Mare Nostrum (board game)

Mare Nostrum is a board game for three to five players designed by Serge Laget and published in 2003 by Eurogames, in which players lead one of five ancient Mediterranean civilizations, Rome, Greece, Babylon, Egypt or Carthage, competing for dominance across a map of the Mediterranean divided into resource-bearing provinces. Each round unfolds across three phases: a commerce phase in which players trade resource cards under a rotating Director of Commerce, a politics phase in which a Political Leader sets the purchase order for buildings, military units, heroes and wonders, and a military phase in which a Military Leader directs unit movement and dice-resolved combat. Players win by collecting four hero or wonder cards or by completing the Pyramids, and the game draws historical figures such as Julius Caesar and Cleopatra alongside the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World into its play. Mare Nostrum was designed as a more streamlined take on the classic civilization-building genre, drawing mechanical ideas from games such as Catan, Risk, Diplomacy and Citadels.