Trajan is a tough, intense puzzle of a game. The stern face of the emperor looking out on the cover makes it clear: there are no ninjas battling dinosaurs here, just a strategic gem where thought, planning, and strategy are the only ways to victory. Stefan Feld has made a reputation as a master of Euro-style strategy games, with recent hits including The Castles of Burgundy, Macao, and The Speicherstadt.

Trajan has a Roman design: victory points are represented by laurels, the buildings styled with columns, the round markers Roman numerals, and so on. Appropriate for the “Good Emperor” Trajan, the art is attractively styled and the board helpfully laid out but not ostentatious. The pieces, of which there are many (this is a heavy game), are sturdy and easily distinguished. 2-4 people can play Trajan, and the time listed of 30-minutes per player is fairly accurate.

At first glance, Trajan looks like six interwoven mini-games. For example, in the Senate, the player with the most votes gets first choice of bonus VP tiles. In the Military field, players who send their generals farthest afield first reap the greatest benefits of points and loot. The Forum provides the bread, circuses, and religious ceremonies that keep the common people happy (and their penalty points at bay). These different environments affect each other; for example, certain military conquests might provide extra Senate votes in addition to VP. But choosing an action is not as simple as placing a worker, though, because of the keystone that brings all of Trajan together: the rondel.

Those who have played the classic game of Mancala will find the rondel familiar. Each player has their own rondel; there is no direct interfering with the other players’ rondels, but the puzzle it presents is more than enough to ponder on its own. Each of the rondel’s six trays corresponds to one of the six actions; and each of the trays starts out with two colored markers in it. To take an action, the player chooses a tray, picks up all the markers in it, and moving clockwise around the rondel, deposits the markers in the trays. Whatever tray the last marker is placed in is the action that the player takes. It requires careful planning, therefore, for a player to be able to line up a series of several moves in the future and take a series of desired actions.

Even this is only half the story of the rondel. One of the six rondel actions allows you to choose a bonus tile from the supply and place it on one of the trays in your rondel. These tiles are powerful and efficient, a great source of bonus points and leverage in several of the other minigames. Of course, there is a catch! To collect and make use of a bonus tile you have collected, you must take the corresponding action; you must also have collected a certain color combination of action markers in that tray. And, of course, the placement of the bonus tiles follows a predetermined rotation, so you can’t just put the tile on the spot you were hoping to pick anyway.

This is the really cool and agonizing part about Trajan. You can plan your actions out in advance and mostly ignore the tiles, but then you’re missing out on a great source of points, and you’ll have to spend some actions to compensate. (For instance, one of the tiles provides meets one of the people’s demands for bread, circuses, or religion every turn. This tile will save you a trip to the Forum every turn — and is even worth a VP to boot!) At the other extreme, you can go out of your way to pick up many tiles. This provides you a lot of resources, but you might not be able to use them all in a useful way. For instance, the Construction action lets you pick up various tiles worth 2-5 points, but a matched set of three is worth 10 and four are worth 20! This is a great bonus, but one that’s difficult to pursue if you have to detour through many non-Construction actions to set up your markers and pick up tiles. The most successful players will find ways to get the best of both worlds; a detour for tiles at an appropriate lull, or a way to make the actions match up nicely with tiles.

Stefan Feld’s other recent games, like Castles of Burgundy and Macao, have rewarded players most strongly for being adaptable; for making the best use of the dice, tiles, and cards that presented themselves. Trajan is at the other end of the spectrum; whether a player is going for tiles or specialization, the rondel rewards careful consideration, planning out moves, actions, and consequences several turns ahead.