Tribune

About this board game

Tribune is a worker-placement and set-collection board game for 2–6 players, with games lasting about 60 minutes. Set in ancient Rome, it casts players as ambitious patrician families competing to attain the high office of the tribune.

Each round, players take turns positioning their followers around the board. These placements let them collect cards, pursue objectives, and manipulate influence among Rome’s various factions. The contest is not only about gathering resources, but also about deciding when and where to challenge an opponent’s authority.

• Worker placement: Position followers to collect cards and pursue objectives.
• Set collection: Assemble cards belonging to the same faction.
• Faction control: Play a set of at least two cards to take command of a faction and use its benefits.
• Multiple victory options: Compete through objective cards or a point-value variant.

You keep control of a faction until another player plays a stronger set from that group. The opposing set must contain more cards or have a higher total value, creating a constant struggle for political and military influence.

At the start of the game, a victory condition card is selected according to the number of players. The first player to meet the required number of objectives wins. Alternatively, players can omit the condition card and use the point-value option: the game ends when someone collects the required number of faction markers, and the player with the most points from completed achievements wins.

This 2021 edition combines the Tribune: Primus Inter Pares base game with the Tribune Expansion, including new mechanisms and elements from designer Karl-Heinz Schmiel. In Tribune, every placement and faction set can shift the balance of power on the path to victory.