Game: Lucca Città

Thread: Optimal player number?

trapeze — 2008-05-04T18:45:28+00:00

Does anyone have any thoughts about optimal player count for this game? Does 3 work well?

Thanks

Thread: Re: Lucca Citt almost defies description.

citylife — 2008-04-03T21:32:35+00:00

This review is now nearly two years old but I agree with nearly everything. In fact this review is soooooo good that I am not even going to write my own.

I fully agree that the choices between shields and windows are indeed delicious. If you cash in one turn by taking a lot with plenty of windows (hence points) then the next turn you are unlikely to be able to pick such a good lot.

On reflection it seems that balance is again the key. There are so many bouns points on offer, especially when moving completed buildings, that the windows are not the dominating factor. A well timed building with say five points can easily compensate for an ill timed nine point building, meanwhile you get the benefit of four more shields.

It is really a game about choosing the best path through the rubble. There are elements of looking at what you expect to come up in the next round, but this is so distorted by the groupings that preparing for upcoming lots is significantly less important than taking the best on offer now. I would say a sucessful 'quick and dirty' algorithm will getyou home in this one more often than not.

There is lots of depth in this one and it is true that it is more of a euro boardgame than it is a cardgame.

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cdefrisco — 2007-07-03T00:12:53+00:00

Front & Back of game box.

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spearjr — 2006-12-14T13:46:22+00:00

Playing Lucca Citta at Fantasy Games South Bend

Thread: Re: Towers without walls

spearjr — 2006-11-22T17:37:35+00:00

I agree. Only towers would not need any shields to support it.

Thread: Re: Towers without walls

ChuckCarroll — 2006-11-22T17:06:52+00:00

Yes, my interpretation of the rules would be that if you have no walls, you need no shields to support them so you automatically get the points for any towers you have.

Thread: Re: Points for street number

ChuckCarroll — 2006-11-22T17:05:04+00:00

According to the English rules, the player with the highest street number among opened palaces gains 3 points, and the player with the lowest street number among palaces under construction loses 3 points. Use opened palaces only for the highest number, and palaces under construction only for the lowest number.

(That's for the +3/-3 points at the end of the game. Palaces in all areas count for street numbers for breaking ties in turn order, or if points are tied at the end of the game.)

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Verkisto — 2006-10-05T00:36:01+00:00

Quad-fold the mini scoreboard, and everything fits into a deck box.

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Verkisto — 2006-10-05T00:24:42+00:00

Extra Bits: A scoreboard and pawns for ease of scoring.

Thread: Towers without walls

koby_shachar — 2006-05-31T10:23:24+00:00

If I have only towers in my city wall, so no support is needed
do I get point for those towers.

Thread: Points for street number

koby_shachar — 2006-05-31T10:21:42+00:00

There is a conflict between the English and the Hebrew rules
about scoring points for the street number.
I guess the English rule should be taken, but I found references
that even English speaking player are doing what the Hebrew rules
suggest.
Let's get to the point:
For deciding which is the highest and the lowest street number
do I check the under construction area only (the English version)
or in all of my palaces, including the opened ones (the Hebrew version)?

Thread: My first two games of Lucca Cità (P.S. Don't do what we did)

