Dan Bosley
Canada
Aldergrove
BC
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Serenissima (which means “Queen of the Seas”) is apparently the original name for the city of Venezia, or what we nowadays refer to as Venice, Italy. I suppose this is a good thing - otherwise just think of what we’d have to call Venetian blinds instead.
Serenissima also happens to be the name of a very good board game by Dominique Ehrhard with the assistance of Duccio Vitale. The game first came out in 1996, published by Jeux Descartes under the Eurogames label, and is designed to be played with from 2 to 4 players.
On Friday night, Jeff and I (Dan, your extremely wordy reporter) got together with Corwin at his place to play a 3-player game of Serenissima!
The board is a large, quite attractive map of the Mediterranean Sea and immediate-surrounding lands as they were known from about 700 to 400 years ago. All the action in the game takes place on the water and in the many ports that surround the Mediterranean Sea. This is NOT a game about traipsing about the countryside. This is a game about travelling on the water and trading in goods to increase your overall wealth, with a bit of combat thrown in for good measure. It’s an entertaining and enjoyable mix.
There are 23 city-ports on the map. Each city produces one type of commodity, and one type only. In addition, each city has a certain amount of warehouse space in which they can store other types of commodities that they don‘t produce. During the game, one must send one’s many galleys throughout the Mediterranean, landing at the various city-ports, and taking over ports when able to do so. You must acquire goods for trade, and sell other goods to the cities in order to make money, which allows you (subject to various restrictions) to build more galleys, hire sailors, build forts, and generally run your expanding trading empire the best way you see fit.
The 23 cities vary in their warehouse capacity. A warehouse is always deemed to contain the commodity that the city produces. But how much other stuff it can contain differs. And the more commodities a warehouse can contain (that is, the bigger the warehouse is), the more it will pay to get each additional commodity up to its capacity. But once a warehouse is full, then it will accept no more commodities of any kind.
The 4 capital cities (also known as the starting cities) each have the largest warehouses - with capacity for 6 other different commodities. And since there are 7 commodities total, that means a full capital-city warehouse would have one of each commodity - the one it normally produces, plus one each of the other types.
There are 11 medium-size cities, with warehouse capacity for 4 other commodities.
And the remaining 8 small-size cities each only have warehouse capacity for 2 other commodities.
The warehouses don’t just accept any old commodity either. If you’re trying to sell them iron, and they’ve already got iron in their warehouse, then tough luck, old buddy. Buzz off. They don’t want it. The warehouses ONLY want commodities that they don’t already have. So during the game, you have to balance what commodities you are carrying on your various galleys, and just where you are going with them, and what prices for that particular commodity are available within the range of your galley that has that commodity in its hold. As well, you have to watch out for your rivals - more on that later.
So in the days of Serenissima, there are 7 different commodities of trading value:
Six of the cities produce wood (represented by 15 brown markers). These 6 cities are spread out pretty evenly along mainly the northern half of the board.
Four of the cities produce iron (represented by 15 grey markers). Again, these 4 cities are also spread out evenly along the top half of the board.
Four of the cities produce textiles (represented by 15 black markers). Two of these are in the northwest quadrant of the board, and two in the east.
Four of the cities produce wine (represented by 15 red markers). Three of these are in the western half of the board, with one in the east.
Two of the cities produce gold (represented by 15 yellow markers). These are both in the southwestern section of the map.
Two of the cities produce spices (represented by 15 green markers). These are both in the far eastern section of the map.
And finally, one city only produces gemstones (represented by 15 orange markers). It is in the southern central section of the map.
Certain observations come to mind here. Since certain cities produce scarcer items, those cities may be more likely to be subject to take-over attempts. This is because if you control a city, producing that item yourself is pretty well guaranteed to be cheaper than buying the item from a rival-controlled city-port.
Likewise, galleys that are transporting those rarer items may find themselves more likely in danger of being attacked by a rival (turned pirate) who wants the item(s) on your galley without having to pay for them.
