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In the Ancient World, civilizations are built upon 3 foundations: Commerce, Construction, and Expansion. As a leader of an ancient Mediterranean Power, each player will need to master all 3 roads to power in order to lead their civilization to dominance and victory.
Mare Nostrum is all about the expansion of one's lands, the construction of new cities, and the dispatching of caravans to take advantage of rare commodities that can either be traded or exploited to build constructions and eventually wonders of the world.
But diplomacy and trade are but one path to greatness. The expansion of your navy and armies can take what should be rightfully yours. Hiring great leaders will further expand your boundaries in quick time.
Controlling a combined total of 4 Wonders and/or Leaders or being the first to build the Pyramids will assure victory. But there are many hurdles to overcome to achieve such heights.
Mare Nostrum allows for up to 5 players and offers a basic and advanced game in which players can customise their starting civilisation. For a game of such scope, it is quite amazing to think that the game only requires 2 pages of rules.
Mare Nostrum is a winner of the 2001 Concours International de Créateurs de Jeux de Société.
- It was a very good game.
- The risk of taking pirate dice was high and resulted in losing 16 points.
- Vitinyos
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Dice draft — A dice draft and placement type of thing where you draft your number to choose an action.
- Impactful Decisions — Very impactful decisions.
- Pirate Dice — Taking pirate dice can help do extra things but may cost points.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- we are going to rank our top 20 heaviest games that we have played according to BGG rating whether we agree or not we'll tell you later
- delving into that ever controversial ever amorphous topic that is BGG heaviness ratings what do they mean no one knows no one can explain
- the fact that you can ruin your game very early on and this is is one of them
- it was hard to feel like you were achieving anything as well
- that's a real signal of how tough the entry point to this game is
- the bass rules are so dense and adding dog Arts Academy to it adds a whole extra thing to do
References (from this video)
- grand scale and negotiation dynamics
- long setup and playtime, heavy rules
- empire expansion and naval influence
- Classical-era Mediterranean empire management
- historical-strategy with negotiation
- Twilight Imperium
- Forbidden Stars
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Area Control — players vie for influence across regions and sea tiles
- area control and empire building — players vie for influence across regions and sea tiles
- Resource Management — managing fleets, income, and trade routes
- resource/resource conversion economy — managing fleets, income, and trade routes
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- I had an amazing time but that's a game that you're super engaged with the players and the game for three to four hours so the time kind of flew
- the time kind of flew
- it's funny you say that because I have a built-in clock even if a game is long if there's some element that eventually will wind down and the game will end I love that
- Scheduling in advance is really the way to go
- I rarely actually rarely get to play a three plus hour game