When I look at my “boardgaming habits”, I see games which I play sporadically, once, maybe twice and then move on; and there are also titles – a selected few – which hit the table quite regularly, be it face to face or in digital form. I am also very much interested in history, especially of the Ancient Rome – this is clearly visible on my blog or YouTube channel.

You might ask why am I writing all of this? Because at the intersection of both above characteristics lays Time of Crisis – without any doubt, one of my favorite light wargames, which I love for balance of random elements (barbarian invasions & events) and non-random ones (deck building).

The already great game was enhanced in the past by fantastic expansion, The Age of Iron and Rust. It added set of new, alternative cards, fixed some errors, provided new emperor options plus fantastic bots (definitely check them out!).

When I thought things cannot get any better with that game, it landed several of months ago on Rally the Troops – digital boargames platform which is getting wonderful reviews. So it is not a surprise that I play this title extensively there! Below I will present report from a quite long series of plays with Dave, Grant and Alex. But before we jump to them, couple of words about platform and the game.

The Platform

Rally the Troops is an online site where you can play board games in your browser, with fully automated rules enforcement. Play live or asynchronously with friends or strangers, or explore the games on your own. It is free to play, and you do not have to look at any ads – which is impressive.

The platform develops and grows all the time. At the moment when I am writing this article, Rally the Troops consist of 18 wargames from various publishers; we have a pretty wide arrays of the most iconic and prominent designs in our hobby, but you can also find some of the less known. It is rapidly expanding, and we are getting a new position every couple of months – based on the bandwidth of its main developer, Tor Andersson. There is a forum and discord server where you to discuss the next titles in pipeline, ask the rules questions or simply express your gratitude to the team!

More articles about the game - click to open in the new window:
- [UNBOXING] Time of Crisis
- [REVIEW] Time of Crisis + expansion
- Time of Crisis – how does it play with Bots? (solo mode analysis)
- Mid-week madness with Time of Crisis 
- Time of Crisis – first game with expansion

The Game

Before going straight to the session report, let me spend some time explaining the game in more details. Third century AD was not the happiest era for the Roman Empire – to say the least. Actually, it was almost end of its might. Torn by internal squabbles as well as external barbarian invasions it was at the verge of collapse.

The game uses well-established deck-building mechanics, as well as a hand management. It covers all essential elements of the epoch: Praetorian Guard, civil wars, barbarian invasions, angry mobs, rival emperors, pretenders, etc.

Players take role of one of the Roman dynasties building – via influence cards – its power in military, political and public approval areas. They can construct huge public buildings, fight with other families (for glory) or with barbarians and foreign leaders (for even more glory!) Thanks to the superb expansion, there is also a possibility to play solitaire.

The game is easy to learn, can be played in 2-3 hours and is a great introduction – as a light option – to the world of wargames. On top of all those things, GMT stood to its reputation and made sure that the components of the highest quality were used.

The Sessions

We played five sessions in succession – all of them within 1.5 month, which shows great commitment from all the players. Options which we have chosen varied from play to play, but mainly we were giving access to all the cards rather then just choosing or shuffling them together (base game and expansion). Each session was different of course, with unpredictable barbarians behavior and surprising events. Let us see how it went!

PS. As always, feel free to click on below images for full details.

In our first game I was placed in Syria but unlike normally, Sassanids were not very much active. I quickly made a grab for Emperor and kept it for a long time – although as seen above, in the end my army was demolished by Alex. Poor Grant was squeezed between three of us and usually chosen as most promising target 😦 Dave managed to repel multiple barbarian incursions and kept Asia Minor under his control.
That was interesting game; Grant grabbed Emperor throne for two turns and then I took over; Dave managed to repel all Sassanid attacks and this time unfortunately Alex was the one who took all the heat.
By far our best game. The results which EVERYBODY achieved here were simply fantastic; Me, Grant and Alex had a pleasure to be emperors. But only Alex achieved unthinkable result of 86 points!
This time I was placed in the far eastern provinces which did not stop me from risking and taking Rome as first; and if nobody kicks you out – you stay there. Alex as always build large empire (4 provinces!), Grant was in the center – and finally, crushed my army in Rome; Dave unfortunately was reduced to one province 😦
This time I had perfect spot to take Rome – Pannonia. And so I did not hesitate when the time came. Grant had huge Goth’s incursion on his doorsteps, Alex controlled western provinces and tried (unsuccessfully) dislodge me form capital while Dave operated in Northern Africa.

The Impressions & Conclusion

I admit, that was great fun to play – both the opponents and of course the game. Also, it does not stop to surprise me how fantastic the Rally the Troops is. It has limited number of titles developed, but man, they are all perfect and if there are any errors, Tor resolves them almost online!

On top of this, Time of Crisis looks simply beautiful in that version, you have many options to use and once you finish the session, there is great “review the game” functionality, where you can analyze it move by move or turn by turn from the beginning. I am sure I will play more on that platform!