The purpose of this review is to provide a general understanding of the game play, winning conditions and simple strategies, while also providing enough information for you to decide whether it’s a game that belongs on your table or even in your collection. This will not be a complete rules fest that will have you ready to play the game!

INTRO
Leonardo da Vinci is a medium/high strategy game designed by Achitocca (a team of Italian designers). It's for 2-5 players of age 12+ and estimated to last 60 minutes.

THEME
Each player is an inventor seeking fame for creating machinations requested by the Lord of the City. You must carefully use your workers to upgrade your laboratories, recruit more workers, gather the necessary components for inventions, and finally, actually work in the laboratories building the inventions. In the end, the inventor who has earned the most amount of Florins gains the title of Master Inventor.
I could spend another paragraph describing the Renaissance and how each inventor inspires to be the next Master, but meh – it’s a game that, while does a decent job at fitting the theme, is another in the resource management, worker placement, and bidding genre.

COMPONENTS
Inside the box are a bunch of colorful wooden bits (player colors are yellow, blue, red, green and purple), cards, some thick cardstock pieces, a quad-fold playing board and of course instructions.

The wooden bits are of great make and of quality expected from today’s gamers. The apprentices are twice the height of meeples and humanoid shaped. The master is similar to the apprentices, but stands out quite a bit more. The lab markers are simple cylinders.

The laboratory tiles are of decent size (~3” X 4”) on nice thick cardstock, which will hold up nicely. These laboratory tiles are double-sided. One is a 3-worker lab that can be upgraded to a 5-worker lab, while the second is a 4-worker lab that upgrades to a 6-worker lab. The laboratory cards provide enough room for worker placement and to clearly show how many weeks you’ve spent on an invention (up to 15).

The cards come in two sizes. The larger of the two, about playing card size, represent the inventions you’ll be making during the game. There are 25 total, and contain the necessary info on them:
a) one of five schools of design (gears, springs, calipers, etc).
b) one of four grades (bronze, copper, silver and 2 X gold)
c) component(s) required to construct inventions (iron, glass, wood, brick and rope)
d) amount of Florins received when invented

The smaller deck of cards is broken into two categories – components and Florins. They are smaller, similar to Catan resources or the original TtR train cards. There are five components and the Florins are in denominations of 1, 5, 10, and 20.
The cards are of fine grade, but I’d always request a larger size. But this is nit-picky as many games use this smaller size.

At first glance, I was annoyed at how the Florins and components had the same backing, but as you’ll learn, this was done as a game design so fellow players couldn’t separate the two in your hand. In other words, when looking at an opponents hand, you are unsure as to the combination of Florin/components they possess– very important during game!

There are two cardboard tokens that represent Leonardo da Vinci (starting player) and the Lord of the city. Both tokens fit into a plastic base to stand upright. The Leo token is necessary because the starting player potentially changes every round, but the Lord of the City token servers no purpose – that’s right – zero, zilch, nada. Oh well, he stays in the box.

Also provided are 2 summary tables of similar cardstock as the players’ laboratories. Why not 5? Dunno. I’ve found that they are referenced enough that there should have been 5, but it really doesn’t hamper game play for five players to share the two.

The final pieces made of cardboard are small arrows used to point to an invention that you’re in the process of making but has already been completed by a fellow inventor. I’ve found that our group can easily find the invention without requiring these arrows, but at least they’re provided. They are more stay-in-the-box fodder for our group.

The rules…oh boy, these are pretty bad. While you are certainly able to sit down and play after reading, there are many questions raised that aren’t directly answered. Fortunately, an FAQ has been written and available on the Geek, which answers all the questions we’ve raised while playing - http://www.davincigames.com/page_eng.cfm?sez=01&gioco=leonar...

The board is a 4-sectional fold-up of durable stock and provides a smooth layout. There isn’t any great artwork or design, but it’s functional and serves it’s purpose – to outline the spot for all the goodies.

Overall, the components are better than adequate and will last for as long as you own the game even if they are uninteresting.

SET-UP
While the instructions refer to a default player set-up, I’ve never used it. We’ve always played with the Expert Set-up (also in the instructions) that allows each player to customize their start-game conditions. Customized features include additional laboratory/upgrades, Florins, components and apprentices.

GAME PLAY
The game last 9 rounds, with the first 7 rounds being FULL rounds (4 phases, A-D), while rounds 8 and 9 are shorter (one of the ambiguities in the rules but clearly identified in the online FAQ).

Phase A (Laboratory Phase)
This is a 60 second phase in which players decide whether they are going to assign/cancel any work for one or both of their laboratories. Fellow players may know that you’re working on an invention, but they will not know which one. You may even decide to work on an invention NOT currently requested by the Lord of the City - a strategy I’ll explain later! Rarely do we experience players cancelling their work, but near the end game, it may prove beneficial.

