The gods of Mount Olympus - Mars, Minerva, Neptune, Bellona et al - pass the time honing their skills on the battle field. Bellum Sacrum is a two player competitive card game. Each player plays with an identical deck of 42 cards. There are 10 different card types in a deck, each identified with a number, a colour and the name of a Roman god. There are 3 copies of the most powerful card and 6 copies of the weakest card, with a sliding scale in-between. Each card has an attack and defence rating as well as a unique invocation power. Each player has an imaginary column into which they deploy warriors. The column has three positions - front, middle and back. In general, warriors at the front of the column attack warriors at the front of their opponents column. Other warriors can support an attack. The goal of the game is to collect five trophies. Trophies are won by removing all of the warriors in your opponent's column. Warriors are removed from a column through a strategic mix of attacks and invocations. Players take turns, with each turn consisting of four actions. The player may chose from a list of five possible actions, which can be played in any number and order up to a total of four. The actions are as follows: 1) Draw: The player draws three cards from their deck. 2) Deploy: The player places a warrior into their battle column. The warrior may be a single card or multiple cards of the same type. Warriors made of multiple cards are stronger. 3) Attack: A ready warrior at the front of your column attacks the warrior at the front of your opponent's column. 4) Strengthen: Cards of the same type can be added to a warrior. 5) Invoke: Place a card from your hand into the discard pile to activate the invocation power on a card. Invocations can be blocked by an opponent discarding the same card. -description from designer