Description
One of the most famous stories in history, a struggle between love and power, plays out on your table. In Caesar & Cleopatra one of you leads Caesar, who wants to extend the influence of Rome over Egypt, and the other leads Cleopatra, who fights for the independence of her land. Both use influence cards to court five groups of Roman patricians, hoping they will take their side when a vote of confidence is called. This is the Slovenian edition (Cezar in Kleopatra) of the classic game Caesar & Cleopatra by Wolfgang Lüdtke, with Slovenian cards and rules.
How to play Caesar & Cleopatra
On your turn, you place two influence cards with values from 1 to 5 below the patrician groups on your side, one face up and one face down. You can have at most five cards below any one group. Before or after that, you may also play one action card. Then you draw a bust from the bag: if it is coloured, a vote takes place in the group of that colour. Both sides reveal their cards and the higher total wins the top patrician card. Finally, you refill your hand to six cards.
When all the patricians have been distributed or the influence cards run out, you score points: one for each patrician, one for a majority in a group and one for a complete group, plus two for a fulfilled secret mission.
Why you will like it
- On every turn you decide which value to show and which to hide, so your opponent doesn't know how much influence you have in a group.
- Action cards bring twists: an assassination removes an opponent's card, a scout reveals face-down cards and a veto cancels an opponent's action.
- The philosopher reverses the vote, as the lower total wins in a group with this card.
- The busts drawn from the bag decide where the vote takes place, so you have to be ready everywhere, and the black bust returns all busts to the bag.
Who is Caesar & Cleopatra for
The game is for two players aged 10 and up, and a game takes about 60 minutes. The rules are moderately simple and quick to learn, while the tactics open up with every game. It suits couples and friends who enjoy tense duels with hidden cards. In 1998 it won the Fairplay À la carte award and was placed on the Spiel des Jahres recommendation list.
What you might not like
Action cards can tear down a carefully built majority in a single turn, so the game may not be the best fit for those who dislike losing their position to an opponent's move.
What's in the box
- 47 Roman cards: 37 influence cards (seven of each value from 1 to 5 and 2 philosophers) and 10 action cards
- 47 Egyptian cards with the same distribution
- 21 patrician cards in five groups (5 praetors, 5 quaestors, 5 aediles, 3 consuls, 3 censors)
- 8 mission cards
- 3 overview cards
- 7 coloured busts and a cloth bag
- rules in Slovenian
