The atmospheric illustration on La Strada's boxcover invites players to enter a rustic, romantic time and place: northern Italy during the late Middle Ages, when trade flourished between the budding towns. The players are the traders, competing to build a trading network of the highest value by connecting their trading posts to as many and as profitable locations as possible. These locations are towns, villages, hamlets and farms, in descending order of value. Competition hurts profit, so when more than one player connects the same location to his or her network, the value of that location becomes less for all players there.

La Strada is played on a square modular board, composed of four cornerparts that hold the spaces for scoring at the end of the game, and the actual playing area in the middle. The area is formed by six triangular pieces, that together form a large hexagon. The spaces on the board are also hexes, depicting the terrain of northern Italy: fields, woods and hills. 19 spaces are marked by a light grey dot, where the hexagonal tiles depicting the locations are randomly placed on, after being mixed up facedown. Once the location tiles are placed on the board they are turned over, and the playing area is ready to receive the impatient traders.

In their color of choice, each player gets the following playing pieces: 12 marker cubes, 31 hexagonal roadtiles (18 on fields, 8 on woods and 5 on hills; fronts are straight road, backs are all 120 degree corners) and a trading post. Players position themselves near one of the four tracks numbered from 1 through 10, which is used to keep track of the player's "traveldays". In turn, each player now places his trading post on an empty field space. Players should position their trading post wisely, within reach of the high value towns. The edges of the playing area should be avoided, as players run the risk of being cornered. The much discussed advantage of the starting player being able to pick the one choice spot on the board, is only an advantage if the other players let him or her get away with it. The game has an inherent subtle balance, that gives players equal opportunity to win. Final scores are often very close to each other.

The game is deceptively simple in it's mechanic. A player's turn starts off with adding six traveldays to their track. The player spends traveldays to place roadtiles: two for fields, three for woods and four for hills. Starting out at the trading post, a location must be reached in one go. If a location cannot be reached, the player must choose another, or save up to the maximum of ten traveldays and build road to the location next turn. When a player builds to a certain location, a marker cube in the player's color is placed on it. On their next turn, the player can build a new "strada" from this location, or start off in a different direction from their original trading post. Remember, unfinished roads are not allowed, locations must be reached during a player's turn. Roadtiles cannot be placed on top of other roadtiles, nor can they be removed or replaced in any way. This is where the game becomes the brainburner it is, as players block each other at every opportunity. In fact, La Strada is only mastered once players realize it is often wiser to thwart an opponent, than to go for their own personal gain. However, it is necessary to reach certain key locations, namely the high value towns and those locations that prevent others from completely cornering a player. Locations can only be connected to a player's network once.

The game ends when, at the start of their turn, a player cannot build another road, either because they are out of marker cubes, or there isn't a reachable location anymore. Scoring commences, thematically portrayed as gold coins. On every corner of the gameboard one of the four types of locations is depicted, with two to four boxes to hold the marker cubes. Cubes are simply transferred from a location to the corresponding box, depending on the total number of cubes on the location. For each player, the value of each cube is determined by the number of gold coins depicted at the bottom of the box the cube is in. All values are added, scores are tallied and compared, and a winner is declared. If there is a tie, leftover traveldays are the tiebreaker.

La Strada may leave players somewhat befuddled after the first session. They may look at each other and raise their eyebrows, thinking: Is this it? Because the game plays within half an hour, players may give it another go, and after one or two more sessions, an intriguing game emerges. It is a connection game that echoes Wallace's much more complex Age of Steam. La Strada's simplicity initially obfuscates the wealth of choice offered the players, leading to a tense and intense boardgame. Kosmos is a publisher of the highest quality, and attention to detail is obvious throughout. There are some shortcomings, especially how the trading posts are depicted. On a gameboard rapidly filling with tiles, they are easily confused with the 19 target locations. The road networks in their four different colors remain distinct, and present a wonderful sight as they grow and grow. Another minor flaw is the scoring boxes, that could lead to some confusion the first few games.

La Strada is designed with four players in mind. It is a weaker affair with three players, and the adjusted rules for two players leave of La Strada nothing more than a mere ghost of what the game really has to offer. And that, with four players, is a supreme filler, a game that has a lovely amount of depth and nailbiting choices in the second best half hour anyone could spend.