Andrea Ligabue
Italy
Modena
Italy
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Here my review first appeared in Fall 2009 Gamers Alliance Report issue:
Following the way showed by To Court the King and Kingsburg (Spring 2008 GA REPORT), side by side with Roll Through the Ages (Spring 2009 GA REPORT), Alea Iacta Est, from Bernd Eisenstein and Jeffrey D. Allers, is more than a simple dice game. It has been described as a dice-based resource allocation system and I agree. Rolling dice, at least for me, gives a valuable input to play as long as the game is far enough from randomness. When playing Alea Iacta Est, arguing about bad or good luck is second to making the best use of your rolls.
Before going in the details, a few words about the title: Alea is both dice (in Latin) and the name of the publishers. Alea Iacta Est translates into "The roll of the dice", a great title that fits very well with the theme of the game.
In Alea Iacta Est, you obtain victory points by taking control of provinces and patricians. Victory Points can also be found in the Senate, from getting tiles, in the Temple, getting "fortuna" and finally in the Latrina. The game last between 4 and 6 turns, according to the number of players.
In a typical 4-5 player game, you have 5 buildings: Senatus, Castrum, Templum, Forum Romanum and Latrina. Every turn a number of provinces equal to the number of players are drawn and placed below the Castrum. A number of patricians equal to the number of players plus 2 are drawn and placed in the Forum. Each player has a color and his own set of 8 dice. In the first turn of each round, each player rolls all of his 8 dice. He can re-roll one or more dice using a "repeat" token. During your turn you have to place one or more dice in one of these buildings. Dice are placed in the different buildings according to different rules:
In the Senatus, dice are placed in a straight sequence (1-2-3, 4-5, 3-4-5-6) and you can only have one set. In the Castrum you have to place dice with the same number (two 6s, four 2s, one 4, three 5s). In the Temple, you can add dice as long as you have one more than other players and a higher sum. In Forum Romanum, you can place one die or a couple. You can always place a single die in the Latrina. There are several options and you have to plan your moves well since you know the dice other players have to place this turn. For example, it is not possible to replicate the same set in Castrum and Senatus (I can't play two 6s in Castrum if you have two 6s there).
The first player in the Senatus, the one with the longest straight, draws three Senatus tiles and keeps one; the second player keeps one of the two remaining. Senatus tiles usually confers some victory points in the end according to different conditions (like one point for each province, one point for each male patrician and so on) or are special provinces with two colors to make getting VPs easier. The first player in the Castrum takes one province, the second another one and so on. The first player in the Forum Romanum take one of the patricians and so on. It is possible to win more than one patrician and more than one province in the some turn. Placing dice in the Templum offers the opportunity to draw "fortuna" tokens valued at 1 to 3 points, one for each dice. The player with the highest dice sum there will keep 2 tokens, the other players one. Dice left in buildings without prizes are moved into the Latrina for one repeat token each. Repeat tokens are valued at 1/2 point and can be used to re-roll dice.
Provinces are in 6 colors, valued from 1 to 4. Patricians are in 6 colors and two genders (male and female) valued from 1 to 3. You can have two patricians (a male and a female) in each province as long as the colors are the same. Two color provinces allow you to place two patricians of different genders (as usual) but also in different colors. In the end, patricians without a province are valued at 0 and provinces with no patricians are valued one less point.
The game is quite simple and linear but really challenging: you have to think when and where place dice, watching what other players are doing and collecting. You can race for provinces and patricians, fight for Senatus or fortuna tiles. You can try to quickly end an unsatisfactory turn by placing many dice at once in a long straight.
I really like this game because it is quick, fun and not really so "fortuna" driven as you might suppose with so many dice. Another plus is that it scales well from 2 to 5. In a year of some excellent dice games, Alea Iacta Est is one of the best.
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Stefano Tonini
Italy
Milano
Milano
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Being punctual and anoying
 , I'll point out that "alea iacta est" means: "the dice has been rolled" and can be loosely translated as "the decision has been taken"
Shard
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Andy Andersen
United States
Newark
Delaware
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This plays very well for my wife and I. Easy, quick, and enjoyable. Good artwork.
