Spartacus a big favourite of the group (and more importantly me) was supercharged on Thur with the addition of the first expansion for it “The Serpents and the Wolf”
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/134466/spartacus-the-serpents-and-the-wolf-expansion-set
The group had been watching this with anticipation so when it was released we pounced on it like a starving cat in a lifeboat. first up, it’s good, it’s very nice indeed. This is definitely worth getting and they’re giving away a promo card (or two) with it.
I’d put money on it (not mine) that if they reprint the original this would be included, it screams “should have been in the original box but we were saving money to make the base version popular”
For your dolla you get two new dominus (it’s now six player), a stack of new gladiators and slaves, some very small rule additions and most importantly the ability to field teams of two v two. THIS is the whole sizzle of the expansion and not wanting to wait I forced the first match to be a 4 player.
The rules are that if your influence is 10 or over you can call a Primus (a 4 player) and an intrigue card can force this too. it makes for some very hairy races to the finish.
The game plays a tiny bit slower and you tend to analyse the 4 player moves a bit more carefully but it doesn’t slow it by much and I believe you would be back up to normal speed for the game pretty quickly. Because of how the game works even with six (and we had six on thur) it doesn’t leave people waiting too much, we flew through intrigue and market. With six in the running anything can happen.
The only thing I was unsure about was you can’t stab your team mate in the back unless you have a specific gladiator but I think a house rule would fix that. We’re ALL about the backstabbing on thur nights 🙂
This is a cracker of an addition. if you’re a fan of the original it’s pointless me saying but GO get this. it’s well worth the entrance fee. Oh yes and it’s NOT suitable for kids but it says that clearly on the box (as I’m sure an actress may have said to a Bishop)
a few rounds of Zombie Dice rounded out the evening. I didn’t win that either but I’ll still
Huzzah!
Vic
Victor Gannon Games 
With Boris screwing me over, me screwing Vic over and Vic screwing everyone over, we failed to spot Kieran & Paul racking up the influence points required to win the game.
With no way of stopping them, it looked like a fight to the death in the arena was about to take place…. Until John popped out of his architect’s hole and won the game.
ex Iovis ales!