Winner of the Fairplay poll at Essen this year (even over the current hot favorite Agricola), Tribune has since then slipped out of the spotlight with little to no further information available, besides that FFG is poised with an upcoming English release. Fortunately, I got a chance to play this at BGG.con a few weeks ago, thanks to <PERSON>. I have to say that the demo table for Tribune was constantly occupied over the 4-day period, so I guess even though the news have been scarce, people have definitely took notice of it. Here are some of my thoughts.
Gameplay/Rules
Similar to Pillars of the Earth, each person is given a number of meeples to place around the board as seen here:
Image courtesy of <PERSON>
Beginning with the starting player, everyone gets to put one marker on an open spot he/she desires and the action continues clockwise until there are no more meeples available. Then the locations resolve in the following order:
Collection Plate
First player here gets 7 coins.
All subsequent players receive 5 .
Slave Market
Only two spots are available here at a cost of 1 coin each. You need to place your meeple next to the card you wish to purchase.
Forum
Six cards here for you to choose from, but at a higher cost of 3 coins each.
Latrine
Initially placed face down , the card is then flipped over , you can choose either to take the card by paying coins or to pass to collect coins equal to its value .
Senate
Three spots up for grabs. You must discard a card from you hand to collect the set of card(s) you have claimed.
At the beginning of every round, each set is dealt out from the deck until a total value of 5 or more is reached OR if a leader (a 0 value card) is turned over .
Atrium
Two spots available.
Initially placed face down , the first player here gets to turn over 2 of the 3 cards of his choice . If he is the only person here by the end of the round, he gets those 2 cards for free .
However, if and when a second player is present, the third card is also revealed , both will then participate in a blind bidding for all of the cards. Winner pays the coins he bid to the loser and tie is resolved in favor of the first player .
The same player may not occupy both spaces !
Catacombs
Three spaces designated 2, 3 and 4 .
5 cards are dealt faced down at the beginning of each turn.
The player on the 4 spot gets to look through the stack of cards first. He may then chooses to pass or pay 4 coins to keep a card of his choice . Then the player on the 3 will get a shot at the cards, but he only has to pay 3 coins if he chooses to keep a card. 84
The 2 spot player goes last but the card only costs 2 coins.
The cost of a card remains the same with the respective spot even if the other spaces aren't claimed .
Coins paid here do not go into the bank, but to the space next to it .
Pantheon
Two occupants allowed. The card here is initially placed faced down . When resolved, you may discard a card with the same faction as the revealed card here to gain a permanent favor of the God , with the condition that you must either be in possession of the temporary one OR if you own the group token for the Vestal faction .
<PERSON> spots available.
All players involved discard 2 cards of the same faction from his hand, the person with the highest total value receives two laurels . Everyone else receive only 1 . In the case of a tie, no additional laurels are given, all participating players get only 1 .
No player may occupy more than 1 space here .
Faction Track
This is where you can attempt to gain control of the 7 factions . Each factions has two spots up for grabs. Please remember that you resolve this track twice . First to claim the control , then to give out special favors to those controlling them .
The factions are resolved in order from left to right : So it goes Gladiator -> Legate -> Praetorian -> Plebian -> Patrician -> Vestal -> Senator.
If you are the only player at a particular faction, you may then attempt to take control by playing cards of that respective faction . You must play at least 2 cards , but if another player is currently in possession of the faction in question , you can beat it by either playing more cards or have a total value that is higher than the ones in front of him. (For example, <PERSON> has control of the Gladiators with 3 cards valued at 0, 2, and 5. You can take over by either playing 4 Gladiator cards, regardless of their values, or however many Gladiator cards that total more than 7). 597