Forum Letter

At the risk of repeating myself, I do love board games by designer Stefan Feld. Sparing you a lengthy introduction that belabors that point, I'll get right to it: I had a chance to try one of his more recent releases, Forum Trajanum.

Set at the height of the ancient Rome, players each compete to develop their own piece of the Empire. The story wrapper has a few more nuances to it than that, but the simple truth is that the particulars aren't terribly important. It's a vehicle for delivering another intricate Feld game system.

It's perhaps too much a generalization, but the closest Feld game I'd compare this one to is Notre Dame. That's because actions in Forum Trajanum are drafted -- each turn, you look at two options and pass one to another player. You then choose whether to take the one action you picked or the one you were passed. It's a system that immediately gets you more invested in what your opponents are doing -- or one of them, at least -- just to be sure that you're not passing them a great opportunity.

I'd love to attempt to explain the other systems in the game in more detail, but it feels quite challenging to do it justice without having the board and pieces close at hand to illustrate. It's not necessarily that it's "too" complex. (I've played more convoluted games.) But it is hard to wrap your head around until you've played a few turns of it.

But then, maybe it is a bit more involved than it absolutely has to be. I wonder this because when I played, it seemed like all players (myself included) were having to "take back" actions more often than usual. Certainly more often that would be desirable. Planning ahead in Forum Trajanum is harder than you think it will be. There are lots of ways to convert resources into points, which is great from a "many ways to win" standpoint, but pretty hard when you try to think through all your options and their ramifications.

It does at least all seem balanced -- no surprise there. There's a section of the game devoted to unlocking special rules-cheating powers, along a series of ability tracks. Each track seemed useful for different strategic approaches to the game. It was easy to simultaneously be both proud of an engine you'd developed and envious of someone else's engine.

I did enjoy the game, and would play it again if the opportunity arose. Still, I'm pretty sure this doesn't reach the top tier of Feld games for me. It feels a touch too hard to teach, a touch too much to wrap your mind around. Likely it would smooth out with more regular plays, but my group has found other game options lately that I suspect will be more popular. Forum Trajanum probably sits just outside looking in. I'd grade it a B. It's far from a Stefan Feld "failure," but it doesn't sit along his long list of past triumphs.