Game: Venezia

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arthmac — 2008-05-04T20:54:10+00:00

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Toynan — 2008-03-23T12:36:34+00:00

Side of the box

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gamephotos — 2007-05-05T19:40:34+00:00

Yellow Player Pieces - Score Marker, Home Base and Pigeons

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gamephotos — 2007-05-05T19:39:28+00:00

Tourists, Trappers, Robber and Joker Pigeons

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gamephotos — 2007-05-05T19:38:29+00:00

The Black Robber Bird Steals The Points From This Region

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gamephotos — 2007-05-05T19:36:11+00:00

Spinners Used to Move Tourists and Trappers

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gamephotos — 2007-05-05T19:31:58+00:00

San Michele - Graveyard of Venice

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gamephotos — 2007-05-05T19:30:40+00:00

Pigeons Flock to Piazza San Marco

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gamephotos — 2007-05-05T19:29:09+00:00

First Card Played Is Either San Marco or Bluff

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gamephotos — 2007-05-05T19:27:43+00:00

Yellow Gets An Action Card Back

Thread: Re: Rules Question

JeffyJeff — 2006-08-21T05:01:17+00:00

They are both right actually... 1st round it's the start player... in subsequent rounds, specifically for phase 2, it's the player with the most pigeons (ties broken by whose closest to start player)... but turn order after that does not then continue clockwise, it's then the player who had the 2nd most pigeons, and so on.

See http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/1040982#1040982 for more info.

Jeff
chockle wrote:
I have 2 translations that differ.

In Phase 2 (Piazza San Marco):
After the cards are revealed, who goes first? The player with the most pigeons on the card, or the startplayer?

Thanks,
Chockle

Thread: Re: Rule question on movement of pigeons.

JeffyJeff — 2006-08-21T04:52:08+00:00

And the version of the rules I have (that came with the game from funagain Dec. 2004, it does not mention the rules translator) it says what you said:

Note: At the start of the game, the starting player goes first. Afterwards the player with the most pigeons distributed to this card goes first.

This is under the heading Phease 2: Oiazza San Marco

However in that same section after the next paragraph is another note:

Note: If this is the first turn, the next player clockwise from the starting player now takes his turn. In all subsequent turns, play order is determined by the number of pigeons played. If a tie exists, the player closer to the beginning player, in clockwise order, plays next.

This is important because it means as you already mentioned, after round 1 the 1st person to place pigeons to Piazza San Marco is the one with the most pigeons on that card... however it is not clockwise after that.
Blackberry wrote:
Zambo wrote:
The way that the rules read (to us) is that each player, beginning with the start player, moves all of their pigeons when it is their turn. While it puts the later players at a disadvantage, the start player rotates so that the start player from the previous turn would become the last player to move pigeons, evening things out.

In my edition of the rules, it says that the start player for that turn is the person who committed the most pigeons to the square.

Thread: fixes?

ropearoni4 — 2005-08-28T19:41:11+00:00

I've read about the hunter destroying chances if early on he gets someone's pigeons. Is there a variant to fix this, like not letting the hunter show up till later in the game, or something?

And any other fixes for problems that have sprung up during games?

Thread: Re: Quick Comments

mnv_iii — 2005-08-02T13:01:49+00:00

I'm sorry you didn't like the game Mike -- now I feel bad for selling it to you! Let me know if you want your 5$ back. Or maybe you can scam someone else to buy it from you at CanGames.

Thread: Re: Quick Comments

stray_flux — 2005-07-20T15:24:08+00:00

I have to agree with Derk. I witnessed half a game of my friends and was offered the game for a very reasonable price immediately after. Not being able to rule a game out or pass up a good deal I thought I’d give it another chance. The method for getting new units is totally random. In both games I’ve seen, one or two people were virtually eliminated from the Piazza San Marco in the first two turns. Another person is allowed to run free with the tourists landing on or near their pigeons resulting in a huge advantage in pigeons for scoring and producing pigeons in the later rounds. (After 3 turns green had 8 pigeons in the piazza, red 2 and blue and yellow NONE) Red managed to get some pigeons and they were sucked out of the nest by “family gathering” and then all sent back to the supply by someone else’s “hostile takeover”.

