Asterix: Caesar's Challenge (1993)

*Not to be confused with Asterix and Caesar’s Challenge, a mod of Asterix (1992).*

## Asterix: Caesar's Challenge (1993)

### Publisher

Infogrames Multimedia, Philips Interactive Media, Pathé Interactive

### Release Date

1993 (France CD-i only)1995 (translations; DOS, Mac)

### Genre

Board Game, Party

Asterix: Caesar’s Challenge is a board game which can be played by 1-4 people. The goal of the game is to collect the required amount of souvenirs from different lands and return to the village before time runs out. If none of the players manage to reach the goal, Caesar will win instead.

First the players need to pick the characters, they can choose between Asterix, Obelix, Impedimenta, Geriatrix, Panacea and Justforkix. Each player can choose their own difficulty levels for Reflection and Action minigames, there are 3 levels. Then they need to choose the time limit (in minutes) and the required amount of souvenirs. If a player wishes to abandon the ongoing game, they can choose Quit in the inventory menu.

To make a move, the players press the dice button, and while the dice rolls, press again to stop it in a few moments. Movement around the board is done clockwise. The players’ positions on the map are shown with differently coloured markers: Asterix is yellow, Obelix is blue, Impedimenta is pink, Geriatrix is grey, Panacea is green and Justforkix is purple.

In multiplayer, on the rest spaces, Getafix may offer to do a simple real-life action to determine who gets a small reward or goes to the nearest jail.

Character Select MenuMinigame Difficulty Select MenuGame Settings Menu

### Items

There are 3 types of items: souvenirs, sestertii and magic potion gourds. The player can look at their inventory by pressing the item button. Each player starts out with 2 gourds and no money.

Souvenirs are the items required to complete the game. The player can win them by answering questions correctly and buy them for 3 sestertii. Depending on settings, the player must collect 3, 5, 7 or 9 different souvenirs. Each of these items is attributed to a specific land: Gaul – sausage, Britain – rugby ball, Normandy – skull mug, Western Europe – Swiss cheese, Rome – Circus Maximus ticket, Greece – woman statue, Mesopotamia - gourd of rock oil, Egypt – Sphynx statue, Spain - castanets.

Sestertii are the currency used to buy souvenirs, they can be earned by successfully completing minigames (usually 1 per minigame, in some cases 2 or 3).

Potion gourds are needed to avoid spending turns in jail and get a 2nd question if the 1st one was answered wrong. These are earned by landing on cauldron squares (1 per square). For Obelix, the magic potion is replaced with a roast boar, which works the same way.

Inventory MenuA QuestionThe Shop

### Squares

The game’s board consists of 54 squares: 9 country squares, 15 ordeal squares, 4 prison squares, 4 magic potion squares, 6 trap squares, 4 rest squares, 10 “met character” squares (the characters are Ekonomikrisis, Dubbelosix, Tortuous Convolvulus and Prolix) and 2 surprise squares.

* The Gaulish Village - The game starts and ends here. If you land here before getting the required amount of souvenirs, it works like a country square. When you collect enough souvenirs, the square expands to cover 3 spaces to make it easier to land here.
* Ordeal (minigame) – There are many minigames, action or reflection based. They can be point-and-click or use directional keys. If you succeed in a minigame you win 1 or more sestertii. If you fail you get nothing.
* Trap – You move a few squares forward or backward. The square may depict a catapult, a well, a ground trap and more.
* Country (map with a land pointed out) – Maestria gives you a question, usually related to the land (geography, history, mythology, etc.) and 3 answers with only one being correct. You have a few seconds to answer. If you answer correctly you win a souvenir from this land, but if you already have it you get nothing. If you run out of time or make a mistake, you can optionally try to answer another question for the cost of 1 potion gourd. If you answer wrong twice in a row or have no gourds left, the game resumes.
* Rest (sleeping character) – Either nothing happens or you lose some sestertii.
* Jail – If you go to jail and have at least one potion gourd, you have the option to spend a gourd to break free. If you stay inside, then: if you play in multiplayer, you skip a turn; if you play solo, you have to wait for a bit while Cacofonix plays discordant music off-screen.
* Magic potion (cauldron) – You win a gourd of magic potion or roast boar if you are playing as Obelix.
* Surprise (speech bubble with symbols “?!?”) – You are offered to accept or reject a random outcome, which can be positive or negative.
* Ekonomikrisis, the merchant – Here you can buy one souvenir of your choice for 3 sestertii. If you have less than 3 sestertii or you already have enough souvenirs for victory, the game resumes. If you try to buy an item you already have, the merchant will remind you about it.
* Dubbelosix, the druid-spy – Select any square from the section of the board you are currently on and you will go there.
* Tortuous Convolvulus – Either you move forward or backward by a few squares, or lose a potion gourd. Normally when he moves you to another square it does nothing, but if you land on a prison it works as usual.
* Prolix, the soothsayer – If you play in multiplayer, try guessing how many potion gourds the next visitor of this square will have. If you play solo, do the same for when you arrive here next time. If you arrive here again after you guessed incorrectly you get nothing, if your guess was right you get 3 coins.

