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Rome: Total War is being made into a board game about amassing armies

When in Rome, crush your enemies.

An upcoming board game adaptation of the Rome: Total War video game series is currently in the late stages of development.

According to an interview between Will Townshend, the Head of PSC Games - publisher behind the tabletop adaptation - and Wargamer, the board game will be based on the original strategy video game that has players controlling their own ancient historical armies. In the game, players will be building their own units and pitting them against those of their opponents to determine who is the greater power.

In a similar fashion to the original series, the video game board game will contain “empire-building” elements and will have its own “economic engine”, but will largely focus on players developing their units and sending them out to battle. Players will be able to upgrade their different fighters and use dice to determine the success of their attacks.

Rome: Total War II screenshot 2

According to Townsend, the COVID-19 pandemic caused progress on the tabletop title’s development to be “slowed down”, alongside the decision of which design for the Rome: Total War board game to choose from - as the publisher was apparently debating between several different versions of the game. The initial design for the game was proposed by Martin Wallace, the creator of Brass: Lancashire and co-designer of Brass: Birmingham, but it was decided that their concept strayed too far from the core experience of the Rome: Total War video game.

Simon Hall - co-creator of the historical miniatures game Field of Glory: Ancient and Medieval Wargaming Rules - who put forward a design that leaned more into the warfare aspect of the franchise, rather than Wallace’s economics-focused ideas, was eventually chosen to be the designer of the Rome: Total War board game.

Cover image for YouTube video

PSC Games is a publisher that’s best known for releasing the two-player board game Blitzkrieg!: World War Two in 20 minutes, a title that has players competing in several historically important fights of the Second World War, and another historically themed game called Lincoln.

The Kickstarter campaign for the Rome: Total War board game is set to be launched sometime later this year or in the beginning of 2022.

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Rome: Total War

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About the Author
Alex Meehan avatar

Alex Meehan

Senior Staff Writer

After writing for Kotaku UK, Waypoint and Official Xbox Magazine, Alex became a member of the Dicebreaker editorial family. Having been producing news, features, previews and opinion pieces for Dicebreaker for the past three years, Alex has had plenty of opportunity to indulge in her love of meaty strategy board games and gothic RPGS. Besides writing, Alex appears in Dicebreaker’s D&D actual play series Storybreakers and haunts the occasional stream on the Dicebreaker YouTube channel.

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