Comments by designer John B. Firer
Reposted from ConsimWorld Forum, 28 February 2005.
I had initially gotten the idea for Spartacus as a result of earlier research I did for Ides of March and a general interest in Sertorius. As I read more about this remarkable Roman, my design antennae went up and I thought that this would make an interesting gaming situation. Accordingly, I started the design effort in January 2004 after discussing this with Mark Simonitch (my mentor so to speak). Development was going along fine until I got bitten by the France 1940 bug and I stopped work on Spartacus and concentrated all my efforts on "Panzers" in the Spring of 2004. (The latter was almost designing itself when I switched focus due to discussions with Compass Games!) As a result, I almost had to get back into my original thought pattern for Spartacus in order to pick-up where I left off. Fortunately, I kept good design notes so once I got back into the swing of things, progress was steady.
A Little Background
By 80BC, P. Cornelius Sulla and his faction were in total control of the Roman Republic and its empire. Domestically, Sulla eliminated his Marian enemies, became unrestricted dictator and rewrote the constitution to void many of the Marian/populist changes and to bring it back to a more “traditional” nature. Abroad, his lieutenants had completely eliminated all pockets of Marian resistance, the most recent being in Africa and Spain. In fact, the propraetor of Spain C. Aurelius Cotta, was preparing to carry out a punitive expedition against the remaining Marian leader at large, Quintus Sertorius, who had been driven out of Spain the previous year and was now in exile in Mauritania. However, Sertorius was not content with being hunted down as an outlaw by the Sullans. In a dangerous gamble, he intended to cross the Straits of Gibraltar to Spain and raise once again the Marian cause and standard. After a successful naval battle against Cotta, his 3,300 men landed near Gabes and were soon joined by Spanish tribesmen from Lusitania. The Roman Republic faced a new, unforeseen crisis. A crisis which would grow over the next 10 years and encompass not only Spain, but also Italy and Asia Minor. A crisis that would shake the very core of the Republic, both internally and externally. At its height, the Roman Republic would find itself at war simultaneously in Spain against Sertorius, in Asia Minor against Mithradates VI of Pontus, and even in Italy against first M. Aemilius Lepidus and later a more dangerous opponent, Spartacus! The measures taken to defeat these enemies were often as dangerous as the enemies themselves, for in using the men and means at their disposal to meet the crisis, the Republic walked a tightrope between preserving the Republic and unleashing even more dangerous forces which could send the Republic into total collapse.
(from the v1.0 Rules)
General System
Spartacus is a two player, card-driven, point-to-point simulation pitting a loose coalition of forces under Sertorius against the Roman Republic as restructured under Sulla and his lieutenants. As the Sertorian coalition, your objective is to force the Republic into collapse in order to rebuild it as it was before the Sullans changed the constitution. This is done through putting pressure on the Republic by territorial conquests, by exacerbating the tensions in the Republic, forcing it to utilize the services of new, potential Sullas to counter your armies in the field, or by taking Rome itself! As the Republic, you must defeat and neutralize Sertorius quickly, before he can conclude an alliance with Mithradates VI and cause a two-front war. However, the levying of too many troops to fight the enemy coupled with the utilization of ambitious generals can bring on the very circumstances you are trying to avoid, collapse of the Republic. In addition, care must be taken with Italy itself because in the background, civil war looms in the guise of Lepidus, and even worse, a slave revolt under the able gladiator-leader, Spartacus. Both sides can battle their adversaries using conventional forces, conduct guerilla and pacification operations with the intention of denying your opponent control of strategic spaces and provinces, and attempt to hasten or delay the political collapse of the Republic. The central mechanism that influences all actions in the simulation is the Republican Crisis Track, which monitors the level of crisis in the Republic. All actions on the battlefield, the state of the empire, the strain of recruiting legions and utilizing ambitious generals, and the use of power politics, are ultimately reflected on the Crisis Track. The Sertorians hope to move the track towards heightened crisis while the Republic hopes to keep it well away from a political collapse. In the end, if the Republic manages to avoid collapse, it can still lose by having a strong, Sertorian presence on the board. Spartacus requires the player to successfully exercise many facets of military-political acumen in order to defeat his opponent while preserving the most precious asset of all, survival.