brienc — 2006-04-29T04:59:56+00:00

I ordered 5 new card games while at a forward base in the Middle East. This was the third to get the shrink-wrap off and the first session I thought about sending in a report for.
We began with three players: Matt, Greg, and myself (Brien). I did my best to describe the rules as I had gathered from twice through the booklet. The types, colors and symbols on the cards were all pretty straight forward.
The scoring was not all that clear. You score when you: complete palaces based on the number of windows; open palaces based on your opponent’s cards of the same color; and at the end based on the number of supported city walls and towers; and something about high and low visible address. Ok, good there I guess lets get started.
Turn order and actions were pretty easy. You open a palace if you have one done. Then you pick-up a set of three cards and play all of those in the manner that is pretty well described in the rules.
We went through the rounds pretty quickly, not very much in the way of completion until round six when Greg and I finally each got a palace done. Greg also finished one in the seventh one, and thus won handily. Matt never finished one, and we were all pretty let down by the game.
I knew that we must have missed something in the rules and sure enough after hopping on the Geek to read a few reviews and the rule booklet again I saw two things we were doing wrong. First, very stupidly on my part I saw very clearly in the rules that the triplets were supposed to be Face Up. That obviously gives you a lot more choice and will let you complete palaces faster. Second, we inferred that the turn order is supposed to be reconfigured at the start of each round. That one I don’t feel too bad about, because I don’t think it is all that clear in the rulebook. This has the effect of leveling the playing field by letting those behind a bit collect more shields to move the head of the line to choose first.
The second game was much, much, better than the first. I really saw the qualities that the reviewers talked about. There were plenty of tough decisions involving which palaces to build when. I saw the balance necessary between collecting the shields and windows. The game went much smoother, there was tension right up to the end.
Again we played with three players. Greg stepped out so we recruited Paul to fill in. He picked things very quickly. He was the first to complete a palace on round four. Matt and I both got one each one the next round, being later we both scored a few more points when opening due to more cards being on the table.
We each worked out to be using slightly different strategies. Matt spread himself out collecting in all six of the colors, which paid off by having the most flexibility, and he eventually completed three palaces. Paul seemed to focus more on collecting shields and trying to stay first on turn order. I started by only trying to build in four of the colors and built more city walls, ending up with 6 plus 2 towers by the end.
The final scoring was pretty close, coming down to the high / low address point swap to push me over to victory with 50 fame points, Matt was second with 49, and Paul finished with 37 points.
A good game, I look forward to the next opportunity to play.

Thread: Re: Lucca Citta: Review

Red Dragon — 2006-02-23T12:56:29+00:00

We're of different opinions about the gameplay, but mine is covered in my review so I'll try to leave that topic alone. I have some clarifications on the rules, however:
gschloesser wrote:
1) Begin a new palace. Cards placed in the “under construction” area must be segregated by color. So, if a player doesn’t already have a palace of a particular color under construction, the player must begin a new palace with that card.
You can only have one palace of a particular color, period, so even if a previous one is completed or opened, you can't start another. This may force you to choose between discarding one of the limited number of cards you get, or using it as a wall which may be difficult to support, or taking a different set of cards that let you use all three. Decisions, decisions... and not necessarily "obvious".
Points are earned based on the cards one’s opponents have in their “under construction” and “completed” areas. One point is earned for each same color card opponents have in their “under construction” area, while two points are earned for each matching card in opponents’ “completed” area.
You score two points per palace in the opponents' completed area, regardless of number of cards making up that palace. This may force you to choose between opening a palace immediately and scoring the points that are out there, or waiting in the hope of scoring more points as opponents place more cards in their corresponding palaces. The decision depends on how close to completion your opponents are on their palaces, which cards are available to be chosen that turn, the likelihood of the opponents choosing those cards, and the likelihood of you getting your turn first in the next round. If you wait too long, you end up losing points, or even giving points to your opponents who score based on your completed palace, but if you never wait, you are probably throwing away several points per game. Decisions, decisions... and not necessarily "obvious".
The idea here is to delay opening a palace until there are numerous cards of the same color in the appropriate sections of opponent’s quarters. This does require a quick check of each player’s quarter before making the decision to open a palace, but fortunately, this doesn’t take much time.
Depends on how many factors you consider. You could go with the obvious decision and do ok, or you could take a little more time.
Final points are then earned for city walls and towers. Each city wall must be supported by shields depicted on cards in a player’s “under construction” area: two shields per city wall card. If they are unsupported, no points are earned. Ouch!
Two clarifications: first, every wall has to be supported by two shields, or you score nothing for any of your walls or towers, not just the ones that weren't supported; and second, the walls and towers don't score points by themselves, you have to have completed palaces. The limited number of cards you get during the game have to be used efficiently to build both palaces and walls, since the bonus multiplies the two together. This can force you to choose between completing an otherwise low-value palace multiplied by a lot of walls, or leaving it incomplete to use those cards as more walls times the other palaces you've already built. The decision will depend on whether your opponents are waiting for you to add more cards so they can score points, and whether there are enough cards of the right color to complete the palace in the turns remaining, as well as the number of shields you have and are likely to get on the last turn. Decisions, decisions... and not necessarily "obvious".
Finally, the player with the lowest visible street number in his “under construction” area surrenders three victory points to the player with the greatest street value.
... to the player with the greatest street value in the opened palaces, not including incomplete palaces. This isn't a major factor in any decisions, but since it can be a 6-point swing, you might want to give some thought to whether to complete your low-numbered palaces (to get them out of there so you won't have to pay) and high-numbered palaces (so you're the one who collects) as a higher priority than the mid-range palaces, even if they aren't worth as many points at the time. And the decision depends on what your opponents are doing with their street numbers.