When it gets closer to the end of the game, control of the cities themselves becomes more important than what the commodity is that the city produces. This is because control of cities earns you victory points. What commodities you have at the end of the game is irrelevant.
So, in a nutshell, you have a board with 23 cities that produce 7 different commodities, each city having varying warehouse capacity. The Mediterranean Sea on the gameboard is marked off in rather large spaces - the longest distance from the far west end of the map to the far east of the map is 9 spaces. It is on and through these spaces that your galleys will be travelling to and fro.
Besides the 28 galleys available, the game also contains 28 flag bases, flags of 4 different types (one for each player) that go on the galleys and flag bases, 20 forts, and 180 sailors. And money. And some very helpful Player Aid cards.
The galleys are the ships that you and your opponents will use in plying the waters of the Mediterranean. When you own a galley, your flag is raised on the mast. Since the galleys all look alike, the only way to tell whose galley is whose is by the flag that is flying proudly from it.
Each galley has 5 spaces on it. A galley always has to have at least one sailor. A galley without a sailor is a very sad situation. In other words, it’s sunk.
So, you must have one sailor per galley. The other 4 spaces on each galley can either be empty, contain another sailor, or contain a commodity. You can mix and match those other 4 spaces on each galley as you see fit. But once all 5 spaces are filled, that’s it. You can’t overload your galleys.
Sailors are important for a couple of reasons. The more sailors you have on a galley, the further it can move in any given turn. The number of spaces the galley can move corresponds to the number of sailors on the galley. So if you only had the one sailor, that galley can only move one space. One-sailor galleys (except possibly after battles when the galley used to be a more-than-one-sailor galley) are pretty rare. Such a galley moves far too slowly (one space at a time), and is an easy target for rivals.
Then you have 5-sailor galleys. These are your warships / pirates. If you’ve got galleys full of 5 sailors and no commodities, then you’re moving 5 spaces at a time and you‘re looking for trouble. These pirate-galleys can be deadly, and as the game gets closer and closer to the end, more and more of them sail the seas, making the Mediterranean a very dangerous place.
Most galleys during the main part of the game tend to have 3 sailors and 2 commodities. This allows a reasonable movement of 3 spaces per turn, and gives you 2 goods with which to trade, allowing you to continue to expand your empire.
Besides dictating how far a galley can move, the number of sailors on board also controls the galley’s battle-strength.
When battles ensue (between rival galleys, or between a galley and a rival-controlled city), each player rolls one die and adds that number to the number of sailors on the ships (or on the land in the case of a city being attacked). Then the number is divided by 3 and rounded down. That new number represents the number of sailors the defendent loses in the battle. Both players roll the die - each round of combat is considered simultaneous. So it is possible for both ships to go down in a battle, losing all hands on deck, and all commodities in the hold. War! Ugh! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing. Say it again.
But - if one side is victorious, the winning side can take over the other ship (provided they have at least one extra sailor they can transfer from the winning ship). If not, then the ship will sink - but any commodities on board the sinking ship can be transferred to the winning ship. If you need to make room on your ship, you can throw overboard commodities you don’t really want or need in favour of the new commodities you are transferring.
However, it is a no-no to throw a man overboard just to make room for a commodity. If you want to do that, you should be playing Rette Sich Wer Kann instead.
The game takes place over a fixed number of rounds. For instance, with a 3-player game, there are 10 rounds, and then the game is over. Each round consists of 6 different phases. Each player takes his turn in each phase, and then the next phase starts. Once all 6 phases are done, the next round starts, and the phases start all over again.
The game starts with each player in a home-capital city with 10 sailors and 2 empty galleys. You place some of the 10 sailors on your 2 galleys, and the rest you leave on shore in your city as a garrison (to defend against attacks from rivals). You decide how many. You also start the game with 2000 ducats. Spend your money wisely.
