Solitaire Challenge

When playing Pandemic: Fall of Rome as a single player, you assume the burden of Emperor and command 3 different roles.


Setup

Set up the game as normal, with the following changes:

  • Remove the Mercator Role card and the "Do ut des" Event card from the game. They are not used in the Solitaire challenge.

  • Deal 3 Role cards to yourself in a row from left to right and take the matching pawns to form the team of 3 roles that you will command. All 3 of these roles will share your (single) hand of cards.

    Place the green pawn (normally used for the Mercator) on top of the leftmost Role card to indicate which role takes the first turn. Return the remaining Role cards and pawns to the box.

  • When preparing the player components, before adding Event cards, shuffle all the City cards. Deal 3 cards to form your starting hand, and deal 3 cards faceup to the side of the board to form the "treasury". Then, shuffle 4 Event cards into the remaining City cards.

  • Place 1 pawn (and its 2 legions) into each of the 3 cities that match the 3 City cards in your hand.


Game Play

Play proceeds like the multiplayer game except, instead of different players taking turns, you control 3 different roles on the board. You take their turns one by one, in "clockwise" (left to right) order, using the green pawn to track the role whose turn you are taking.

All 3 roles share your single hand of cards. Your hand limit is still only 7 cards, but you can use the treasury to augment this limit.

All other rules (steps of a turn, other actions, and winning and losing the game) are resolved as normal.


Treasury

The treasury is an area next to the board that can house City cards. Some City cards are dealt to the treasury during setup, but the Plot action allows you to store additional cards in the treasury and retrieve any cards present there.

There is no limit to the number of cards that can be stored in the treasury.


Plot

Instead of the normal Plot action, you can do one of the following:

  • Deposit a City card that matches your city from your hand to the treasury.
  • Withdraw a City card that matches your city from the treasury to your hand.

Plot example: If you have the Tyras card and are in Tyras, you can deposit the Tyras card into the treasury. Or, if the Tyras card is in the treasury, you can withdraw it from there and add it to your hand.




Roma Caput Mundi Challenge

After you have had a chance to play the game a few times using the standard rules (with or without the "Solitaire Challenge" variant), you may wish to test your skills with this variant. In the Roma Caput Mundi Challenge, players must respect the law that Roman legions cannot enter Roma.


Setup

Set up the game as normal with the following changes:

  • When you choose the game's difficulty level, use 4, 5, or 6 Revolt cards for an Introductory, Standard, or Heroic game, respectively. If you dare to attempt a Legendary game, use 7 Revolt cards.

  • Do not place a fort in Roma; keep that fort in the supply.

  • If you are dealt a Roma card and choose to start the game in Roma, the 2 legions you normally start with are not placed and remain in the supply.


Game Play

Play as usual, except that legions cannot be moved into or added to Roma through any player actions, Role card effects, Event cards, or any game effect.

Since the city is "unguarded", whenever you would add a barbarian to Roma, move the Decline marker down 1 space on the Decline track instead.


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