The game sounds as though it will be intriguing, with lots of choices and decisions. In reality, however, it simply isn’t. The decisions are mostly obvious, with the only real decision being which cards to leave behind as support shields.
*shrug* Your mileage may vary.

Thread: Lucca Citta: Review

gschloesser — 2006-02-22T19:37:00+00:00

LUCCA CITTA

Designer: Alessandro Zucchini
Publisher: daVinci Games and Mayfair Games
3 – 5 Players, 30 minutes
Review by: Greg J. Schloesser

DaVinci Games and their American partner Mayfair Games have been releasing a steady stream of card games, threatening to fill one’s gaming shelf faster than Elizabeth Taylor goes through husbands. One of the more recent releases is Lucca Citta from Italian designer Alessandro Zucchini.

It is yet another building competition for those palace-crazed, 17th Century Italians. Players compete to construct palaces, with more prestige being earned for multiple windows and for the correct color coordination. Players can also contribute to the building of the city walls and towers, all in an effort to rise to a position of prominence in the town.

Cards depict a variety of palaces in six different colors. These palace cards depict from 0 – 3 windows and/or support shields, as well as a street number which is used to break ties. Players will attempt to construct palaces consisting of like-colored cards, and then open them at the proper time to earn even more points.

Each player begins with a “quarter” card, which indicates the location for the placing of palaces under construction, completed palaces, and open palaces. Players begin with two cards in their “under construction” section.

Each turn, sets of three cards (one more than the number of players) are revealed and players take turns drafting one set. The turn order is based on the number of support shields depicted on the cards each player has in their “under construction” section. The more shields, the better. Choosing early in the turn order gives a player a wider selection of cards, so keeping shields in one’s “under construction” area can be important.

When selecting a set, players have several choices in distributing the cards:

1) Begin a new palace. Cards placed in the “under construction” area must be segregated by color. So, if a player doesn’t already have a palace of a particular color under construction, the player must begin a new palace with that card.

2) Add a card to an existing palace under construction. When a palace reaches the required number of cards, which varies from 3 – 5 depending upon the number of players, it is completed and moved to the “completed” section, earning points for the number of windows in the palace.

3) Build a city wall. A card can be placed face-down directly into the “completed” section of one’s quarter. These cards MAY earn victory points at game’s end … provided they are supported by support shields.

4) Build a tower. There are four towers in the deck, and these are placed directly into one’s “completed” section. They earn points as well, but only if one’s city walls are supported.

5) Discard the card.

Before selecting cards each turn, a player must decide whether he desires to “open” any of his palaces that are in his “completed” section. This is a simple matter of moving the appropriate cards to the “open” side of one’s quarter card, and tallying the appropriate number of points. Points are earned based on the cards one’s opponents have in their “under construction” and “completed” areas. One point is earned for each same color card opponents have in their “under construction” area, while two points are earned for each matching card in opponents’ “completed” area. The idea here is to delay opening a palace until there are numerous cards of the same color in the appropriate sections of opponent’s quarters. This does require a quick check of each player’s quarter before making the decision to open a palace, but fortunately, this doesn’t take much time.

