Greetings, Played another game of Sword of Rome last night (bringing the total played to three). As we players have gained experience there is a lot less aggressive action and a lot more circumspect thinking going on. The consensus is that all the players need to conserve the "At start" forces with any combat action needing to be decisive. That is, should you be aggressive early (in the first 1 or 2 turns) and are not successful (ie lose the battles) then this can really put you behind the power curve and you either spend the a large amount of time trying to build up or more likely you end up having the other powers pick over the remains of you empire. Does anyone else have any opinion on the merits of early aggressive action. The group has also become a lot more wary of and willing to activate the non-player factions. It is now commonly accepted that the Gauls, Rome and Etruscan/Sammites will all support Carthage to keep the Greeks busy. Wile the threat of the Transalpine Gaul's are used as a deterrent for the Gallic player. There is also a difference in opinion about the best course of action for Rome itself. Blessed with the central position (and hence surrounded by enemy) it starts with a large army and good leaders. One school of thought is for Rome to not be too aggressive and try and built a new walled city in the first turn (for additional reinforcements) and after building a _big_ army impose its will on the central area via threats, cajolery and military action. The other is for Rome to aggressively expand on turn 1 and attempt to grab a couple of the easy victory locations in the opponents territory. Needless to say time will probably tell but I am interested in others peoples thoughts. Finally there appears to be a discrepancy between the description of the "Desperate Times" cards in the rule book and that on the cards themselves. The Romans, Gaul's and Etruscan all have one of the "Desperate time" cards that stats they can search for and play one of the special events while the rules as they were read last night (and I don't have them now so I am not quoting) seem to say that you can search for and play _any_ event. We played it as written on the cards but thought I would mention it to you all. Anyway the game still has a lot of attraction with a large number of people wanting to play. Based purely on the fact people want to keep playing seems to indicate that it is OK. Cheers and thanks for reading. Darren Last played: Sword of Rome (x2), The Devils Cauldron, Up front