Aqua Romana, from Queen Games, is in effect a game of competitive maze building for 2-4 players. The objective of the game is to build the longest aqueduct you can, while blocking your opponents’ efforts to do the same.
The game comes in a very fat box, lying within you will find some counters, some wooden blocks, a thick game board, and a lot of card tiles representing parts of aqueducts. In each of your turns you can add up to one square to one of your aqueducts by placing a tile on the board.
The is a straight, a curve, a straight bridge, and a double curve. The last two pieces allow different aqueducts to pass over or past one another, without connecting (not allows) and without blocking each other off. In the game you can take advantage of these peices, either to lengthen your own aqueducts or to pass over or past your opponents’ efforts.
When your aqueducts become blocked, or reach the end of the board, you score one point for each tile used by that aqueduct. Each player will build two, three, or four aqueducts, depending on the number of players in the game. The game ends when all aqueducts are closed off, or when no player has a legal move remaining.
The winner is the player with the most points, all aqueducts score at the end of the game, even those not closed off.
Aqua Romana is fairly easy to learn, and a lot of fun to play. Younger players will enjoy the maze aspect to the game, while older gamers will enjoy the ability to choke off their opponent’s aqueducts early through clever tile placement, before cruising to victory!
Aqua Romana is available in the LXG Games Library.
If you enjoyed this review, you may also like to read reviews of:
Deadwood
Summoner Wars
Through the Desert