After each player has opened palaces and distributed his selected cards, new sets are revealed and the cycle continues for 5 – 7 turns, again, dependent upon the number of players. After the specified number of turns, players have one final chance to open any completed palaces. Final points are then earned for city walls and towers. Each city wall must be supported by shields depicted on cards in a player’s “under construction” area: two shields per city wall card. If they are unsupported, no points are earned. Ouch! Finally, the player with the lowest visible street number in his “under construction” area surrenders three victory points to the player with the greatest street value.

The game sounds as though it will be intriguing, with lots of choices and decisions. In reality, however, it simply isn’t. The decisions are mostly obvious, with the only real decision being which cards to leave behind as support shields. Most other decisions are clear: grab cards with multiple windows and colors that will allow you to complete valuable palaces, keep some cards with support shields in your “under construction” area, open palaces when opponents have numerous matching cards. Plus, the game plays too quickly, so there isn’t much time to delay the construction or opening of palaces. Build ‘em quickly, and open ‘em when profitable. There’s no use in delaying.

Some have compared the game to Reiner Knizia’s Palazzo. There are definite similarities, particularly in the construction of palaces and scoring mechanism. However, the decisions players must make in Palazzo are much richer, and the gaming experience much more satisfying. Lucca Citta plays fast and isn’t painful, but it just isn’t terribly exciting or challenging.

Thread: Lucca Città almost defies description.

Red Dragon — 2006-02-10T18:50:57+00:00

Lucca Città is more like a German-style board game that happens to be made entirely out of cards than it is a "card game" per se. Under "Categories" it should have "City building" and possibly "Renaissance". Under "Mechanics" it should have "Set Collection" even though that doesn't quite fit, and hmm... oddly enough, none of the other categories or mechanics listed adequately describe this game. "Variable turn order" isn't in the list, "competitive selection" isn't in the list, "strategic action timing" isn't in the list, and "pattern building" only vaguely describes the way this game works. "Tile placement" is used for something completely different in other games, so that isn't right... maybe "card placement" (which also isn't in the list) would describe it best. Ok, I'm stumped. I guess since none of the mechanics available apply to this game very well, it might as well be left as "N/A" -- but that's a rather uninformative way to describe this game. It deserves better.

The premise of the game is that you represent a noble family in the city of Lucca in Italy. You gain Fame points (i.e. victory points) in several ways. You score Fame upon completion of the construction of palaces, depending on which cards you used to construct it. You score Fame upon "opening" your palace (throwing a party in the new palace, as the rules describe it) depending on the status of your opponents' palaces of the corresponding color at the time you open your palace. (The closer they are to being completed, but not completed, the more you score.) You score Fame for helping construct the city walls, but only if you have completed palaces and still have incomplete palaces and haven't overextended your wall-building. And finally, you can score a little Fame, or lose a little, depending on where in the city (the street number) you built your palaces.

Such is the theme of the game. It's a reasonable theme, and the cards are simple yet nicely done to fit the theme.

The game mechanics of Lucca Città, which so oddly defy fitting any of the many game mechanics listed, create a game with a significant amount of luck combined with a steady stream of trade-offs to consider, resulting in difficult strategic choices to make. Unlike games where the 'correct' move is often obvious, in Lucca Città you can never quite tell the best way to advance your own fame, or the best way to block an opponent, let alone which of the two is best to do.

One interesting mechanic is that the turn order varies each turn. Going first means getting first choice of available sets of cards, a definite advantage. But to get first choice, a player must often use cards to contruct palaces that yield few Fame points upon completion. In other words, you have to risk losing in order to get an advantage that could allow you to win. The tension this creates between choices is delicious.

The same card features also control how many walls the player can support. Each wall built is worth Fame at the end, but only if every wall is supported. If one 'falls' you get nothing for any of them. Both walls and support require some of the very limited number of cards a player gets, so it can be tricky to plan for both while still completing palaces with the other cards.