The mechanics seem to be not connected at all. It feels like two separate games: one serious area control game; and one totally random checkers game. They don’t feel connected in a logical way.

Summary: Some neat ideas, but terrible execution.

Thread: Re: Rule question on movement of pigeons.

Blackberry — 2005-06-07T04:32:35+00:00

Zambo wrote:
The way that the rules read (to us) is that each player, beginning with the start player, moves all of their pigeons when it is their turn. While it puts the later players at a disadvantage, the start player rotates so that the start player from the previous turn would become the last player to move pigeons, evening things out.

In my edition of the rules, it says that the start player for that turn is the person who committed the most pigeons to the square.

Thread: Re: Rule question on movement of pigeons.

2ndPlace — 2005-06-07T02:28:26+00:00

Thanks for the reply. We played the game that way and had a fun time putting each other player pigeons in the pliers. The game was close and we all had a good time. This game seems to be picked on by a few reviewers. I think it's fine, just not an eight or nine.

Thread: Session Report

skrutsch — 2005-05-29T01:53:53+00:00

We played our first game of Venezia today. We bought it for the theme even though we knew it was not rated highly on the Geek. The theme certainly wasn't an integral part of the game. In other words, other themes would have worked, but it was amusing. The pigeon pictures are really great and helped us learn which card was which. (We can't read German and never paste anything on the cards.)

You need to know that often when we play multi-player games, we play two players each, but not as teams. We try to play as if we don't know what our other player is playing. Scott played red and yellow and Suzy played blue and green. From now on, we'll refer to the players by color.

Without giving you a complete play-by-play of the game, here are some interesting things that happened:

1. After we set up, we discovered that there were many tiny ants crawling around the carpet where we were playing. They made things unpleasant, but we stuck it out.

2. On the first turn red got a lot of pigeons (12), yellow got very few (2), and blue and green each got 7 or 8. (Yellow only put 3 pigeons in the Piazza and was the last player. The others all put more.)

3. On the first turn blue jumped to an early lead with 12 points. The scores were 12, 3, 3, and 0. (Yellow had 0 and didn't get any points until blue had 30.)

4. We like the fact that only the player with the fewest victory points gets to play their action card when other players choose the same card ("play balance"). This came up a few times.

5. By the end of the 5th round, nobody had many pigeons in the supply. We all had plenty on the board. Were we doing something wrong? We couldn't decide.

6. Yellow kept getting his action cards back through winning San Giorgio Maggiore, but there was really no competition for it because getting actions back didn't seem that useful.

7. Blue won and her strategy was just to play districts that would get 6 points. Since there were 3, she could play them every turn. The game lasted 12 rounds.

8. We agree with Greg Schloesser. It does feel like El Grande. (We thought of that independently.)

9. We also agree with Angela Kincaid. It did overstay its welcome. Yellow especially felt that way.

The final scores were:
Blue: 54
Green: 51
Red: 45
Yellow: 15

We'd be willing to play it again sometime in the future, but it seems a bit fiddly and a bit under-produced (unclear rules, weird by-threes scoring, no supply spot on player card, etc.) to introduce to our less game-crazed friends.

Thread: Re: Rule question on movement of pigeons.

Zambo — 2005-05-24T22:28:21+00:00

The way that the rules read (to us) is that each player, beginning with the start player, moves all of their pigeons when it is their turn. While it puts the later players at a disadvantage, the start player rotates so that the start player from the previous turn would become the last player to move pigeons, evening things out.

Thread: Rule question on movement of pigeons.

2ndPlace — 2005-05-24T22:13:03+00:00

In Phase 2 after the tourists and hunter are place and pigeons adjacent our under hunter are removed, how are the movement of pigeons done?
I would say the start player goes first, but does he move all his pigeons before the next player can move any of his, or does the start player move one of his pigeons, and then the next player, and the next player going around the table, until there are no more moves or everyone has passed?