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A great dice-resource allocation game that is underrated. The Senatus cards are a bit of a barrier to first time play and can turn people off of the game with their somewhat confusing iconography. However, they're also the element that makes the game shine and can't be ignored if you really want to get a big score.
The artwork also really appeals and helps to draw interest in the game when it's set up at a game night.
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Andrea Ligabue
Italy
Modena
Italy
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I agree with you: Alea Iacta Est is really "A great dice-resource allocation game that is underrated"
good play
Liga
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Richard Young
Canada
Victoria
BC
Old Ways Are Best!
Check Six!
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Conteshard wrote: Being punctual and anoying , I'll point out that "alea iacta est" means: "the dice has been rolled" and can be loosely translated as "the decision has been taken" Shard
Quite. Apparently the quote is from a contemporary of Julius Caesar who reported him as saying these words as he crossed the Rubicon with his legions. Also translated as: "The die is cast," or, "the game is afoot." Or, in modern air combat terminology: "Fight's On!"
The game is a clever and thematic re-imagining of Yahtzee...
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Bubslug wrote: The game is a clever and thematic re-imagining of Yahtzee...
Perhaps in a very tangential sense a re-imaging, if only in that you roll and re-roll lots of dice in both games. Completely different in any other way though. I suppose a comparison to Yahtzee is fine for non-hobbyist gamers, but many more closely aligned games exist including To Court the King, Alien Frontiers and Kingsburg (with varying degrees of similarity to Alea Iacta Est).
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Richard Young
Canada
Victoria
BC
Old Ways Are Best!
Check Six!
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Bairoth wrote: Bubslug wrote: The game is a clever and thematic re-imagining of Yahtzee... Perhaps in a very tangential sense a re-imaging, if only in that you roll and re-roll lots of dice in both games. Completely different in any other way though. I suppose a comparison to Yahtzee is fine for non-hobbyist gamers, but many more closely aligned games exist including To Court the King, Alien Frontiers and Kingsburg (with varying degrees of similarity to Alea Iacta Est).
Rolling and re-rolling lots of dice looking for? Dice in sequence (runs), lots of the same dice, high totals etc. Which in turn gives you victory points. Add a goodly smattering of thematic chrome = ? You do remember how Yahtzee goes?
I don't know about your first two "closely aligned games" but Kingsburg depends purely on the individual spots thrown either singly or in recombined totals and so, while involving dice, is more an innovative method of "action selection" and has little in common with either Alea Iacta Est or Yahtzee.
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Bubslug wrote: Bairoth wrote: Bubslug wrote: The game is a clever and thematic re-imagining of Yahtzee... Perhaps in a very tangential sense a re-imaging, if only in that you roll and re-roll lots of dice in both games. Completely different in any other way though. I suppose a comparison to Yahtzee is fine for non-hobbyist gamers, but many more closely aligned games exist including To Court the King, Alien Frontiers and Kingsburg (with varying degrees of similarity to Alea Iacta Est). Rolling and re-rolling lots of dice looking for? Dice in sequence (runs), lots of the same dice, high totals etc. Which in turn gives you victory points. Add a goodly smattering of thematic chrome = ? You do remember how Yahtzee goes? I don't know about your first two "closely aligned games" but Kingsburg depends purely on the individual spots thrown either singly or in recombined totals and so, while involving dice, is more an innovative method of "action selection" and has little in common with either Alea Iacta Est or Yahtzee.
The games I listed use dice as a form of resource to, directly or indirectly, score victory points and thus win the game. Alea Iacta Est makes you chose where you would like to allocate your rolled dice combinations in order to gain resources (provinces, patricians, senatus cards), without asigning a direct value or score to that combination (a la Yahtzee). Yes, you are rolling a fist full of dice to achieve combinations, but the significance of those combinations in game terms is vastly different.
The other games I listed (and I urge you to try Alien Frontiers and To Court the King if you are a fan of dice-resource games) all add their own peculiar tweak to the allocation of rolled combinations.
Yes, Kingsburg is not the same game as Alea Iacta Est, but the fact that the dice are a proxy for action selection makes it more akin to Alea Iacta Est than the latter is to Yahtzee.
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