The BoardMinigame SquaresTrap SquaresGuessing the number of gourds the next visitor will have

### Minigames

Minigames are listed in order of appearance on the board. Making mistakes and waiting too long in minigames is typically discouraged.

The minigame names are NOT official, these are just for convenience since the game does not name them.

* Flying fish – Help Fulliautomatix avoid all the fish flying at him. Press Up to jump and Down to duck.

* Cacofonix’s lyre – A ”Simon Says” type minigame. Watch and memorise the notes being played, then use the directional keys to repeat them. The sequence gradually extends. You fail if you make a mistake.

* Squares with a magnifying glass over a Roman tortoise trigger one of the following:
	+ Puzzle – Look at the picture. After a few seconds several pieces of the picture will be taken out and you need to put them back in the given order. Click on an empty spot to put the current piece there. If you do well, the game will put the last piece on its place and you win. You fail if you make a mistake.

* + Find the odd one out – Look at the picture, find the object which does not belong there (e.g. a streetlight, a helicopter, a cap, etc.) and click on it. You only have a few seconds.

* Animals in the fog – Look at the picture with several animals, memorise them and their positions. After a few seconds the fog will hide everything, after which an animal sound will play. Click where the correct animal is.

* Anticlimax’s journey – Navigate around the icebergs by pressing Left and Right and try not to crash. The path is divided into 5 parts.

* Boar hunt – Try to click on every boar without missing or letting any of them escape.

* Falling objects – Help the Gaul reach a place to hide from falling objects. Press Left and Right to move from side to side. The path is divided into 3 parts.

* Colouring – Look at the picture and memorise the colours. After a few seconds it turns white and you need to colour it exactly like it was. Click on a colour to select it, then click on a part of the picture to colour it. You fail if you make a mistake.

* Javelin throw – Help Gluteus Maximus throw the javelin efficiently by clicking while green squares are appearing (up to 4). You fail if you throw too early (brown squares) or miss the moment and trip over (red squares).

* Flying carpets – Try to get across the pit without falling by jumping on the flying carpets. Press Up to jump forward, click to jump in place when the carpet starts rolling up so you do not get shaken off. The carpets move left and right and roll up at the edges of the path.

* Roman camp fight – Press Left and Right to face the Romans approaching you and press Up to hit them before they hit you.

* Egyptian hieroglyphs – Try to guess the combination of symbols in a limited number of attempts. When you paste a combination, the symbols can be black, red or green. Black symbols do not belong in the combination, red symbols need to be in another place, green symbols are correct and must be kept. There is a small chance that 2 or 3 symbols will be identical.

* Dogmatix in the pyramid – Help Dogmatix reach the pile of bones without bumping into anything. Press Up to jump and Down to duck.

* Pirates – Try to click on every pirate without missing or letting any of them escape.

## Trivia

* Most dialogue can be skipped by clicking, except the lines of Tortuous Convolvulus.
* In solo mode, if the player lands on a jail square without any magic potion left, they will be released shortly.
* If the player already has the required amount of souvenirs and gives more correct answers they can get additional souvenirs, but that will not affect anything.
* The game does not remain stationary when left alone for a prolonged time.
	+ Idling in the Main Menu will trigger one of the following:
		- the rules
		- the Dogmatix minigame, preceeded by the dog entering the burrow
		- The game plays itself. The NPCs’ AI is quite limited: they will fail minigames, pick only the first answer in questions and always choose No in the Yes/No menus.
	+ Idling on the board, in the Inventory menu and on the map will lead to the game slowly playing itself until the player makes an input.
	+ If no choice is made in the Yes/No menus, Getafix will make a decision instead. The same thing happens in multiplayer in the menu where one player gets money or goes to prison.
* Maestria’s name in the English comic translation is Bravura, but the English version of this game still uses her original name.