It seems that if the start player moves all his pigeons first and then the second player by the time the third or fourth player get to move their pigeons will be left out stranded with none of the other players pigeons left to jump over or trap in a pliers move.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thread: Re:Rules Question - cards canceling?

Gramps — 2004-10-06T20:04:42+00:00

Blackberry (#49896),

The English rules state that if the same action card is played the player with the lowest score gets to do the action. If they are tied on score then neither get to do the action.

The action card(s) not used is/are taken back into hand by the player(s)who is/are unable to exercise the action.

Thread: Rules Question - cards canceling?

Blackberry — 2004-08-18T18:31:08+00:00

The rules state that the Family Meeting cards cancel one another if more than one is played in the same round. However, the rules don't mention any of the other cards, and yet some of them seem like they should cancel one another.

For instance, Instructions from the Vatican says that all grey pigeons are considered to belong to the player of the card. If more than one person plays this card, do they belong to both/all of them, none of them, or do the cards cancel? Likewise, the Robber Bird is placed in a district and then that district is not scored. But what if two people play the Robber Bird card? Is every district touched by the Robber Bird while it's moved around not scored, or only the one it ends up in, or do the cards cancel?

Do/should any other cards cancel?

Thread: Re:Rules Question

milksheikh — 2003-05-03T03:23:14+00:00

The rules do say "beginnend beim Startspieler", or beginning with the Starting Player, so I think this is right.

Thread: Rules Question

chockle — 2003-04-22T23:25:47+00:00

I have 2 translations that differ.

In Phase 2 (Piazza San Marco):
After the cards are revealed, who goes first? The player with the most pigeons on the card, or the startplayer?

Thanks,
Chockle

Thread: Session Report

hinj — 2002-11-10T18:53:12+00:00

I just love the theme of this game. Pigeon mafia dons vie for control of Venice by marking territory…. I really love the necessary evil of getting close to the tourists in order to have sufficient feed to reproduce. And if you can park on a shoulder, oh! But look out for the nasty pigeon hunter….even the best laid plans of pigeons go astray when that crossbow wielding meany comes around! Like Das Storriches Müli, this game blossoms when a bad accent is used throughout the game, though in this case, Italian. I suppose the mechanics could be called El Grande-ish, but they aren’t really. The choice on which province to drop your little bird droppings into is much less restricted; and the number you choose to put in is also much less restricted. (I keep saying much less restricted because freer looks funny to me.)

In the scoring portion of the round, controlling a district is worth 3 points. Controlling your neighbor’s nesting district is worth 6. So it’s a matter of choosing where to put your pigeon droppings and when to clean your neighbor’s droppings off the statues… There are various action cards which can effect the board drastically, including Papal intervention. O Solo Mio!

Venezia resultas:
Dave: 15
Alyssa: 42
Angela: 54
Fred: 57

That’s right folks, FRED WON AGAIN! Oh my. It’s safe to say that hell has frozen over.

Parting comments: We had a great time playing this game. It did, however, overstay its welcome a bit. It could be that it was our first playing. More likely, it’s that the game ends at the end of the round when someone gets 50 points. This is odd and bizarre because all scoring happens in increments of 3. So the scoring track which counts up to 50 by ones…causes difficulty. It lends an artificial air of “oh my GOSH look how far behind Dave is!” In actuality, he wasn’t behind by that much. I would rather the scoring track count to 15 by ones, and all scoring take place in increments of 1 (i.e. 1 point for best district splatterage, 2 points if it’s your neighbor’s nesting district).

