confidence amongst the group of matching color. The colored bust is set aside for now.  If the grey bust is drawn, there is NO vote of confidence and the grey bust is simply put aside.  If the black bust is drawn, there is NO vote of confidence AND the bag is reset with all the busts being returned to said bag.

Following a player’s action and placement of cards, he is allowed to re-fill his hand to the six card limit. He must decide whether to re-fill his hand with cards from the face-down action or influence decks. It becomes a balancing act between selecting action cards versus influence cards in order to keep one’s options on subsequent turns open.  

Also, whenever the first patrician group is completely emptied, the players must now choose between their two mission cards that they were dealt in setup, keeping only one of them.  The unchosen one is discarded to the box.

The game continues in this fashion until all Patrician members are taken or both players run out of Influence cards. At this point, points are totalled and the victor is determined. Players receive 1 Victory Point for each Patrician they have swayed to their side, as well as 1 VP for having captured a majority of members in a particular house. An additional 1 VP is awarded if a player managed to sway an entire house to his side. Further, 2 VP are awarded if a player met his ‘secret’ mission card.  Ties are broken in favor of the player who has the most total patrician cards collected.

I remember when I first started playing this game, I didn’t feel like i had a lot of control over things.  I just slammed cards down and then watched the votes of confidence play out.  After getting more experience, I learned that there is definitely an art to how/where/when to play cards – both the influence cards as well as the action cards.  It can be very useful to force a vote (by playing the eighth card to a column).

There is also a fair bit of agency at the end of each turn when you choose how to fill your hand, whether to take cards from the Action Deck or the Influence Deck.  Your choice will definitely shape your options available to you during the next turn.

This new version does change a few things.  First, the game turn has been made a bit different – you no longer worry about being active or passive; you just play two cards each turn, one face up and one face down.   This makes the play a lot more uncertain (well, until there is a vote of confidence and you reveal those cards).  Is this better?  At this point, I’m not sure… But, I’ve played the original a LOT in my youth, and I don’t know how much of my attachment to the old rules is just me being sentimental.

In any event, the game is still a fine two-player challenge.  The new art is a bit cleaner and more attractive to my eye.  Does the world need another version of this game?  At first, I wasn’t certain – but the new changes do liven up the game a bit.  And the original was quite popular – my new box says over 350000 copies of the original were sold!  So, the game certainly has its fans.  If you’ve never played it or never owned the original, it’s definitely a solid 2p game and one worth exploring.  If you still own the original, I might recommend playing the new rules first to see if you like them.   In that case, it might just be a question of whether you like the new art/theme.

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it!
• I like it. Dale Y
• Neutral.
• Not for me…