Ancient

Sylla was the name of a Roman Consul and dictator; the name of the game is a reference to his person. The designer tried to bring together "Res Publica Romana" and "Saint Petersburg," furthermore playable in one hour.

The players will try to become the premier Consul of Rome. Each of the five years (turns) is subdivided into seven phases in which the players take their actions. It will be semi-cooperative as one player alone cannot influence all parts of the Roman social or political life. They also have to prepare for negative events like epidemic plague or persecution of the Christians and also decadence.

The Ystari games website has downloadable rules for the game for 2 players.

Together, the players use cards to try to build the eight wonders of the ancient world. The number they build varies, but can't be more than seven. (Hence the subtitle of the game, "...or why the eighth wonder was never built.") While building together, each tries to provide the majority of the components for each wonder and collect scoring disks (in four suits). When it's someone else turn, you offer cards to the active player, and by good offers, can earn points (or sometimes even the disk). So a feature of "Tower of Babel" is that players always perform actions and can earn points during another's turn. Card trade offers, collecting disk sets, and building wonders are the three ways to earn victory points. The game ends when a player takes the last disk of any one of the four suits, so players have some influence on the game's end moment. And, the victory points determine the winner at game end. Typical game length is less than an hour.

Reiner Knizia Variant--some recommend against using the action cards because the publisher rather than Reiner Knizia added them and because they damage the game balance. To play with this variant, simply leave the action cards in the box. There is no bonus to the person who completes the final stage of a wonder.

(from publisher)
Egypt 1926. The Valley of the Pharaohs holds many secrets, but none so great as the Scepter of Amun-Ra. In this grand adventure you play a character tasked with collecting the legendary Scepter. As you make your way to the Valley of the Pharaohs you will face desert bandits, blinding sandstorms and the ill wishes of your fellow players. But safe haven and good fortune can be found within the oasis of the friendly Bedouin. If you’re feeling lucky you can spin the Wheel of Fate. Collect resources to overcome obstacles or lay obstacles to hinder your opponents. Roll doubles and you control the mummy, but beware no one masters the mummy for long. Valley of the Pharaohs comes packaged in an authentic wooden book-box and is played on a beautifully illustrated map of Egypt. Cast metal playing pieces, metal coins and individual character cards provide rich context and detail to this exciting game of fortune and peril.

This game is a remake of the 1984 classic that was part of Milton Bradley's Gamemaster Series. In this game you are one of many Roman generals vying for power in Imperial Rome, employing legions, cavalry, and catapults to reach your objectives.

This version of the game has two sets of rules, one set similar to the original version (except that it has fixed the broken catapult rules) and a new set of rules based on Martin Wallace's Struggle of Empires.

Re-implements:

Milton Bradley's Conquest of the Empire (1984)

A game of building monuments and historical sources, reporting on these monuments.

In order to win the game, you not only have to build the monuments, you have to make sure that history will know them - and your fellow gamers will co-decide about it! And there are copyists, who will dispute the glory you've earned for your monuments...

The game shows monument cards with 12 types of ancient monuments like the Pyramids or the Colosseum (9 per type). The game is played in turns and usually you take a "monument turn," consisting of 3 actions allowing you to collect cards, to build monuments, and to expand your existing monuments. For example, it takes you one action per card to draw it either from the draw pile or the 3 faceup cards near it.

If you have some cards showing the same monument, you can use another action to erect this monument in your display. In case you are the first one to build this type of monument, you only need two cards - the second player building this same type of monument must have at least 3 cards. And no third player is allowed to build the same monument! Thus, playing your cards early makes it easier for you to erect the monument. But it saves you actions to collect some cards before displaying it, because regardless of the number of cards used, erecting one monument only counts as one single action.

Your monuments will receive their eternal fame only, if they are part of history. Each player has 2 (in a 3 player game: 3) historian tokens. In a historian turn, you have no monument action, but only write a history about all of your OPPONENTS' monuments (not your own ones!). Monuments get famous, and the owners receive victory points at the end of the game - the more often your monuments are in such histories, the more points you get. However, only interesting monuments of at least two cards are considered for a history, and by writing a history, the historian takes one card away (removes it from the game)! Thus the monument could be cut down to only one card during the game and will be not interesting to later historians any more. Why should I write a history and make the monuments of my opponents more worthy? If you do not use all of your historian tokens, you will be punished with 12 negative points at the end of the game! And you get additional victory points in the case that you write histories with a lot of monuments mentioned in it.

You should make your monuments interesting to historians again. During a monument turn, you may use one action (regardless of the number of cards played at the same time) to add cards to a monument that you have already erected.

In MONUMENTS, timing is important, and you have to decide what the best move to do now is: Should I wait for another Petra card, or shall I display the Petra Monument this turn? Is it advisable to make a historian turn now or is it better to choose a monument turn and draw the faceup cards, which I really need - taking the risk that I cannot write a history next turn and wind up getting negative points!

Finally, you have to consider that you are not sure about the victory points for your monuments. The points are related to the monument during the game, and if the Akropolis monument is worth 12 Points for example, you will only get 4 points if another player manages to erect an Akropolis monument that is greater than yours. This damn copyist will not only receive all your bad wishes, but 8 of the 12 Akropolis Victory Points - even in the case that his monument was not part of any history. Somehow you will feel that all the glory should be given to you alone!