Spartacus boardgame review

[Anatoli]

Spartacus: A game of blood and treachery is such a surprise to me for several reasons. It's a game based upon a (imo) rather mediocre show, and it's made by GaleForce9 who is a producer of miniature wargaming terrain and basing material. Despite these two factors the game is actually pretty damn good!

If you don't know the show, don't worry as your knowledge of it has zero impact on the game. The only thing a person familiar with the show will have is being able to recognize the factions and some of the characters on the cards.

The game is a 3-4 player affair, with competing "houses" , some of them are aristocracy others are ambitious gladiator trainers (Lannista's). Everyone wants to have as much influence and power as they possibly can, so the first player who takes his house to 12 influence wins the game. The road to victory is lined with corpses of your enemies, backstabbing, scheming and dealing with other players. At the core Spartacus is a very competitive game where players can screw each other over really bad - however (I must add before some of you panic and run away) - it's not really that bad as in games such as "A Game of Thrones". There are boundaries, rules and limits that control when and how you act and that also make you keep your word. In short, there are game mechanics in place to create an atmosphere of controlled scheming.

Check the full review over at my blog:

http://anatolisgameroom.blogspot.se/2013/02/spartacus-boardgame-review.html

[Mad Doc Morris]

To get things a bit more streamlined, for further discussion please refer to the related unboxing thread here. Thanks!