The idea for this article came about after dusting off the C3I SPQR Player’s Guide published so many years ago and reading it from cover to cover. That handy guide is useful, even though outdated in a few places, in helping SPQR players understand and play the game better. The Players Guide, however, is a series of articles on a range of topics including some new scenarios but does not look at the play of the game in a wholistic manner. This guide is intended to present the game through an explanation of its rules and using one of the games more popular scenarios as a case study.
The method of presentation is one I would use in explaining the game to a new player. The discussion follows the Sequence of Play but pulls rules from anywhere in the rule book to support the explanation. I go into greater detail in some areas, less in others, and occasionally send the reader directly to the rulebook.
This article is structured into major topic sections, most of which are further divided into subsections, primarily to break up the text. I have attempted to keep cross references to internal sections to a minimum but have made copious references to the SPQR rules and play aids to support the discussion. All rule references are to the SPQR 4th Edition rules as amended by the errata dated October 2022 unless noted otherwise. After explaining the rules, I have added a section to address the often heard “what do I do” question once the game is setup. The final section has an extensive example of play covering the opening action on one wing of the Heraclea battlefield.
Let’s begin.
