Yaquinto's Barbarians

 

Another 'vintage' boardgame (1981 being vintage makes me feel old!).  This is Barbarians, one of the album style games that Yaquinto produced in the 80s.  I'd never heard of it but Anthony had acquired a copy and had fond memories of it.

It is actually 2 games in one.  We played the Fall of Rome game with various barbarian tribes aiming to capture Rome.  The other half of the board is a similar game based around invading Mongols which has slightly different mechanics but is similar in approach.

The Romans begin holding the northern frontiers with the Frank's, Vandals, Goths and Huns arriving from geographically dubious starting locations.  The Romans have a definite advantage in combat but are very limited in reinforcements while the Barbarians arrive relentlessly every turn.

The only victory condition is to capture Rome by turn 14... nothing else matters... so the invaders need to break through the defences and stream towards Rome.  Because the Romans are pretty much doomed the game suggests that you play it twice, changing sides, and the winner is the player who captures Rome quickest.

In both games it felt like the Romans were very securely holding back the Barbarians but once a gap appears in the line it becomes very hard to hold back the tide and everything suddenly changes.  The Roman player then has to scramble back from the Northern borders and try to protect the city.  In both games it was surprising how quickly it changed from secure, happy Romans to chaos as the Barbarian hordes charged South.

In both of our games Rome nearly held out, falling in turns 12 and 13 and giving me a close win.  A really fun game with a surprising amount of thinking involved for such a simple set of rules