Every card is a confession

Carthage stands on five Pillars: the Cothon for its ships, the Granaries for its grain, the Walls of Byrsa for its soldiers, the Mint for its silver, and the Agora at the heart. Each trouble attacks one Pillar. Everyone gives in secret and flips at once. If the pile pays the cost, the Pillar holds. If not, the table gets one lap to add more. If it is still short, the Pillar falls, and the next blow to that family hits the Agora. Nothing falls quietly. The whole table watched.

The Acts have names: The Alarm, The Strain, The Doubt, The Whisper, The Last Coin, and The Siege. Each one opens with a line the Sufet reads out loud. In Act One you promise the city one thing. In Act Two you point to the player you trust most. In Act Three you point to the one hiding the biggest hand. In Act Four you make a promise to one player, and the card reminds you that promises bind nobody. In Act Five you ask someone straight out: will you stand or leave? They may lie. This is Table Talk. It means nobody sits silent, not even the shy player, not even the ten year old.

Rome arrives. No cards can save you now. From the poorest player up, with the Sufet last, each of you says one word. STAND: your whole hand goes to the city. LEAVE: you keep it and walk out. Then count. If the players who stood outnumber the fallen Pillars by the margin, Carthage stands and the gifts pay. If not, the city falls and the hoards pay. With good play, the city stands about half the time, at every table size. That is not luck. It is the design, and The Method page shows the arithmetic.

The second mode, for 4 or 6 players. Two fixed teams. Carthage wants the city to stand. Rome wants it to fall. Each Act, both teams build one secret pile, then flip. Carthage must pay the cost and beat Rome. The winner keeps the trouble as a prize. At the Siege, one last pile each, plus the prizes: the bigger total takes the city. And here is the rule that makes it: your own teammates cannot see your cards. You talk. You never show. The team game has one more thing going for it, proven on paper: if nobody fights, it ends in an exact tie, every time, whatever the cards. So somebody always has to fight.

There are no dice in the box. Every gift was decided before anyone flipped a card. The flip does not make the result. It shows you what was already true.