(from v1.0 Rules)
Reposted from ConsimWorld Forum, 28 February 2005.
I had initially gotten the idea for Spartacus as a result of earlier research I did for Ides of March and a general interest in Sertorius. As I read more about this remarkable Roman, my design antennae went up and I thought that this would make an interesting gaming situation. Accordingly, I started the design effort in January 2004 after discussing this with Mark Simonitch (my mentor so to speak). Development was going along fine until I got bitten by the France 1940 bug and I stopped work on Spartacus and concentrated all my efforts on "Panzers" in the Spring of 2004. (The latter was almost designing itself when I switched focus due to discussions with Compass Games!) As a result, I almost had to get back into my original thought pattern for Spartacus in order to pick-up where I left off. Fortunately, I kept good design notes so once I got back into the swing of things, progress was steady.
A Little Background
By 80BC, P. Cornelius Sulla and his faction were in total control of the Roman Republic and its empire. Domestically, Sulla eliminated his Marian enemies, became unrestricted dictator and rewrote the constitution to void many of the Marian/populist changes and to bring it back to a more “traditional” nature. Abroad, his lieutenants had completely eliminated all pockets of Marian resistance, the most recent being in Africa and Spain. In fact, the propraetor of Spain C. Aurelius Cotta, was preparing to carry out a punitive expedition against the remaining Marian leader at large, Quintus Sertorius, who had been driven out of Spain the previous year and was now in exile in Mauritania. However, Sertorius was not content with being hunted down as an outlaw by the Sullans. In a dangerous gamble, he intended to cross the Straits of Gibraltar to Spain and raise once again the Marian cause and standard. After a successful naval battle against Cotta, his 3,300 men landed near Gabes and were soon joined by Spanish tribesmen from Lusitania. The Roman Republic faced a new, unforeseen crisis. A crisis which would grow over the next 10 years and encompass not only Spain, but also Italy and Asia Minor. A crisis that would shake the very core of the Republic, both internally and externally. At its height, the Roman Republic would find itself at war simultaneously in Spain against Sertorius, in Asia Minor against Mithradates VI of Pontus, and even in Italy against first M. Aemilius Lepidus and later a more dangerous opponent, Spartacus! The measures taken to defeat these enemies were often as dangerous as the enemies themselves, for in using the men and means at their disposal to meet the crisis, the Republic walked a tightrope between preserving the Republic and unleashing even more dangerous forces which could send the Republic into total collapse.
(from the v1.0 Rules)
General System
Spartacus is a two player, card-driven, point-to-point simulation pitting a loose coalition of forces under Sertorius against the Roman Republic as restructured under Sulla and his lieutenants. As the Sertorian coalition, your objective is to force the Republic into collapse in order to rebuild it as it was before the Sullans changed the constitution. This is done through putting pressure on the Republic by territorial conquests, by exacerbating the tensions in the Republic, forcing it to utilize the services of new, potential Sullas to counter your armies in the field, or by taking Rome itself! As the Republic, you must defeat and neutralize Sertorius quickly, before he can conclude an alliance with Mithradates VI and cause a two-front war. However, the levying of too many troops to fight the enemy coupled with the utilization of ambitious generals can bring on the very circumstances you are trying to avoid, collapse of the Republic. In addition, care must be taken with Italy itself because in the background, civil war looms in the guise of Lepidus, and even worse, a slave revolt under the able gladiator-leader, Spartacus. Both sides can battle their adversaries using conventional forces, conduct guerilla and pacification operations with the intention of denying your opponent control of strategic spaces and provinces, and attempt to hasten or delay the political collapse of the Republic. The central mechanism that influences all actions in the simulation is the Republican Crisis Track, which monitors the level of crisis in the Republic. All actions on the battlefield, the state of the empire, the strain of recruiting legions and utilizing ambitious generals, and the use of power politics, are ultimately reflected on the Crisis Track. The Sertorians hope to move the track towards heightened crisis while the Republic hopes to keep it well away from a political collapse. In the end, if the Republic manages to avoid collapse, it can still lose by having a strong, Sertorian presence on the board. Spartacus requires the player to successfully exercise many facets of military-political acumen in order to defeat his opponent while preserving the most precious asset of all, survival.
(from v1.0 Rules)
