Stilicho: Last of the Romans

Inspired by the Roman general of the same name, Stilicho: Last of the Romans sees you dropped into the unfortunate circumstances Flavius Stilicho found himself: as de facto leader of the empire, trying to hold things together under plotting at home (from Olympius, wannabe emperor) and facing enemies on three fronts, with both the Goths and Vandals active in Europe, and rival ‘Western Emperor’ Constantine III headed south from Britain, not exactly bearing gifts.

A map is laid on the table showing the contested regions, the routes the adversaries will take, and also tracks other information such as turns and rounds, the strength of Stilicho’s three armies and how threatening Olympius is becoming at home. Each turn has three rounds, and in each round the enemies activate first: one by one, three Enemy cards are flipped and activated. Some cards have Events on them that simply instruct you to do as the card says – occasionally harmless, but mostly… not. Many of the cards request that an enemy force stirs; either emboldening (flipping the enemy chit from the weaker to the stronger side) or moving forward along its front, towards positions where they’ll eventually change from a looming problem to an extremely present one: if the Vandals reach the end of their front, they begin stirring up unrest. Unrest evolves to Revolt, and too much revolt is one path to defeat, if you’re unable to negate it. Should Constantine III arrive in Ravenna, though, that is an instant loss. If the Goths reach Rome, they assist the plotting of Olympius – if he reaches the top of his track: defeat also, with the loss of your head. If you managed to survive ten turns of all that (and it’s three rounds per turn, remember!) you can also lose by having not defeated any of your enemies!

So. Defeating enemies is possible, and you do so by pushing them all the way back along their front until they can go no further – defeat that force one more time, and they surrender: one less problem to worry about, and indeed they may even join forces with you to fight your battles – at a price. Surviving the multi-directional onslaught long enough to achieve this is tricky, but can be done. In each round you get cards to activate too – five in the first round, three in the second, and a single card in the third. Your cards have events as well, and you can play them as such. But you can also take actions by discarding a card – attacking enemies, deploying forces, adding strength to an attack or defence with the reserve action (-this can be taken reactively during an enemy turn as well) suppressing mutinies or stymying Olympius’ scheming. There’s more, but we won’t attempt to cover them here. Because we haven’t even mentioned… surges.

Enemy activation cards don’t just initiate things once. Having done so, they get added to a ‘surge’ track, and when a third card is added to the surge track all the cards activate again – often the same action; sometimes different. This is easy to understand, but it adds yet another level of difficulty to poor Stilicho’s doom-laden multi-tasking, as the walls seem to crumble around him… the real Stilicho never made it past Turn 3. Can you do any better?

Sam says

Whew, we’ve not even covered how combat works (…some simple dice-rolling) or the presence of garrisons on the map – a bright spot in an otherwise-wasteland of pessimism – but if you’re lost as to the mechanics of it all, you’ve probably got the gist of the experience: this is brutal, a flagellating threshing-machine of a game, that follows every slap in the face with a kick in the shins. It’s also a brilliant piece of design, that reveals more of itself the more you attempt to foil history. Knowledge of the cards helps, certainly, as well as an idea of what is the greatest threat at which moment. But also when it makes sense to risk everything, and how the fall of cards and dice can inform your play. Defeating an enemy early gives you one less problem to worry about, as well as a potential ally, but focusing all your energies on a single foe can backfire, and quickly. As yet, I’ve not made it past Turn 8 (Turn 6 rewards you with more powerful Late War cards – but needless to say, your enemies are also similarly empowered) but I am keen to try again, and fail again, and fail better. If you want anything from a solo game, surely it’s a challenge. And while this particular challenge is a dramatically-charged and ultimately nasty one, I can’t deny that – like poor Stilicho himself – it’s devilishly executed.

Take That!

It's a solo game, so there'll be no arguments. There will, however, be pain. Lots of pain.
Fidget Factor!

None
Brain Burn!

Although publisher Hollandspiele's presentation tends toward the drily thematic, the rules aren't as onerous as they look at first glance. After a couple of plays to get your head around it, things move speedily - if not breezily - and the brain-burning here is not overbearing. It's a matter of managing risk, with threats coming at you from all directions.
Again Again!

In the unlikely event you win, you may be so satisfied that you'll drop the mic and walk out. But that'll take you more than a few attempts, we imagine...