Game Profile: Carpe Diem

Publisher:  Ravensburger, 2018

Players:  2 – 4

Time:  45 – 75 Min.

Carpe
Diem is a game about building the best district in ancient
Rome.  Players will use their patrician
to move across the main game board to acquire the building tiles to construct their
district.  Each player will have their
own district player board to fill.

The mechanics of the game are straight forward. There are three rounds.  On a turn, each player in turn order will move
their patrician along one or two lines to a different location on the main
board and collect one building tile from that new location.  They will place the selected tile on their
district board adjacent to an already existing building.  The starting spot is printed on each district
board.  Along the way, they will displace
banderole chits on their boards which moves them up on a central banderole track
that influences both turn order during the round, and points at end game
scoring.  Players districts can be
constructed with villas, four types of landscapes, four types of dwellings, plus
markets, bakeries, and fountains.  Each
of these different types, when completed, will give a player specific resource(s)
or an immediate use ability.  Villas are
an exception; in that they score points at the end of the game.  The round continues until all tiles have been
taken from the main board.

The genius in Carpe Diem is the way
points are scored.  Villas score based on
their completed size.  The banderole
track is scored based on how far a player has progressed.  There are frame achievements set up randomly during
the game set up phase.  Each player’s
district board will have a locking frame on each of the four sides.  Each frame piece has two achievements with
their VP value indicated on it.  In order
to score these achievements, a player must build the prescribed building straddling
the row or column where the achievement lies. 
Fountain cards gained when placing a fountain tile provide additional
scoring opportunities.

 Separate from game end scoring, there are three mid game scoring phases that
take place at the end of each round.  Scoring
cards are randomly selected from four different decks and randomly placed on
the main board in a grid.  In player
order, based on position on the banderole track, each player must place one of
their scoring discs between two of these round scoring cards.  Each card has different requirements, i.e. completed
buildings or resources to pay.  The
player will score both cards.  The disc
will remain there for the remainder of the game and that spot cannot score
again.  For each card where a player
cannot meet its requirements, they will receive negative 4 points.  It is not uncommon to receive negative
points, especially in the first mid-scoring after Round 1.

Carpe
Diem is a true point salad kind of game.  There are multiple ways to score points and multiple
ways to win.  It plays well with 2, 3. And
4 players.

Carpe Diem