Let the game begin!
Phase 1: Bid for player order:
Each player secretly puts an amount of money (or nothing at all if they want) in their hand. The bids are then revealed simultaneously. High bidder gets to choose if he wants to go 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th. Next highest then chooses, and so on. A die-roll settles ties.
At the beginning of the game, it tends to be better to go first, as it gives one more opportunities to get to unclaimed ports first. And you have earlier opportunities to fill up smaller warehouses first. And you can stop somebody from selling a commodity to a given city if you sell the same commodity to the same city FIRST. But with larger warehouses, it can be better to get there later, since you get paid more for later-stored commodities.
In the middle of the game, whether you want to go first or last or somewhere in the middle depends a great deal on the game-situation and what your opponents are doing , where they are, and where their strengths and weaknesses are.
Likewise at the end of the game, which tends to be battle-heavy. The early part of the game tends to be pretty peaceful. At the end of the game, you may want to go first in order to strike first and attempt to take over opponent-controlled cities. But on the other hand, you may want to go last in order to be able to better react to what your opponents are planning - move in defensive ships, for instance, to an area where an opponent has massed for an attack.
Since the turn-order applies to all the remaining phases of the round, it can be an important factor. The other thing to consider of course is that it is costing you money to bid for turn order - money that might be better spent elsewhere. So you might want to take your chances of when your turn comes up in order to save money for purchasing other things.
Phase 2: Buy and Build and Rearrange Stuff:
In this phase, there are many different things that can be done by a player. He can do any of them, in any order, as often or as little as he wants, as long as he has money to pay for it. He can do one thing, do something else, and then do the 1st thing again. How he spends his money, and what he does with it, and in what order, is up to him. But if he can’t afford to do something, then he can’t do it.
In the early part of the game, this phase tends to be done simultaneously by all the players, despite the official turn-order, since it speeds up the game. Obviously, if the turn-order becomes relevant in a specific situation here, then the turn-order must be followed.
The things you can do in Phase 2:
A) Buy commodities from a city-port
B) Buy commodities from another player’s galley
C) Build new galleys
D) Build forts
E) Hire sailors for your galleys or garrison for your controlled city-ports
F) Rearrange sailors, garrison and commodities between your galleys (provided they are on the same space), or between a galley and your controlled city-port provided your galley is at that city-port.
A) Buy commodities from a city-port. A galley has to be in a city-port to do this. The only commodity that a galley can buy is the commodity that the city-port produces. You can’t buy anything else from the city’s warehouse. The galley must also have room on board for the commodity. You can buy as many of that commodity as you can afford and want and have space for on your galley(s) that is (are) at that city-port.
But what do commodities cost? That will vary.
a) If you are at your own-controlled city-port, or at a non-player-controlled city-port, then each commodity you buy will cost 100 ducats.
b) If you are at a city-port controlled by a rival player, the rival player gets to set the price for the commodity - either 100, 200, or 300 ducats each. You can then either pay the price to the rival player and get the commodities - or you can offer to buy them at a different price. If the seller accepts your counter-proposal, then you buy the goods at that new price. If not, you have one last opportunity to buy the goods at the seller’s original asking price. Otherwise, no deal.
c) If you are at a city-port MONOPOLY controlled by a rival player, the rival player gets to set the price for the commodity anywhere from 100 to 1000 ducats! A monopoly is when a player controls ALL the cities that produce that particular commodity. A monopoly is guaranteed with the gemstones, since there is only one city that produces it. So whoever controls that city-port will ALWAYS get to set the price for them from 100 to 1000 ducats. And both gold and spices are produced by only 2 cities each - so there is a good chance that one player could own a monopoly there as well. The other commodities either have 4 or 6 cities producing them, so while not totally impossible, it would not be likely that one player would control all those cities.
B) Buy commodities from another player. The two trading galleys must be sharing a space to allow trade between them - and the players must agree on the price - or no deal.
