The Past is Prologue
This site, and many like it, focus on the modern expression of what a board game is. Of course board games have been around for many centuries prior to the modern hobby that arguably kicked off with Catan. I believe there is value in taking older games and putting them in a modern context. I never thought I would be doing so with something as historical as Roman Ludus Latrunculi, or just Latrunculi if you prefer.
This review comes with a caveat. I got a few recreations of historical games from Masters Traditional Games last year. Thanks folks! These games sometimes represent the best guesses of historians as to how these games are played. Pieces and boards turn up a lot, but rules are often lacking. We are going to basically look at an interpretation of a historical artifact. How much that matters is entirely up to you.
Latrunculi looks immediately familiar to anyone who has ever played draughts. The tokens on each side represent troops in the most abstract of manners. Our objective is to put our opponent in a position where the only course of action is resignation, or to simply wipe them from the board.
The game’s mechanisms recreate the basic stratagems of battle: strength in numbers is good, being out on your own is dangerous. Pieces can slide in straight lines for as far as you need, blocked only by the confines of the board and other pieces. In order to take a token from your opponent they must be surrounded on two opposite sides. If you manage this the moved piece can then careen off again to cause havoc elsewhere.
This is where the game departs from looking like draughts and becomes closer to another ancient game called Hnefatafl (sometimes called the Viking game). The idea of flanking an opponent for tactical advantage must be one of the oldest strategies in warfare and here you find it in an abstracted form.
What this means is that formations are strong and distractions are key to victory. Going straight at each other can result in stalemate. You must bamboozle, counter, attack, and open up gaps in the lines.
The way the game is setup means that two very cautious players could easily reach a position where they are simply bashing heads and not getting anywhere. There is a game end, if you manage to wipe out your opponent, but it is more likely that someone will resign before then. I think it’s interesting to note that modern games don’t really consider resignation a viable option. It is somehow seen as sulking or ‘bad feels’ when in fact it can just be an acknowledgement that your opponent has outsmarted you. Then you can go again and see if you do better!
This isn’t a modern game though and it carries with it the weight of that for good and bad. As an artifact of the past, it’s an interesting exercise in reminding us that board games didn’t start with Catan.
The presentation lends a lot to the experience. A cloth board and bag for the pieces, with the wooden tokens giving a feel of heft and history. It feels like something that could have existed at the time the game was popular.
Compared to other historical games I’ve played, I feel like Hnefatafl is closest and better. The asymmetric sides of that game and more defined endpoint give objectives to reach and goals to be pursued. It is a harder game though, and Latrunculi feels more forgiving and quicker to play.
Games like Latrunculi are the genesis of the games we play today. Yes they can be flawed by modern game design sensibilities, but that doesn’t make them any less interesting to think about. We can see elements of what modern games were to become, and ask why some mechanisms survived to be replicated by other games, while others were discarded. Preserving our history is important and vital to the future health of the hobby we all love.
I was sent this copy of Latrunculi by Master Traditional Games for review. None of the links to them are affiliate links in this piece.
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Really interesting. My Sweetheart’s brain is much more giant than mine. So I often find my self in a hopeless position and wish to resign. Usually she’s ok with that. But sometimes she wants to know just how much she’s beaten me by.
~sigh~