Colosseum

Our family loves this game, which was recommended to us by a game specialist shop in Canterbury. Aimed at adults and older children, I'd say. The only rule we felt we had to ignore is that the person scoring the lowest points/coins in each of the first four levels is supposed to take a card of their choice from that round's winner, and some dirty tactics were being used by one member of our family, deliberately doing badly to steal a prized card! (the lightning bolt wild card, of which there are few, is very precious). The actual winner is the highest scorer of the fifth and final round, when everyone puts on their big event.

Colosseum is a highly enjoyable board game involving some luck as well as strategy, making it an excellent family game. Players own their own colosseum on the board and earn points by putting on a number of shows over 5 rounds of the game. Character pieces are moved about the board to gain extra points, on the throw of one or two dice. It is an adaptable game and can be played with 3 to 5 players - probably best with 4 or 5, but quicker with 3. Games generally last between 1 hour and 90 minutes, depending on how protracted the negociating stage becomes - we introduced a two trade maximum or one minute trading slot to speed this up and focus players' minds. The educational value of the game lies more in developing communication skills and negotiating strategies, teaching important lessons in competition but also in co-operation, than in learning about ancient Rome, though the performance cards have been well researched and the latin grammar is correct. Our youngest is 9 and loves the structure of the game, especially the purchasing and trading of the asset tokens. The chance element to the game is an advantage to family play and probably accurately reflects the caprice of the emperor.The game is robustly constructed and set out in compartments that make packing up and setting out relatively easy, compared to other board games like this.