C) Building new galleys - you must absolutely do this at many points during the game. The more galleys you have, the more opportunities you have for trading, and the stronger your navy is. You can only build one galley per controlled city-port you have, AND the city-port you build it in MUST either produce or have in its warehouse BOTH wood AND iron. The cost is 500 ducats.
When the game first starts of course, all the warehouses in all the cities are empty. So it is impossible to build any galleys in the first round, since you need BOTH wood and iron to build one, and no one has anything in a warehouse yet. Thus you would have at most only one of the two needed items. So one of the first things you should try to do is to ensure that at least a couple of your controlled city-ports have both iron and wood in order to allow you to build more galleys at those city-ports.
D) Building forts. As with new galleys, building a fort at one of your controlled city-ports also costs 500 ducats to do. You may only build one fort per city-port, and you may not build a fort in a city-port if you also built a galley in the same city-port in the same turn. Come on, your guys can only labor so fast - give them a break, hey? There is also another restriction to building forts - the city-port you are building it in must either produce or have in its warehouse BOTH wood AND gold.
What’s the advantage of having a fort? If a rival galley is attacking your city-port which has a fort, then the attacking player, after adding his die-roll to the number of sailors he is attacking with, must divide that total by 4 (instead of 3), and round down, to see how many of your garrison-men were defeated.
E) Hire men. Galleys aren’t much good without men to row and fight, and your controlled city-ports need men on shore to help defend the city from attacks. You can only hire men at city-ports under your control. Sailors for a galley can only be hired if the galley is at that port at the time.
Each man you hire costs 100 ducats. But you can’t just hire men willy-nilly, even if you have the money. The men available from each city-port depends on the number of commodities already at that city-port. You count one for the commodity the city produces, and one more for each commodity in the warehouse.
Thus, a city with nothing in the warehouse yet, only has one man available for hire (from the commodity that the city produces). A city with 3 different commodities currently in its warehouse has 4 men available for hire that turn (3 plus the 1 commodity the city produces).
F) Rearrange men and commodities. As long as two or more of your galleys share a space, or a galley and a city-port share a space, you can rearrange the sailors and commodities amongst those galleys (and/or city-port) as you think fit. This is handy for quickly getting your galleys operating at fullest capacity.
So.... during this phase, there is a lot to think about. It’s easy at the beginning of the game. You hardly have anything to start with, so you can make some pretty quick decisions about what to do. You still must watch your money though. If you try to do too much too fast, you may find yourself short on cash next turn, and unable to do what you want to do then!
In fact, the game moves very quickly the first few rounds. But then it slows down (in a good way), due to the larger number of galleys you will have. Each galley can have 1 to 5 sailors, or 1 to 4 commodities, and can move or not to various other city-ports that may be within a 1-turn move or not. And those other city-ports may or may not already have the commodities that your galley is carrying. If they do, then you’re going to have to go to a different city-port instead. The sheer number of options could be a bit overwhelming. They’re not complicated decisions - there’s just a lot of them. But if one player is taking too long, just kick him in the shins. Either he’ll speed up, quit, or buy shin-pads.
Phase 3: Move the galleys.
A player may move any, all, or none of his galleys in his turn. Each galley can move one space per sailor aboard. You will obviously move your galleys to wherever you think will do the most good, depending on the current situation. The first part of the game tends to focus on transporting commodities; the 2nd part on taking over other city-ports and battling opponents.
A galley entering a space already occupied by a rival galley must stop in that space unless that rival player gives permission for the new galley to cross.
Why would a rival refuse permission? It would slow the first player down, delaying him (at least) one turn before he can get to his intended destination. It also could allow combat to occur in the next phase if that’s what the rival wants.
Why would a rival give permission? The rival may not perceive the other galley as a danger to it given the overall game situation at the time. Or the rival may be hoping for a “I’m being nice to you - you be nice to me next time” situation.
Phase 4: Combat.