Phase B (Assignment Phase)
The heart of this game is in worker placement, not unlike Caylus or Pillars of the Earth. Beginning with LdV (the starting player), the players take turns (clockwise) placing their master or any number of apprentices on one of the 10 locations:
a) The Council – offers four FREE options – move an apprentice, take Florin stack (often 1 Florin), look at and rearrange top four invention cards, and buy any single component for 1 Florin
b) Workshop – allows lab purchases/upgrades and mechanical men (mechanical men are only available in the 5 or 6-worker labs and add two weeks of work to that invention for free)
c) Academy – recruit additional apprentices
d) Blacksmith – receive iron component
e) Glass Blower – receive glass component
f) Joiner – receive wood component
g) Kiln – receive brick component
h) Rope maker – receive rope component
i) 3/5-worker lab – provides work (in weeks) on invention
j) 4/6-worker lab - provides work (in weeks) on invention
Multiple players may place their apprentices/master on the same location in hopes to receive that service. But once you’ve placed an apprentice(s) on a location you may NOT place any more apprentices on that same location! You may add your master, but no more apprentices. Once all players have finished placing their apprentices and master, then we’re off to……

Phase C (Employment Phase)
Beginning with location A and moving alphabetically, each location is resolved. This is where the bidding element is introduced. To resolve each location, the players add the total support for the location. Each apprentice is worth 1, while the master is worth 2. Ties are broken by the player who placed in that location first. Each location (b-h) offers their service four times, but at an increase in cost (0, 2, 3, and 4 Florins). The Council (a) is free for everyone. Apprentices and masters in a laboratory provide 1 or 2 weeks of work, respectively, toward completing the invention. Each mechanical man is worth an additional 2 weeks of worth toward the invention.

Strategies - So, placing first into a location is not as important as having the most support in that location. If you place one apprentice in a location, you can easily be outbid by another player who places their master or two apprentices in that location. Sure you could add your master to that location, but the other player could respond in like. Remember – you CANNOT add additional apprentices to a location you have already placed an apprentice in. You have to add the desired amount up front. It is generally considered an advantage to go last so that you can react to the other players’ actions.
I really like and enjoy this mechanic in the game. There’s much more to consider than simply placing a worker, it’s a question of how many? And like other resource management games, you’ll never have enough Florins to afford the second, third or fourth placing at each location, so it’s generally better to be focused on a couple areas as opposed to be thinly spread. Besides, if you spend all your Florins on locations, then you won’t have enough for winning the endgame. Remember – Florins also decide the winner! And whatever you do, don’t forget to assign apprentices to your labs or you’ll never get those inventions completed!
Another trick is to use the 'look and rearrange the top four inventions' option of the Council (a) to full advantage. The Lord of the city only wants inventions that are face-up, so by rearranging the order of the deck, you decide which inventions will replace those that are finished. If you begin work on an invention before anyone else knows it's coming, you can often complete it before they've even begun - a nice way to ensure you get the invention card.
Finally, once all the locations have been resolved and each player added their workweeks to their laboratory, you’re ready for the final phase.

Phase 4 (Research phase)
Typically, a two-minute phase. Here is where you declare if you’ve finished an invention. If so, collect the amount of Florins for that particular invention. If you were the first to finish that invention, then you also keep the card. If a tie occurs, then players go into a blind bid – high bid loses their money but gets the card, while the loser keeps their money. The player who gets the invention card is now skilled in that particular school of invention (gears, springs, calipers, etc) and any further inventions of that particular school take you two weeks less to complete the invention. This effect is cumulative, so if you have 3 inventions of the spring school, you may subtract 6 weeks for the next one – minimum 1 week required.

END GAME
After the 9 rounds, the players determine whether they’re eligible for a bonus. You get 8 Florins for having inventions from three different schools, 13 for 4, and 20 for all 5. Players must remain aware of this bonus for it easily sneaks up on you, similar to St. Petersburg and the aristocrats. The players total their Florins and highest wins.

CONCLUSION
Honestly, I’m a huge Caylus fan and prefer the strategy of its worker placement, but I really like the worker placement/bidding combination of LdV. The Expert Set-up (highly recommended, even for first-timers) also allows for diverse customization to begin the game, which offers great replayability – do I focus on a lab upgrade with a mechanical man for efficient use of time or go for several apprentices to ensure I win more locations or maybe focus on Florins and components? These are they types of choices I enjoy quite a bit. The rulesbook could use quite a bit of help, but the FAQ (link provided earlier) should answer any questions you have after reading the rules. There is no mistaking the amount of AP that can occur, especially near the end game, due to placing the CORRECT amount of apprentices on a location, however, I’ve found that the game has always moved smoothly. Like any game of similar style, it takes quite a few plays to get to the 60 minute suggestion, but with enough plays you’ll get there. Lastly, it IS another resource management game and it ISN’T the best of them, but it fills a niche for me and won’t be leaving my collection anytime soon. With all that, I have given the game a solid 8. I like the game and would not turn down a playing of it. It may not always make my gaming bag, but it’ll make its fair share of entries.