The Republic of Rome

In Republic of Rome, each player controls a faction of the Roman Senate (this is pre-Caesar, during the Republic). Not yet the large sprawling empire, Rome is represented by markers indicating unrest, treasury status and army size and a number of cards indicating provinces, income sources, and events.

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The goal -- maneuver one of your senators to become Consul for Life. The main phase of the game has the players vote on a variety of things. You decide which senators will be consuls for the year. These senators gain influence and various responsibilities. It is possible (even common) for Rome to fall before the Horde, and everyone loses. So players work together for the common good, while angling for personal power.

The game's complexity is like Die Macher. There are tons of systems and they have complex interactions. There are random events, rules for the Roman welfare state, gladiatorial games to keep the masses happy, multi-front wars, governorships, succession of counsel, influence peddling, assassination, bodyguards, knights, vetoes, prosecutions, persecutions and, finally, marching on Rome to seize power (a la Caesar).

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Quoting Gelete from Boardgamegeek.com "This game is not recomendable at all for people who are prone to get angry or those who can't cope with large doses of screwage. You are going to be sent to fight at wars in which you are very likely going to die with no armies and facing mighty foes, your senators will be attracted, the fellow players are going to lie to you, to steal your money, to judge you for doing nothing while others that spoiled Rome are not punished at all... you can be playing for five hours and be close to the victory and then, just because another player decided to do so, be killed and lose everything. Of course you can screw the other players too, it is a game of give and take. If you think that this is nice then go for RoR, the game is for you. If don´t, please, stay away from it. Also, forget about RoR if you are timid, if you dont like the table talking and metagame a lot, if you dislike games that are played by the gamers in an aggressive way, since in RoR you could even be threatened many times within the hour (in game terms of course)."