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After my last game post mentioning, "I like games with fewer pieces", I have bought a game that has over one hundred pieces, the game is called Foundations of Rome. Up to 2-4 people, 5 if you have the expansion, can play the game. The objective of the game is to gain glory in the eyes of your fellow Romans (victory points) by erecting one of 3 types of buildings: Residential, Commercial, and Civic, as an architect over 3 eras.

There are 3 actions that a player can take, they must choose one:
 1) Take Income
 2) Buy a Deed
 3) Construct a Building

When a player takes an income action this can be thought of as petitioning Romulus for more resources, and if the player has any commercial buildings, they will also generate income for them.

When a player buys a deed that action gives them one lot on the board. The player wants to acquire the number of lots that are required in the layout of the building that the player wants to construct.

When a player wants to construct a building it is pretty straight forward. However, there is one caveat, if the player wants to construct a building over one or more existing buildings, the new building must have a larger lot requirement than the original one(s) that are being replaced.

Players can take one action per turn until the end of an era. Eras end once all of the deeds for that era are gone. Once the last deed has been chosen any players that haven't completed an action for the turn get one. Then the score for the era is calculated based on the buildings on the board. Once the last era ends the game is over.

There are a number of expansions available that add different dynamics to the game. One is for co-operative play, which is something that I haven't seen in a lot of games.

For new players the game will probably take between one and a half to two hours to play. With experienced players it takes about an hour.

One of the things that I like the most is the detail that exists on the buildings. There are 24 different basic buildings per player, and one of the expansions adds 19 additional buildings (Monuments). I also like that after the somewhat steep learning curve the gameplay seems relatively simple.

I have only played with one of the simpler expansions added. The change of dynamics was interesting. I can see this game maintaining its novelty by using different combinations of expansions.

But, and there is always a but, the game is rather expensive, but I feel that it is well worth it. I highly recommend this game.