Combat is always optional. It is never mandatory. A player can initiate attacks, and then stop attacks whenever he wants. Combat between 2 galleys can only occur when the 2 galleys share the same space.
Combat between a galley and a city-port can obviously only occur when the galley is at that city-port. City-ports never initiate attacks - they can only defend.
Phase 5: Taking control of city-ports.
Any city-port that is unoccupied (which is all of them except the starting cities at the beginning of the game) can be claimed by a player if the player has a galley at that port, and has at least one sailor to spare to land on the beach and plant the flag. If a player really, really wants that city-port, but he only has one sailor left on the galley, the player can still take possession of that city-port by moving the sailor onto the land and planting his flag. But the now-abandoned galley will sink.
And of course, a rival-controlled city-port which has lost all its men during a battle is now unoccupied. So successful battles will change the ownership of the city-ports. This becomes more and more important as the game winds on down to its conclusion.
Phase 6: Revenue.
a) Revenue from commodity sales
b) Revenue from opening new markets
c) Fixed income as long as you still control your starting city-port
a) Any galley at any city-port (regardless of who owns the city-port) may sell one or more of the commodities on board the ship to the city-port, provided the city-port doesn‘t already have the item you are trying to sell. You can sell to your own-controlled city-ports, or to a rival-controlled one if that’s where your galley is.
The first vacant spot to be filled in a warehouse pays 200 ducats.
The 2nd vacant spot to be filled pays 300 ducats.
And so on up to the 6th vacant spot, which pays 700 ducats.
Of course, only the starting cities have warehouses that big. Smaller ones can only be filled to their capacity and not beyond. And no warehouse will store 2 of the same item. Each one must be different.
So the longer you can hold off in selling to any particular warehouse, the more money you will make for the sale. But it’s hard to hold off for too long, because you need money for the following rounds. Plus one of your rivals may sell the same commodity to the warehouse where you were planning to sell the same thing - and if that happens, then you can’t sell that commodity at all to that warehouse.
b) There are 7 different commodities in the game. If you sell a commodity to a rival-controlled city-port, AND that rival does NOT have that commodity in ANY of his city-ports (in the warehouses or produced by his cities) THEN you will earn a 500 ducat bonus. So it pays to sell something new to an opponent-controlled city-port as soon as you can, because it will give you the extra cash. Mind you, it also helps the opponent fill his warehouse. Which can contribute to the opponent’s victory points at the end of the game.
If the sale takes place in one of the starting cities, then the bonus is 1000 ducats instead of 500 ducats.
c) Fixed income - if you still have control of your starting city-port, then you automatically earn 300 ducats.
So that’s the 6 phases. After completing the Revenue phase, the next round starts at Phase 1 again.
And how do you win? Victory points. At the end of the game you score victory points:
10 points if you still control your starting city
1 point for each 500 ducats you have. If you have 2400 ducats, you get 4 points. The remaining 400 ducats are ignored.
1 point for each PARTIALLY-FILLED warehouse (any size) you control.
2 points for each FULL SMALL warehouse (2 commodities in warehouse)
5 points for each FULL MEDIUM warehouse (4 commodities in warehouse)
10 points for each FULL LARGE warehouse (6 commodities in warehouse).
Whoever has the most points wins the game. You will note that galleys, forts, and men are worth nothing at the end of the game. As happened in our game, large battles took place at the finish, with galleys sinking left and right in attacks on city-ports in attempts to take them over. The galleys became fodder in an attempt to seize victory points.
One suggested variant is to have some additional victory points:
1 point for each fort
1 point for each galley
1 point for every 10 men (sailors and garrison). If you have 19 men, you score 1 point. The other 9 men don’t count.
The game Jeff, Corwin and I played began a short while after the hockey game (Go Canucks Go!) in which Vancouver won 5-2 over Detroit and took a 2-0 series lead. Great hockey game, too! I should point out that the 3 of us were not playing in that game....
