The Roman Empire is waning. Enemies cross her borders, citizens starve due to famine and the ruling families fight each other for power. Even the Emperor is unsafe, the previous ruler being killed by his own bodyguard. But this gap in power is your chance to grab control, command the legions of Rome, and wear the purple robes of the Emperor.
I had a chance to look over the rules and some of the pieces of Tompet Games soon-to-hit-Kickstarter title Donning the Purple. On the surface it looks like a fairly standard resource management game, but diving into the rules there appears to be additional layers of tactical depth.
The board covers the expanse of the Roman Empire. There are a number of Regions, which are divided into smaller Provinces. These areas host the Roman Legions, produce food and house Monuments, but are unfortunately frequently under attack from enemies and nature.
There are four rounds in a game, and each round the board changes slightly. Enemies amass in Provinces, or attack settlements. Farms produce food, or the region suffers the effects of famine. It is up to the player currently holding the title of Emperor to manage the Empire and keep it running. For if Rome falls, that is the end and all players lose.
Of course, being Emperor isn’t as straight forward as that. At the Emperors heels snap the other players, vying to take them down and instate themselves as ruler. For the Emperor gains access to the wealth of the Roman Empire, and the points awarded from the happiness of its citizens. Whereas the other players must make do with what they have, and scheme to supplant the Emperor.
They do this by using their actions to build structures, solidifying their power. Or manipulating the senate to control infrastructure and the ascension of new Emperors. Then again, players could be less subtle and stab directly at the heart of the Empire, by attempting to assassinate the Emperor. These are just some of the options open to players as they attempt to seize control of the game.
Everything is run on an interesting stamina system. Each player has a limited number of stamina to spend, which they use as they choose actions to perform. Some actions can be copied by other players, so stamina can become in short supply. Should a player run out of stamina they are considered dead. However, they are not out of the game.
Instead the player collects a new player board and stamina tokens and continues playing. Death does have its drawbacks, though. Each death results in points being subtracted from the players final score. And if the player was the Emperor then the title is passed on.
Reading through the rules of Donning the Purple one thing becomes apparent. This isn’t your standard resource management and area control game. These aspects do play an important part, but the real action is happening between players as they vie with each other to gain the upper hand.
With largely no control over the Empire, this leaves the players not performing the role of Emperor time to really scheme and plot. And when acting as Emperor things become even more frantic, as you are tasked with simultaneously keeping the Empire alive, ensuring you score the most points each round and fending off the murderous intent of your opponents.
The game components themselves look quite nice. The board and mats are quite simple, but in a way that looks to support their utility. Whereas the cards feature some fantastic illustrations, and offer some evocative character to the proceedings. However the tokens and meeples are largely generic, and while hardly detract from the overall experience, their inclusion does contrast heavily against the other components.
I haven’t had a chance to play Donning the Purple, so my impressions on gameplay are limited to how I understand the rules as written. But it looks to be an interesting interpretation of competitive games with co-operative elements. If resource management games are to your liking then take a look at the Kickstarer when it goes live. If you like what is on offer in both gameplay and price then you may want to, in the very least, keep one eye on it.
Use the other one to spot assassins!
Donning the Purple is scheduled to go live on Kickstarter later this month. You can keep up-to-date with all the latest news on the game by signing up to Tompet Games newsletter at tompetgames.no
