Caesar!: Seize Rome in 20 Minutes!

Place the game board, which depicts the late Roman Republic with provinces and border spaces. Place a Senate province bonus tile on Italia, then shuffle the remaining province bonus tiles and place one randomly on each empty province space, skipping the dotted space in Italia. Players choose to be either Caesar (red) or Pompey (blue). Each player takes their bag and control tokens, placing their opponent's tokens aside. Influence tokens are placed in each player's bag. Players draw two influence tokens for themselves and Auto-Crassus draws three, placing them in a line. Gather the command tiles and set the difficulty by including specific A, B, C, D, or E tiles, then shuffle them to form the command stack.

The primary objective is to be the first player to place your last control token on the board (in a newly claimed province) or under a Senate bonus token. This signifies your dominance over the Roman Republic.

On your turn, place one of your two influence tokens from your hand onto an unoccupied border space. The symbol on the token must match the symbol on the space, or you can use a Laurel (wild) token. The token must be oriented to assign influence to both adjacent provinces. If this action closes a province (by filling its last unoccupied border space), resolve the province. Sum the influence values for each player in that province; the player with the higher total wins control. Place one of your control tokens in the empty province space (two if it's Italia). If you control a neighboring province, place an additional control token on the border space separating them. Then, resolve any bonus tiles received from the claimed province: Tactics grants an immediate extra turn (only one per turn even if multiple Tactics tiles are gained), Wealth increases your hand size by one (draw an extra token immediately), Might allows you to flip one opponent's control token face-down (preventing linking), and Senate allows you to place additional control tokens under it (equal to the number of Senate tokens you possess, including the current one). Finally, draw a new influence token to replenish your hand.

Provinces are scored and claimed immediately when their last border space is filled. The player (or Auto-Crassus) with the highest total influence value from their tokens on the borders of that province wins control. If there's a tie in influence, the province remains uncontrolled. Control tokens are placed in the central province space to mark ownership. Senate bonus tiles contribute to placing additional control tokens on the Senate track, which is crucial for winning the game.

The game concludes immediately when one of two conditions is met: either you successfully place your final control token on the board (in a province you've just claimed) or under a Senate token, in which case you win. Alternatively, you lose if you ever need to place an influence token but have none remaining in your hand, or if Auto-Crassus places the last of his control tokens on the board or under a Senate token.