Thread: Quick Comments

derk — 2002-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

Well, I haven't really done too much in terms of adding content to the site in while, so I thought I'd add some content. In a word, this game is crap. The game is basically a light-El Grande. There's a similar court/provinces mechanism, and you use your pieces to take control of regions for scoring. And then there are special actions that players can take too. However, the game's got some serious issues. First of all, getting new units into your queue is excessively random and can knock you completely out of the running before the game is over by reducing your active pieces to such a small number you can't regenerate. Then the special actions are simply too huge. There's one card that allows you kill every piece in a region and then stuff a ton of yours into the region (not to mention the killed pieces are out of the queue entirely). And then controlling one of the regions will allow you recycle that power, totally breaking the game. I think there are some good ideas going on here, but it just doesn't hang together as a good game.

Thread: Session Report

gschloesser — 2001-10-07T06:40:03+00:00

Ted was interested in trying this recent Queen release, which caused Craig to grasp his chest and fall to the floor. You see, Craig was part of an aborted game at the recent Gulf Games get-together and was one of the two individuals involved who 'threw in the towel' on that game. Still, he was a good sport and agreed to play it again.

The good news is that this is really a decent game. Yes, it has some problems and it is very easy to get hosed early ... particularly during the San Marco Plaza phase wherein players strive to give birth to new pigeons ... but the game has enough going for it to overcome these drawbacks. I've described the game in some detail in an earlier Westbank Gamers session report, so, if you're interested, you can visit the Boardgame Geek for a detailed description.

We did use all 3 tourist and both pigeon hunters, hoping to generate more birds. It seemed to work, although I think I might only use 1 pigeon hunter in my next game.

Mark fell victim to the nasty pigeon hunters early, leaving him with a lone pigeon in San Marco piazza. This meant he was suffering from a severe shortage of pigeons during the early part of the game, causing him to have fewer options than the rest of us.

I shot out to an early lead, but Ted was keeping pace. He gradually amassed a greater supply of pigeons than I did, which was of great benefit. Another boost to him was that Craig and I kept canceling each other with the play of our event cards. During the entire course of the game, I only managed to successfully play one event card. Ugh. These two factors, along with some very clever plays, helped Ted surpass me in the latter stages of the game and claim the victory.

Finals: Ted 57, Greg 48, Craig 33, Mark 30

Ratings: Greg 7, Ted 6.5, Craig 6, Mark 5

This game is fun and has some clever mechanisms. One fear was that it would be too long, but it really isn't. Our game clocked in at less than 1 1/2 hours. It's a keeper.

Thread: Session Report

gschloesser — 2001-08-19T22:25:07+00:00

Yet another game set on the beautiful islands of Venice. This time, however, there's an unusual twist: players represent pigeons, attempting to gain majorities in the various districts of the beautiful Italian city.

I had heard about the game via the usual sources, but it never generated much interest. Often, if a humorous subject is chosen as the theme for a game, the game turns out to be good for a few laughs, but there isn't much game there. Plus, the game was designed by Ronald Hofstätter, the same designer of Im Zeichen des Kreuzes. I wasn't overly impressed with that title, so I figured I'd try Venezia before I bought it blind.

Fortunately, Frank Branham brought along a copy to Gulf Games 8 so I immediately approached him about playing. We were joined by his wife Sandi and Craig Berg. Frank had never played, but had read the rules, as had Craig. Between the two of them, we stumbled through a practice turn, then managed to complete two disjointed turns. I was actually enjoying the game, but both Craig and Frank were eager to throw in the towel. Apparently they found it rather fiddily and weren't enjoying the experience. I reluctantly agreed to abort the game. Frank did say if I was interested, he would be willing to sell the game to me for a more than fair price. I agreed, hoping to give the game another go with my Westbank Gamers group.

Although the theme is certainly different, the basic objective is still very familiar. Players attempt to gain majorities in the various districts of Venice. This is accomplished by maneuvering your pigeons into the regions, while using special event cards to aid in this goal and hinder the efforts of your opponents. More than one person has mentioned that it has an 'El Grande' feel to it. It does, but there are enough different and unique mechanics to give the game an entirely different atmosphere.

