Aeterna
- Board's Eye View
- 12 hours ago
- 2 min read
Aeterna, from Ares Games and Ergo Ludo Editions, takes its 2-4 players through three eras of Ancient Rome, from kingdom to republic to empire. It's designed by veteran designer Martin Wallace and is one of his heavier game designs where there's a lot going on and a lot to manage. That makes it very satisfying when your plans pan out but it can prove punishing if your plans go awry due to misstep or miscalculation...
This is a eurogame that involves worker placement and drafting of powerful multi-function cards. There's a small set collection element and you'll also be acquiring and deploying resources. There are hero cards that give you special abilities and other cards that let you erect buildings which can give you extra actions but which cost resources. Cards also let you participate in Rome's provincial wars, which can be a good way of picking up resources. However, there's a trade-off because citizens you send off to war mean fewer are available to place onto the board in Rome itself. Oh, and, unsurprisingly, war too contributes to unrest...
The main board depicts the Seven Hills of Rome, and it's to these locations that players are placing out their wooden citizen meeples. Players are competing for area control at each location but the more citizens that are placed out to a location, so the more likely it is that the populace will riot. A rioting populace adversely affects that location's scoring potential in subsequent rounds and, crucially, it will advance the player who has a majority at that location on an unrest track which can hit them with heavy penalties. That means there may be occasions in this highly interactive eurogame when a player who isn't in contention for control of one of the Seven Hills locations places a citizen out there just to trigger unrest for the controlling player.
It's possible to play Aeterna through in less than two hours but, because players have such an array of choices and consequences to consider, Aeterna can run rather longer if any of the players are prone to AP (analysis paralysis). Successful gameplay inevitably involves a constant balancing act between the benefits you want to achieve and their cost and risk. It's a balancing act too between all the things you'd ideally like to do. And you need to ensure that you have sufficient wheat on hand to keep your citizens fed... The interactive aspect of the game means you always need to keep a weather eye on rival players for areas where you can try to frustrate their plans along the way. You need to wary of actions that push you up on the dreaded unrest track but if you are too risk averse you'll make no real progress in the game...