Before starting, we all began humming some 15th century Renaissance folk tunes in order to get in the mood. We also congratulated Corwin on his victory at the Gathering of Friends in the Web of Power tournament. Since Rick won the Web of Power tournament in person at the Gathering, and Corwin always beats Rick in Web of Power here (or so Corwin claims), then it stands to reason that IF Corwin HAD been at the Gathering, he would have won.
Thus, once again , congratulations to Corwin on his victory in the Web of Power tournament C.V.V. (Corwin Vicarious Victory tm)
Our starting cities were chosen at random. Corwin started in Valencia, in the southwestern portion of the board. Jeff started at Venezia (at the right “top” of the Italian “boot”). And I started in Genova (at the left “top” of the Italian “boot”. Thus I had Corwin to the west and Jeff to the east.
Genova produces iron. So my first order of business was to buy and load some iron onto my galleys and get to a wood-producing city-port and take it over so that I could get into the galley-building business. Jeff and Corwin also quickly got into the galley-building business as well.
The first few turns went by quite quickly. We did have a few problems with the galleys. They aren’t particularly super-stable. Several times, a galley would get accidentally bumped and all the men and commodities would be tossed into the lovely blue waters of the Mediterranean. Fortunately, none of them drowned, and except for a little dampness, everyone was rescued A-O.K. So be aware that the galleys aren’t quite as stable as one might like. After a few soakings, several of the sailors started wearing lifejackets, so the complaints diminished considerably after that.
Also, here’s another little nit. Maybe it’s just my eyes, or Corwin’s lights, but the red and brown colours on the board didn’t seem all that much different to me. Rather than a nice, bright distinctive red, the red is more of a reddish-brown. They are different. Just not all that different. I really had to look hard to figure out which colour was which. Of course, after a few more playings, I’m sure I would have them memorized - but I didn’t when I was playing the game.
I soon had nice control over all of Italy and Sicilia, with a bit of a toehold in northern Africa - with a monopoly on the two gold-producing cities of Tunis and Tripoli.
Corwin controlled Spain, France and part of north eastern Africa.
And Jeff governed Greece and Turkey. He also controlled Cyrena in northern Africa, the single gemstone-producing city.
During the first part of the game, we were all very cordial and friendly. No one fought. We tipped our hats to each other as our ships passed in the night, exchanging glances. All was at peace with the world. Birds chirped. Bees buzzed.
But then....
But then...
Evil Jeff struck. And Evil Corwin struck. Poor Good Dan. What had I ever done to them? Poor me, believing in the good will of my fellow man, had left my cities of Sicilia and Tripoli with only very modest defenses. Fortunately, I had built a fort at Tunis, or I’m sure they would have been swarming over that city too.
Evil Jeff was first, sending pirate raider after pirate raider to Sicilia. Not only did he make my defender an offer he couldn’t refuse, he then added insult to injury by building a fort! I was very sad.
Then evil Corwin struck to the south, attacking Tripoli and taking it over, ending my monopoly on gold-producing cities. I was very sad again.
The board became VERY crowded. The Mediterranean was filled with galleys criss-crossing its deep blue waters. We all had around 8 galleys or so at one point.
Near the end, I sought revenge. Jeff sent one of his galleys and tried to nonchalantly visit Civitavecchia. My city. My country. I would have none of that. My men swarmed his galley. After a long, hard battle, it was Jeff’s turn to be very sad. I laughed maniacally! Ha! I said. Ha! Poor Jeff’s galley is now 200 feet down under the waters, just off the coast near Civitavecchia (which still exists by the way - it’s just a little north of Rome).
Meanwhile, I showed no mercy to Corwin at Tunis. It was the battle of two equally-manned pirate raiders. I sunk Corwin’s galley. Corwin sunk my galley. We had a moment of silence. War is hell.