The game has nice production values, complete with an attractive board depicting nine different Venetian districts, as well as an enlarged area depicting the Piazza San Marco. The score track which rims the board cleverly depicts Venetian style buildings. Of course, since the theme involves pigeons, there are various humorous illustrations of playful pigeons. The rest of the components are standard fare, including two mats for each player, a deck of cards and the ever-present wooden cubes, representing the pigeons. In a rarity for games today, there are also two 'spinners' included, used to position the tourists and pigeon hunter in the Piazza.

Frank had conveniently pasted the player aid charts in English, making play of the game extremely easy. Each player begins with 12 pigeons and a home base. Players take turns placing their home base onto the board, each in a different district. Each is also given a set of cards, which depict the various districts as well as a set of event cards. Each player has an identical set of cards, so no one player has an undue advantage in regards to potential events.

The game phases are actually very straight-forward and easy to follow.

Phase 1: Planning. Each player places cards face-down onto their player mat 'A' (there are two different player mats). Players play one card for the Piazza San Marco (allowing them to place pigeons into the piazza), one event card (except during the first turn) and up to three district cards. They then allocate as many pigeons from their reserve onto the piazza and/or district cards. When these cards are revealed, the pigeons are placed into the appropriate district and/or piazza.

Phase 2: Piazza San Marco. Players reveal their piazza card. This card can either indicate that the player is placing pigeons into the piazza, or that they have opted not to place pigeons there.

If placing pigeons, each player places his pigeons onto the piazza space on the board. The piazza is an 8x10 grid. Players place their pigeons wherever they desire on this grid, but no two pigeons may occupy the same space. Once all pigeons allocated for the piazza are placed, the spinners are spun to determine the location of the two tourists and the one pigeon hunter.

If the pigeon hunter token is placed on or adjacent to (including diagonal) to one or more pigeons, those pigeons are caught and exiled to the island of San Michele. During the course of the game, however, they tend to migrate back to the players reserves and once again become available to place onto the board.

At this point, each player, in turn order, moves each of pigeons one space, if he desires. Players may also 'jump' other pigeons, similar to the move used in Chinese Checkers. Multiple jumps are allowed, but only one pigeon may be hopped with each jump. The object here is to get adjacent to, or better yet, on top of the tourists. Why? Tourists feed the pigeons, giving them the necessary strength to procreate (OK ... I've added this rationale, but it works!). At the end of a move, a player receives 2 new pigeons for each pigeon that is adjacent to a tourist, and 5 new pigeons for each pigeon resting atop a tourist. These new baby pigeons are placed on the player's mat 'B', in the 'nest' section.

There's also another goal when moving pigeons. If you manage to 'sandwich' opponents' pigeons between two of your own, those pigeons are chased away to the island of San Michele. Nasty, nasty.

This aspect of the game is a VERY different mechanism, especially in regards to the acquisition of new pieces. I actually found it quite enjoyable and challenging, but others have found it to be fiddily. The grid isn't that large and it is unlikely a player will have a huge quantity of pieces in the piazza, so the planning and execution of one's moves shouldn't be too time consuming. I will readily admit that there is a large amount of luck involved in regards to the random placement of the tourists and pigeon hunter. It is quite common for someone to get lucky and have a tourist appear immediately adjacent to his pigeons. This can be mitigated somewhat by using all 3 tourists supplied, and balancing this somewhat by using both pigeon hunters. Still, in spite of this luck factor, I found the segment quite interesting and different.

Once all players have moved their pigeons and collected their baby pigeons (pigeonettes?), play proceeds to the Districts.

Phase 3: The Districts. First, players are polled to see if anyone has played the special 'Family Meeting' event card. If so, that card is executed immediately. Then, each player is given the opportunity to reinforce their home district by moving pigeons from their to that district.

Once this is accomplished, each player reveals and executes their action card (if played). If more than one player played the same action cards, only the player with the lowest cumulative score can execute the action. The other player(s) returns the card to his hand.

