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The ancient Romans called the Mediterranean Sea "mare nostrum", which is Latin for "our sea".
Mare Nostrum is an empire-building game in which 3-5 players [or 2-6 with the 'Atlas' expansion] lead their individual ancient empires to dominion of Mare Nostrum. You grow the fame and glory of your empire by expanding your influence into new Provinces, then extending your Trade Caravans, building Markets, and founding new Cities and Temples. You can recruit Heroes and create Wonders to help your cause. But beware of your "friends" because they may look upon your gains with envy and greed...
Mare Nostrum is a re-introduction by Academy Games and Asyncron of the original 2003 release with updated rules, counters, and map board. This edition includes many new components and multiple new ways to win!
In more detail, you choose an empire to lead, which begins with three Provinces. You can lead with Caesar of Rome and its powerful Legions, or with Pericles, the prominent Greek statesman and orator, with the great Babylonian lawgiver and healer King Hammurabi, or with Queen Cleopatra of Egypt, whose engineers led in the development of grain storage and irrigation, or with Hannibal, leader of the Carthaginians, whose merchants thrived on trade and commerce. Now you decide how you will grow your empire. You can do this by:
Expanding your Trade and creating Wonders.
Concentrating on Culture and building the great Pyramids.
Developing a strong and powerful Military to occupy the Provinces of other empires, or
Exerting Political Leadership by claiming the titles of Trade Leader, Cultural Leader, and Military Leader.
- Fantastic scaling and setup options.
- Intuitive gameplay despite strategic depth.
- Extremely high player interaction.
- No leader steamrolling keeps players invested.
- High replay value due to faction asymmetry.
- High quality artwork and components.
- Good blend of history and mythology.
- Bottlenecking problem where other players gang up on the leader.
- Game can sometimes prolong longer than it should due to the above issue.
- Player shield could have been better.
- Ancient civilizations warring, trading, and constructing
- Mediterranean
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- action selection — Players take turns performing actions within phases, often determined by leader roles.
- Area Control — Players control provinces by placing control markers, legions, or fortresses.
- Combat — Triremes and legions engage in battles using dice rolls, with modifiers for leaders and fortresses.
- leader tracks — Tracks for trade, culture, and military determine leadership and potential victory conditions.
- Resource Management — Players collect and use resources (coins, specific goods) to build and perform actions.
- Set Collection — Resources are used in sets for building actions, with variations for certain factions like Carthage.
- Victory Point / Condition — Multiple paths to victory including controlling capitals, building the pyramid, recruiting heroes, or leading on tracks.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Academy Games has proven time and time again that they are definitely one of my favorite game publishers out there and obviously that is no exception with Marin Nostrm.
- The simple genius way of different player setup using the boards is phenomenal. So scaling in this game is fantastic as well.
- This game being so fun that only garners a half point penalty.
- A perfect blend of history and mythology in a perfect blend of a war game and a board game.
References (from this video)
- People who have played it really enjoy it.
- A little bit long for a civilization game.
- Civilization
- Mayor Nostrum
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- This week might be the weakest week.
- I don't know anything about this game.
- I apologize it's just like I don't know what that game is.
- This is a really fun game and you really don't see too many people talk about this one.
- I don't care for Time Stories.
- Get it out of here I'm done I don't have time for it I have better things to do.
- I think this one will go away because the Star Wars license can be a Fickle thing.
- I just don't understand the game that's that's my problem absolutely my problem is this kind of game.