Senators

In the late Roman Republic, each player heads a faction vying for influence in the Senate. First you buy resources through a mix of auctions – Dutch, sealed, high/low – and sell them in sets to the bank, generating cash. That cash funds wars, defends against aggressive offers, and most importantly "buys" senators, increasing your voting power. Each turn starts by drawing an event card, which may trigger wars, deficits, or other situations that demand quick decisions. Then you choose to open a new market auction, extort cards from another player (a classic shotgun offer), or cash in your resource sets to acquire more senators. The game ends as soon as the fourth war is revealed; the player with the most senators becomes Caesar.

Senators blends many bidding styles – open step bids, blind bids, high/low blind – and adds a Push Your Luck element when deciding whether to press a bid further. Strategy splits between building valuable resource sets and converting those sets into senators before the war ends the game. Both tactical choices (valuing cards in auctions) and strategic planning (which senators to collect, when to stop building sets) matter equally. The pace is brisk, with constant negotiation and card trading, and a typical playtime is 45‑60 minutes for 3‑5 players. Its low weight (2.1/5) and historical theme make it approachable, though the variety of auction mechanisms may need a short learning curve for newcomers to bidding games.