The action cards do a variety of things, most somehow manipulating the amount of pigeons a player can bring into play or return from the board. Some prevent the scoring of a region, others allow neutral pigeons to be brought into play, etc. These add a nice twist of uncertainty to the game and the proper timing of the use of these cards can be critical. Once played, an action card is discarded and can only be retrieved if a player has the majority of pigeons on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore.

Finally, each player reveals the district cards he played and allocates the pigeons he placed upon those cards to their respective districts.

Phase 4: Scoring. At this point, each district is examined to see which player possesses the majority of pigeons. San Giorgio Maggiore and San Michele are NOT scored, however. For each district wherein a player has a majority, he receives 3 points. If he has the majority in a district which is the home base of an opponent, he receives 6 points. This makes the taking over of an opponent's home district very important.

The player who possesses the majority on San Giorgio Maggiore gets to retrieve one of his previously played action cards, while the player who has the majority of pigeons on San Michelle gets to return two of those pigeons to his reserve. Finally, the district which as the largest number of pigeons in it is cleared, with the pigeons being returned to the reserve of the respective players. The turn ends with each player moving pigeons from their nests to their reserve.

The game continues in this fashion until the turn wherein a player reaches or exceeds 50 points. This took 7 turns in our game, about 1 1/2 hours. The player with the most points is victorious.

I found the game to be fun, tense and rather exciting. Joey felt he was very unlucky in the Piazza San Marco phase as during the first few turns, the tourists were placed far away from his pigeons. Still, he actually was in the lead on the scoring track as he had the majority in several districts. Later, the luck seemed to even up a bit, with each player earning new pigeons. Still, Joey was not fond of this mechanism.

An important consideration in the game is that once pigeons are placed onto the board, they are stuck in place. The only way to get them back is to have that district have the most pigeons in it at the end of a turn, at which point pigeons in that district are returned to their owners. Thus, it is vitally important to have a constant influx of new pigeons, which means you must keep enough pigeons in Piazza San Marco to give you this opportunity.

However, each player has a maximum number of 40 pigeons and it is quite possible that a player will use all of these during the course of the game. Near the end of our game, Keith went two turns without being able to give birth to new birds. Sure, this meant he was doing well and had all of his pigeons on the board, but he was unable to move them around or get them back into his reserve. This could well have cost him the victory.

The game was fairly well received by our four players, Spouey, Joey, Keith and myself. As mentioned, Joey had major issues with the Piazza San Marco phase, but did enjoy the rest of the game. The rest of us thought that the phase could be improved by using all 3 tourists and 2 pigeon hunters. Of course, this would likely mean more pigeons on the board earlier, but that would present a different challenge of balancing your district placements and reserve.

In spite of bearing some similarities to El Grande, the game is certainly not in the same class. Still, it was an enjoyable experience, one I look forward to having again very soon.

Joey and Spouey sprung out to early leads, while Keith and I languished in the rear. I was having trouble birthing new pigeons, and it seemed that every district in which I made a move to capture the majority, another player made the same move on the same turn! Still, in spite of this frustration, I was having fun.

Keith managed to gain 11 new pigeons on one turn and put these to good use on the next turn. Joey and Spouey equaled the feat later and going into what proved to be the final turn, Joey, Keith and Spouey all were neck-and-neck (or beak-to-beak!). I felt Keith was in a better 'board' position, so I used an action card to block the scoring of one of his districts. Still, he managed to gain the majority in a few other districts, giving him just enough to earn the victory.

Round-by-round scores:

Round 2: Joey 12, Spouey 12, Greg 9, Keith 6
Round 3: Spouey 21, Joey 18, Keith 15, Greg 12
Round 4: Spouey 27, Joey 24, Greg 18, Keith 18
Round 5: Spouey 36, Keith 30, Joey 27, Greg 21
Round 6: Spouey 39, Keith 39, Joey 36, Greg 27
Finals: Keith 51, Joey 45, Spouey 39, Greg 30

Ratings: Keith 8.5, Greg 6.5, Spouey 6, Joey 5

Thread: Preview

gschloesser — 2001-08-19T22:24:10+00:00

Yet another game set on the beautiful islands of Venice. This time, however, there's an unusual twist: players represent pigeons, attempting to gain majorities in the various districts of the beautiful Italian city.

