Foundations of Rome – Emperor

Foundations of Rome – Emperor is the expanded edition of Arcane Wonders' miniature city builder: the core game plus the 5th Player, Monuments and five smaller modules, with metal coins. It does not include the Roads of Fortune expansion. For that, see the Maximus edition, which is this same Emperor content with Roads of Fortune added.

Players are rival architects in ancient Rome, competing for lots on one shared city board. Each turn you make one quick choice: buy land, build, or take income. Homes and shops earn glory from population and commerce. Civic buildings score from their surroundings, so your opponents' construction can work in your favor. By the end of the game the board has filled up with sculpted 3D miniature buildings, so the city you built together sits on the table.

At a glance

• Publisher: Arcane Wonders (Dice Tower Essentials line)
• Designer: Emerson Matsuuchi
• Players: 2–5
• Play time: 60–90 minutes
• Ages: 14+

What's in the Emperor box

• Core game: 96 miniature buildings (residential, commercial and civic), city, deed and score boards, 81 deed cards, 4 player trays and 20 Invocation cards
• 5th Player expansion: a fifth player tray, buildings, deed cards and markers
• Monuments expansion: 19 monument buildings and matching cards
• Trading/Stealing (favor tokens), Will of the Consul, Objectives (18 cards) and Player Roles (15 cards) modules
• Metal coins

Emperor vs. Maximus: Maximus has everything listed here plus the Roads of Fortune expansion (border road boards, milestone markers, alternate monument cards and Gardens of Ceres solo boards). If you want Roads of Fortune in the box, choose Maximus.

Big box: plan for roughly 17 × 14 × 14 in. Made in China.