Jeff meanwhile had a fleet of about 500 ships over at Corfu and Modon in southern Greece. Well, maybe it wasn’t quite 500. But it was sure crowded over there. Corwin had extended his empire heading over to Turkey, threatening Jeff’s monopoly on the 2 spice-producing cities of Antioch and Alexandria. He also threatened my minor, harmless city of St. Jean d’Acre.
The next thing we knew, Corwin formed a blockade across the Mediterranean, from just north of Cyrena, across Creta, up to Rhodes. Jeff’s empire was split in two, with the bulk of his navies on the west side of Corwin’s blockade, but with his 2 spice-producing cities on the east side.
My goodness. The last turn arrived, and many battles took place. In turn order, Corwin was first, then Jeff, then me.
Corwin seized two of my small cities: the aforementioned St. Jean d’Acre and Civitavecchia. Jeff just tried to protect his assets, so to speak. Corwin also slapped his own forehead a few times because he made a
C.E.B. (Corwin Embarrassing Blunder tm). He had built another galley at Valencia, his starting city, and filled it with 5 sailors - a powerful pirate raider. But in the hustle-bustle of giving orders to all his various galleys and men, he completely overlooked moving it away from Valencia. In the end, it didn’t really matter, but the C.E.B. filled him with remorse for a few moments. And anyhow, he protected his starting city by leaving the new galley there.
Jeff and I didn’t really have any conflicts with each other except Sicily, and his obviously misguided “just-visiting” attempt to buy a textile from Civitavecchia (the only commodity he still needed to fill his warehouse to capacity at Venezia). For the most part, we stayed on opposite sides of Italy.
Finally, it was my turn. I landed one of my galleys at Sardegna, and sold a gemstone to the warehouse there, filling it to capacity. I also attacked Corwin at Alger, and won over that city. Unfortunately, I was unable to acquire any more cities.
Final scores:
Corwin - *33*
Dan - 30
Jeff - 28
Now - in hindsight - if I HAD been able to take over one more SMALL city, OR if I had had more men defending either Civitavecchia or St. Jean d’Acre so that Corwin hadn’t been able to take one of them over - then I would have had 2 more points and Corwin 2 less points. (Dan 32 Corwin 31 Jeff 28 - also known as the D.W.T.S. (Dan Wishful Thinking Scores tm)). Also known as Hadda Wooda Shooda.
Anyhow, the game was fun and the game was close. Any one of us could have won in that last round. None of us managed to fill our starting city warehouses to capacity - Jeff was the closest - he just needed one more item. Both Corwin and I needed 2 items. So none of us managed to score the 10 points for a full large city. If one of us had, that person probably would have won.
Both Jeff and Corwin said that this particular game had a build-up of galleys much quicker than in previous games they had played.
I would like to play this game again with 4 players. We had occasional shortages of sailors (if the supply runs out, then tough - you can’t buy any). But as soon as a battle took place, the shortage would be over, because there would be sailor-pieces to use again. With a 4th player, shortages in galleys, and shortages in the various commodities would become much more likely - and that would add another factor to your decision-making.
We forgot to rate the game. How embarrassing. For me, it was a 7. I enjoyed it a lot, and I believe both Jeff and Corwin did too. I wouldn’t hesitate to play it again. Next time, I think I would build up my navies and garrisons a bit more, in anticipation of that final round, when there’s a mad flurry of battles against rival city-states.
The game has a lot of elements in it that work together well. It’s trading, it’s planning your sea voyage, it’s deciding on how best to fill your galleys and buy and sell commodities, it’s battling rival galleys and city-ports. And how best to manage your money to do all the above things, in turn to allow you to have control of as many full warehouse city-ports as you can at the end of the game. The whole game took about 2-1/4 hours. A little longer than most German games, but a quite acceptable length. At no time did I feel the game dragged.
This game for me was a solid and enjoyable experience. Even though I hadda wooda shooda....
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Posted Mon Apr 22, 2002 2:52 pm