I had heard about the game via the usual sources, but it never generated much interest. Often, if a humorous subject is chosen as the theme for a game, the game turns out to be good for a few laughs, but there isn't much game there. Plus, the game was designed by Ronald Hofstätter, the same designer of Im Zeichen des Kreuzes. I wasn't overly impressed with that title, so I figured I'd try Venezia before I bought it blind.

Fortunately, Frank Branham brought along a copy to Gulf Games 8 so I immediately approached him about playing. We were joined by his wife Sandi and Craig Berg. Frank had never played, but had read the rules, as had Craig. Between the two of them, we stumbled through a practice turn, then managed to complete two disjointed turns. I was actually enjoying the game, but both Craig and Frank were eager to throw in the towel. Apparently they found it rather fiddily and weren't enjoying the experience. I reluctantly agreed to abort the game. Frank did say if I was interested, he would be willing to sell the game to me for a more than fair price. I agreed, hoping to give the game another go with my Westbank Gamers group.

Although the theme is certainly different, the basic objective is still very familiar. Players attempt to gain majorities in the various districts of Venice. This is accomplished by maneuvering your pigeons into the regions, while using special event cards to aid in this goal and hinder the efforts of your opponents. More than one person has mentioned that it has an 'El Grande' feel to it. It does, but there are enough different and unique mechanics to give the game an entirely different atmosphere.

The game has nice production values, complete with an attractive board depicting nine different Venetian districts, as well as an enlarged area depicting the Piazza San Marco. The score track which rims the board cleverly depicts Venetian style buildings. Of course, since the theme involves pigeons, there are various humorous illustrations of playful pigeons. The rest of the components are standard fare, including two mats for each player, a deck of cards and the ever-present wooden cubes, representing the pigeons. In a rarity for games today, there are also two 'spinners' included, used to position the tourists and pigeon hunter in the Piazza.

Frank had conveniently pasted the player aid charts in English, making play of the game extremely easy. Each player begins with 12 pigeons and a home base. Players take turns placing their home base onto the board, each in a different district. Each is also given a set of cards, which depict the various districts as well as a set of event cards. Each player has an identical set of cards, so no one player has an undue advantage in regards to potential events.

The game phases are actually very straight-forward and easy to follow.

Phase 1: Planning. Each player places cards face-down onto their player mat 'A' (there are two different player mats). Players play one card for the Piazza San Marco (allowing them to place pigeons into the piazza), one event card (except during the first turn) and up to three district cards. They then allocate as many pigeons from their reserve onto the piazza and/or district cards. When these cards are revealed, the pigeons are placed into the appropriate district and/or piazza.

Phase 2: Piazza San Marco. Players reveal their piazza card. This card can either indicate that the player is placing pigeons into the piazza, or that they have opted not to place pigeons there.

If placing pigeons, each player places his pigeons onto the piazza space on the board. The piazza is an 8x10 grid. Players place their pigeons wherever they desire on this grid, but no two pigeons may occupy the same space. Once all pigeons allocated for the piazza are placed, the spinners are spun to determine the location of the two tourists and the one pigeon hunter.

If the pigeon hunter token is placed on or adjacent to (including diagonal) to one or more pigeons, those pigeons are caught and exiled to the island of San Michele. During the course of the game, however, they tend to migrate back to the players reserves and once again become available to place onto the board.

At this point, each player, in turn order, moves each of pigeons one space, if he desires. Players may also 'jump' other pigeons, similar to the move used in Chinese Checkers. Multiple jumps are allowed, but only one pigeon may be hopped with each jump. The object here is to get adjacent to, or better yet, on top of the tourists. Why? Tourists feed the pigeons, giving them the necessary strength to procreate (OK ... I've added this rationale, but it works!). At the end of a move, a player receives 2 new pigeons for each pigeon that is adjacent to a tourist, and 5 new pigeons for each pigeon resting atop a tourist. These new baby pigeons are placed on the player's mat 'B', in the 'nest' section.

