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The Barracks Emperors is a strategy card game set against the backdrop of the Roman Crisis of the Third Century, during which at least 45 different men made a claim to the throne of the Roman Empire. In this game, 1-4 players represent prominent political factions attempting to gain control over the men who would be Emperors of Rome. Players deploy the influence available to them (represented by the cards in their hands) to claim imperial reigns (represented by the historical Emperor cards arrayed on the board.) But they must be very careful, because politics is a complex game, and sometimes attempting to exert your influence necessitates aiding someone else in their own plots. Play your cards cleverly to capture Emperors and score the most points to win.
At its heart, The Barracks Emperors is a trick-taking game, but not one like you’ve ever seen before. In this innovative design, all 13 tricks are available for play simultaneously, in an interlocking grid that forces you to balance the value of every card you play against the value that same card may have for another player on a different trick. Plus, every card grants you an additional special ability that you might be able to use to spring a surprise on your unwitting opponents.
Features:
Historical emperors, co-emperors, pretenders, and even Gallic Emperors who broke away from Rome during the Crisis of the Third Century are all represented as individual cards in the game, each with interesting facts about the rise and demise of the man depicted.
For fans of Time of Crisis: The Roman Empire in Turmoil, 235-284 AD and Time of Crisis: The Age of Iron and Rust, you will find some of the concepts and flavor from that deck-building wargame, adapted in this all new standalone game. You don’t need Time of Crisis to play The Barracks Emperors, but you’ll recognize Influence Cards such as Praetorian Guard, Foederati, and Pretender, now used in an entirely new way.
An innovative card drafting mechanic adds an extra layer of strategy to how you play your cards while also mitigating the luck that would come with being dealt a full hand of cards at the start of each round.
This game is designed for 4 players, but also includes options for 2 or 3 players, plus an easy-to-play solitaire adaptation for the solo player.
- Very fun and interesting card game
- Really a hoot
- Fantastic game
- Absolutely love it
- Love to play it at game night with students
- Best with the full four players
- Playing cards can help opponents
- The Crisis of the 3rd Century, vying for emperorship
- 3rd Century Rome
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- area influence — Trying to claim emperors for your side by surrounding them.
- Card Play — The number values and abilities of cards are important, and playing a card impacts potential moves for others.
- Grid Movement — Players use cards on a grid to surround emperors.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the discriminating gamer.
- My top 50 GMT games of all time, 30 to 21.
- This is really the game, I think, that I cut my teeth on coin with um and really learned how to how these systems worked.
- It's not as difficult as and and and treacherous to learn as I thought it would be.
- And I really loved that tension of trying to to to do as much as you can, but having to really pick and choose because at any moment, the game could end.
- But critically, even though the game looks like a civilization building game at its heart, it is a take that game. You are constantly playing take that here.
- And it is hilarious. It is so much fun trying to build things up and then you're playing these cards and your opponents are just swatting you down.
- It's a very unusual game. I don't know that I've ever played a game quite like Atlantic Chase.
- I really felt bad about it. This is one maybe I need to require at some point.
- So, you've got to be very careful as you play this game because the cards you play to help you can end up helping somebody else.
- This is probably the most popular game when I take it to my West Civ one game nights.
- Well, what do you think ladies and gentlemen?
- If you really like what we do here, please check out my other channel that is Cody Carlson PhD where we talk about history, military history, books on history. I even post some of my lectures on there.
References (from this video)
- Proclaiming oneself emperor
- 3rd century Crisis
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Area Control — Players try to surround emperor cards on the board.
- Hand Management — Players use cards to achieve their goals.
- Player Elimination — Implicitly, as players vie for emperors, some may be eliminated from contention.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- My number 10 is Cthulhu Dark Providence from Kaman.
- My number nine is a game that mechanically and and component-wise together I just don't know that I've seen anything like this.
- My number eight is a game from uh GMT Games and it's a game I actually had my game day today for my students and I actually had this game out but we didn't have enough students so we couldn't play it and I was really bummed.
- My number seven is a game that is a cooperative game but it's also kind of a hidden information game.
- So my number six is a game that I played um kind of late last year.
- My number five is a deck building game.
- My number four is a great game.
- My number three is also from GMT Games and it also takes place within a few decades of Versail 1919. This is Prime Minister.
- My number two happens to be my wife's favorite game of all time and it is a good one.
- My number one unique game of all time.
References (from this video)
- A decidedly nonwar game from GMT, offering a fresh feel
- Brain-wracking, with satisfying strategic depth
- Possibly niche appeal; temperature of interest varies by group
- Military strategy with card-driven tableau
- Ancient Rome
- Strategic, brain-busting puzzle-like interaction
- GMT’s nonwar catalog
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- board/column alignment — synergies and restrictions depend on how cards line up; anticipation of 3 turns ahead
- card-driven placement — cards with color and edge icons influence placement and scoring
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Total total hidden gem, too.
- Dog Poker is a very simple drafting game where you can play two-player as well.
- Go buy it.
- The math is upfront. It is just the math. It is the pure math.