A fun game with the occasional flaw, award-nominated card game Augustus is a candidate for that short list of hallowed "Gateway" games.
For years, designers have struggled to create that most hallowed of games - The Gateway. The kind of game that you could happily put in front of your grandmother, run her through the rules in a matter of a few minutes and nigh on guarantee that everyone is going to have an entertaining time. At the moment, there's something of a holy trinity that, when asked, the majority of gamers will refer to if you're looking to play something with folks who may not be as into the hobby as you. There's Carcassonne, of course - tile laying at its finest, creating towns and roads in the French countryside. Settlers of Catan introduces the idea of trading in games to many people, and puts an emphasis on managing your resources. Finally, Ticket To Ride focuses on set collection and building networks across a map. They're all simple to get into and even the most hesitant of potential players should enjoy the experience.
Now entering the fray, we have Augustus from Hurrican Games, a title which I honestly believe could take the fourth place in the Gateway Games pantheon. It seems to fit all criteria - easy to understand, relatively quick playing with a some level of interaction - and has already been nominated for this year's Spiel des Jahres, the German Game of the Year award. The question is will it be added to that shelf in your collection that always seems to be the go to when you're looking for something accessible?
The theme and mechanics of the game are light as a meringue. You and your fellow players are advisors to the Roman Emperor Augustus, striving to control regions of the Empire as well as members of the Senate as you bid to become his second-in-command. As the game starts, you are randomly given three cards that represent these areas and people, each of which sport a collection of icons down the left side. Seven Legion meeples are also at your disposal that will be used to cover up these icons - manage to hide them all on a card and it is deemed complete, you shout Ave Caesar, stash the card to the side then draw a replacement. Be the first to complete seven and you finish the game.
How though are these icons decided? Well, tokens showing those same images are drawn at random from a bag. Should you have the icon on one of your cards, you may cover it up. However, with only a limited amount of Legions at hand, you'll need to shift them around back and forth as you attempt to get all the icons covered up. Some are easier than others - there may only be a few icons, or those that you need to get rid of are more common. Of the tokens in the bag, there are plenty showing a gladius but only one depicting a dagger, and it's this rarity that you'll need to take into consideration - will you try and finish off a handful of potentially difficult but high-scoring cards, or race to complete seven simpler, low-value ones?
Augustus is made up of several simple decisions such as these. As legions can only be moved to a space showing the icon that has just been drawn, should you shift them to the new space or leave them in place? Have you correctly kept track of what's been drawn from the bag so far? When you have finally finished off a card, which one will you take in order to replace it? These are far from difficult to make, meaning that Augustus shouldn't terrify non-gamers too much while still offering enough choice to those who have more experience in play.
Of course, there are other things to consider. Each region provides a range of goods, for example, though in this base game players need only concern themselves with those that produce gold and wheat. If you are the first to finish a region that shows one of these, you get to take a tile that will give bonus points at the end of the game. Other bonus tiles can be gained for completing sets of regions of the same colour or being the first to control three senators, adding in a few more decisions for players to make. Finally, while some cards will give you a healthy points boost, others also offer special abilities...
Whether they're one-offs or permanent powers, these are the things that will invariably win you the game. Some allow you to use drawn tokens in substitution of others - a gladius can be replaced with a chariot, that kind of thing - while others offer bonus points. Probably the most cruel (or entertaining, depending on your outlook) are the red-backed aggressive powers that force other players to remove legions or - in the worst cases - discard a hard-won completed card. This offers the opportunity for another lesson... that games are not always nice!
Another positive about Augustus is that despite being able to handle up to six players in one game, it never outstays its welcome. Games, once everyone has a basic grasp of the rules, generally take about thirty minutes. I've found that Augustus generally gets played two or even three times once it hits the table - it's incredibly easy to break down, reset and start again, so revenge is easily within reach should a game not go so well...
Admittedly, the game does have the odd flaw. The theme feels very much pasted on - the mechanics are solid enough, but this could seriously work with whatever you wanted to throw at it. A council of planets filled with alien races? A nice day down on the farm trying to herd animals? Any theme would function perfectly well. It's also been accused of being little more than Roman Bingo, though that's not really a bad thing - it simply shows how simple it is to explain the game to anyone. My main problem is that it does feel like Augustus could have had a bit more in the box. Hurrican could well have expanded a little further on elements involving the items produced by the regions. It feels like the game has been built with expansions firmly in mind, or they were in there but removed to be released later down the line - which is probably more likely.
Still, Augustus is fun, and certainly does fit into the parameters required by a Gateway Game. Whether it'll be seen as good enough to join the illustrious trio of Settlers, Carcassonne and TtR in years to come is still be be decided, but it's definitely one that can be considered for the group.
