Rome in a Day Review: I Split, I Choose, I Conquer

About Rome in a Day, from BoardGameGeek:

The once thriving Roman Empire fell apart. Who can resist the temptation to claim some of the lands for themselves? Do you prefer vineyards or quarries? Or maybe you want a little bit of everything with some olive groves and an oil mill on top? All you need is to make a good trade: offer a beautiful antique theater in exchange or add a few precious diamonds… Divide and swap lands, outguess and bribe your opponents! Create a prosperous domain from the lots of Rome! Rome in a day is a simple strategy game based on the original "cut-and-choose" mechanic that will win the hearts of aspiring conquerors of all ages. Before the start, all players are dealt with their personal set of buildings with the card of buildings, a pile of lands tiles (there are 5 types - fields, city, olive gardens etc), gems/cristals, choice cards of smaller and bigger lands, reminder cards and screens. The game is played in 4 turns. During each turn, players take top 5 tiles of lands and place them in front of themselves. Then they take 2 top buildings from the building card and place them on the 2 lands from the left. Next, players take their screens and start dividing those 5 pieces of lands into 2 groups - a bigger and a smaller ones. In any ratio they want (3\2, 1\4 even 5\0). And add 1 crystal to the smaller land. When everyone is ready, the exchange begins. Players put the screens down allowing other players to see and choose a land that they have made. Note: at the first turn players choose the lands from a neighbour from the left, at 2nd - from the right, and then again left and finally right. For the max interaction When selection is made, players put a choice card reflecting their decidion of lands. Then, players take the chosen lands from the neighbour from the left and join them to the remaining piece of their own. Turn by turn, they build their domains, taking the most suitable lands to make their so-called new empire more profitable. How to gain points? For every kind of terrain with the corresponding building placed on it or next to it. Then the number of lands multiply with the number of buildings for EACH type of lands. The crystals gained for choosing smaller lands also bring points - 3 points for each crystal. The player with the most points wins the game.