There's also another goal when moving pigeons. If you manage to 'sandwich' opponents' pigeons between two of your own, those pigeons are chased away to the island of San Michele. Nasty, nasty.

This aspect of the game is a VERY different mechanism, especially in regards to the acquisition of new pieces. I actually found it quite enjoyable and challenging, but others have found it to be fiddily. The grid isn't that large and it is unlikely a player will have a huge quantity of pieces in the piazza, so the planning and execution of one's moves shouldn't be too time consuming. I will readily admit that there is a large amount of luck involved in regards to the random placement of the tourists and pigeon hunter. It is quite common for someone to get lucky and have a tourist appear immediately adjacent to his pigeons. This can be mitigated somewhat by using all 3 tourists supplied, and balancing this somewhat by using both pigeon hunters. Still, in spite of this luck factor, I found the segment quite interesting and different.

Once all players have moved their pigeons and collected their baby pigeons (pigeonettes?), play proceeds to the Districts.

Phase 3: The Districts. First, players are polled to see if anyone has played the special 'Family Meeting' event card. If so, that card is executed immediately. Then, each player is given the opportunity to reinforce their home district by moving pigeons from their to that district.

Once this is accomplished, each player reveals and executes their action card (if played). If more than one player played the same action cards, only the player with the lowest cumulative score can execute the action. The other player(s) returns the card to his hand.

The action cards do a variety of things, most somehow manipulating the amount of pigeons a player can bring into play or return from the board. Some prevent the scoring of a region, others allow neutral pigeons to be brought into play, etc. These add a nice twist of uncertainty to the game and the proper timing of the use of these cards can be critical. Once played, an action card is discarded and can only be retrieved if a player has the majority of pigeons on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore.

Finally, each player reveals the district cards he played and allocates the pigeons he placed upon those cards to their respective districts.

Phase 4: Scoring. At this point, each district is examined to see which player possesses the majority of pigeons. San Giorgio Maggiore and San Michele are NOT scored, however. For each district wherein a player has a majority, he receives 3 points. If he has the majority in a district which is the home base of an opponent, he receives 6 points. This makes the taking over of an opponent's home district very important.

The player who possesses the majority on San Giorgio Maggiore gets to retrieve one of his previously played action cards, while the player who has the majority of pigeons on San Michelle gets to return two of those pigeons to his reserve. Finally, the district which as the largest number of pigeons in it is cleared, with the pigeons being returned to the reserve of the respective players. The turn ends with each player moving pigeons from their nests to their reserve.

The game continues in this fashion until the turn wherein a player reaches or exceeds 50 points. This took 7 turns in our game, about 1 1/2 hours. The player with the most points is victorious.

I found the game to be fun, tense and rather exciting. Joey felt he was very unlucky in the Piazza San Marco phase as during the first few turns, the tourists were placed far away from his pigeons. Still, he actually was in the lead on the scoring track as he had the majority in several districts. Later, the luck seemed to even up a bit, with each player earning new pigeons. Still, Joey was not fond of this mechanism.

An important consideration in the game is that once pigeons are placed onto the board, they are stuck in place. The only way to get them back is to have that district have the most pigeons in it at the end of a turn, at which point pigeons in that district are returned to their owners. Thus, it is vitally important to have a constant influx of new pigeons, which means you must keep enough pigeons in Piazza San Marco to give you this opportunity.

However, each player has a maximum number of 40 pigeons and it is quite possible that a player will use all of these during the course of the game. Near the end of our first game, Keith, one of my fellow Westbank Gamers, went two turns without being able to give birth to new birds. Sure, this meant he was doing well and had all of his pigeons on the board, but he was unable to move them around or get them back into his reserve. This could well have cost him the victory.