For years, designers have struggled to create that most hallowed of games - The Gateway. The kind of game that you could happily put in front of your grandmother, run her through the rules in a matter of a few minutes and nigh on guarantee that everyone is going to have an entertaining time. At the moment, there's something of a holy trinity that, when asked, the majority of gamers will refer to if you're looking to play something with folks who may not be as into the hobby as you. There's Carcassonne, of course - tile laying at its finest, creating towns and roads in the French countryside. Settlers of Catan introduces the idea of trading in games to many people, and puts an emphasis on managing your resources. Finally, Ticket To Ride focuses on set collection and building networks across a map. They're all simple to get into and even the most hesitant of potential players should enjoy the experience.
Now entering the fray, we have Augustus from Hurrican Games, a title which I honestly believe could take the fourth place in the Gateway Games pantheon. It seems to fit all criteria - easy to understand, relatively quick playing with a some level of interaction - and has already been nominated for this year's Spiel des Jahres, the German Game of the Year award. The question is will it be added to that shelf in your collection that always seems to be the go to when you're looking for something accessible?
The theme and mechanics of the game are light as a meringue. You and your fellow players are advisors to the Roman Emperor Augustus, striving to control regions of the Empire as well as members of the Senate as you bid to become his second-in-command. As the game starts, you are randomly given three cards that represent these areas and people, each of which sport a collection of icons down the left side. Seven Legion meeples are also at your disposal that will be used to cover up these icons - manage to hide them all on a card and it is deemed complete, you shout Ave Caesar, stash the card to the side then draw a replacement. Be the first to complete seven and you finish the game.
How though are these icons decided? Well, tokens showing those same images are drawn at random from a bag. Should you have the icon on one of your cards, you may cover it up. However, with only a limited amount of Legions at hand, you'll need to shift them around back and forth as you attempt to get all the icons covered up. Some are easier than others - there may only be a few icons, or those that you need to get rid of are more common. Of the tokens in the bag, there are plenty showing a gladius but only one depicting a dagger, and it's this rarity that you'll need to take into consideration - will you try and finish off a handful of potentially difficult but high-scoring cards, or race to complete seven simpler, low-value ones?
Augustus is made up of several simple decisions such as these. As legions can only be moved to a space showing the icon that has just been drawn, should you shift them to the new space or leave them in place? Have you correctly kept track of what's been drawn from the bag so far? When you have finally finished off a card, which one will you take in order to replace it? These are far from difficult to make, meaning that Augustus shouldn't terrify non-gamers too much while still offering enough choice to those who have more experience in play.
Of course, there are other things to consider. Each region provides a range of goods, for example, though in this base game players need only concern themselves with those that produce gold and wheat. If you are the first to finish a region that shows one of these, you get to take a tile that will give bonus points at the end of the game. Other bonus tiles can be gained for completing sets of regions of the same colour or being the first to control three senators, adding in a few more decisions for players to make. Finally, while some cards will give you a healthy points boost, others also offer special abilities...
Whether they're one-offs or permanent powers, these are the things that will invariably win you the game. Some allow you to use drawn tokens in substitution of others - a gladius can be replaced with a chariot, that kind of thing - while others offer bonus points. Probably the most cruel (or entertaining, depending on your outlook) are the red-backed aggressive powers that force other players to remove legions or - in the worst cases - discard a hard-won completed card. This offers the opportunity for another lesson... that games are not always nice!
Another positive about Augustus is that despite being able to handle up to six players in one game, it never outstays its welcome. Games, once everyone has a basic grasp of the rules, generally take about thirty minutes. I've found that Augustus generally gets played two or even three times once it hits the table - it's incredibly easy to break down, reset and start again, so revenge is easily within reach should a game not go so well...
Admittedly, the game does have the odd flaw. The theme feels very much pasted on - the mechanics are solid enough, but this could seriously work with whatever you wanted to throw at it. A council of planets filled with alien races? A nice day down on the farm trying to herd animals? Any theme would function perfectly well. It's also been accused of being little more than Roman Bingo, though that's not really a bad thing - it simply shows how simple it is to explain the game to anyone. My main problem is that it does feel like Augustus could have had a bit more in the box. Hurrican could well have expanded a little further on elements involving the items produced by the regions. It feels like the game has been built with expansions firmly in mind, or they were in there but removed to be released later down the line - which is probably more likely.
Still, Augustus is fun, and certainly does fit into the parameters required by a Gateway Game. Whether it'll be seen as good enough to join the illustrious trio of Settlers, Carcassonne and TtR in years to come is still be be decided, but it's definitely one that can be considered for the group.
