You do not conquer Rome with legions in Carta Imperia: Rise of Rome. You conquer it with favours, bribes and the occasional well-timed dagger. Guntower Games, a UK studio that has been showing the game off at UK Games Expo and around the Canterbury gaming scene, has its dealmaking mini-4X live on Kickstarter now, and it leans hard into the idea that politics is the deadliest weapon of all.
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Start organising for freeHere is the pitch. It is a card game for 1 to 6 players, running roughly 40 minutes per player, played across an ever-shifting board built entirely from cards. You expand Rome's reach by claiming provinces and commanding legions, but raw military might is rarely enough on its own. Legions can be traded for political influence, and influence can be cashed in for votes in governor elections, or simply spent to pay a rival not to drag you through the courts. As the Republic creaks towards its end, the gloves come off entirely, with assassination and outright civil war on the table.
That mix of negotiation, table talk and quiet treachery puts it in the same conversation as the great wheeler-dealer games, only squeezed into a card-driven box rather than a sprawling map. The 4X bones are there, explore, expand, exploit and exterminate, but the real game is reading the room and knowing exactly when to stab.
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See how it worksThis is a small independent campaign rather than a seven-figure juggernaut, so if a Roman backstabbing game sounds like your group's idea of a good evening, the final stretch is when indie projects need backers most. Round up your usual suspects, find your scheming circle on Backseat Gamer, and decide now who you trust least.
Sources: Guntower Games | Meeple Mountain | Kickstarter | BoardGameGeek