Another interesting aspect is that of timing when to open the palaces. The closer to completion your opponents' palaces are, the more Fame you get by opening your palace (inviting them to your party), yet the longer you wait, the more risk there is of them completing their own palace, which cuts deeply into your gains.

Finally, the game has a carefully balanced method of adjusting for 3, 4, or 5 players, which not only keeps the game time about the same regardless of number of players, but preserves the tightness of competition for cards to complete palaces and to build and support walls. Unlike some games where having fewer players leaves a glut of certain resources, and having a greater number of players leaves everyone starved for something vital, Lucca Città adjusts the size of palaces and number of turns to maintain almost precisely the same feeling, with the same tension and tough choices.

Some people who love German-style board games might see this and think, "Oh, a card game, forget it, let's get out Settlers or Puerto Rico instead." I think that if those people gave this so-called "card game" a chance, they might be pleasantly surprised. Ok, granted, it doesn't have any wooden blocks or tokens, and it doesn't have any thick cardboard chits, and it doesn't have any placemats to tell players how to arrange a hundred little pieces. But the feel of Lucca Città, at least to this player, is very similar to those games that do. I have played several games that I like better, but this one is fun, it's a solid contender for table time, and considering it's just a deck of cards, it way more than justifies the tiny amount of gameshelf space it takes up.

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barbarapv — 2006-02-10T16:20:07+00:00

The designer of Lucca città

Thread: Re: Get your fill of Towers

MWChapel — 2006-01-26T21:09:16+00:00

gschloesser wrote:
I want to like Lucca Citta, but it just falls short. First, the game is too quick to really have any long-term strategy. At most, you can delay a turn or two before opening palaces, hoping that your opponents will have a few more of the matching cards in their display. Even then, this may make a difference of 1 or 2 points at most.

I just didn't find enough important decisions here to keep my interest.

I agree, timing is very tight, maybe too much so. It isn't the top of my short game list, but I think it has some interesting ideas, and not a bad game. I enjoyed it enough to play it as a lunchtime game.

Thread: Re: Get your fill of Towers

gschloesser — 2006-01-24T17:27:03+00:00

I want to like Lucca Citta, but it just falls short. First, the game is too quick to really have any long-term strategy. At most, you can delay a turn or two before opening palaces, hoping that your opponents will have a few more of the matching cards in their display. Even then, this may make a difference of 1 or 2 points at most.

I just didn't find enough important decisions here to keep my interest.

Thread: Lucca Città review

edroz — 2006-01-09T02:34:39+00:00

Lucca Città is a set collecting card game themed around building palaces in Renaissance Italy. There are a large number of games based in this period of time with many of them building games. In fact, Palazzo is another recent game with a very similar theme and there is an older tower building game called Campanile.

Components:

* 96 Palace parts cards in six colors
* 4 tower cards
* 5 player "quarters" cards
* 5 player coats of arm cards
* Rules manual

The Palace cards are the core of the game. There are four pieces of information on the palace cards. Each has a background color (six different colors), a number of Support Shields (0 to 3), a number of windows (also 0 to 3) and a unique street number. The number of Support Shields and windows on a card will always total three (i.e. two shields and one window).

The "quarter" cards are used to mark the players' work area. They divide it into three sections, the Palace Construction area, the Completed Palace area and the Open Palace area. The coat of arm cards are used to mark the player turn order.

The cards are fairly standard quality with only a plastic coating and do not have a linen finish. They come in a double size tuck box similar to Mama Mia, Coloretto and Tichu.

Game play:
The goal of Lucca Città is to score the most points by building the best palaces and by helping build the city wall. The players do this by collecting palace cards of the same color. Once the palace is of a certain size (based on the number of players), the palace is complete and scores points based on the number of windows in the palace. The owner of this brand new palace can then show it off by opening the palace and throwing a party (yes, a party). This scores additional points based on the other players' cards. At the end of the game, the players also score bonus points based on how much they helped in building the city wall. The player with the most points wins the game.

At the start of the game, the players get two cards with their family coat of arms on it. One will be used to mark player order for each turn and the other is placed in front of the player to define his building workspace. The players are also dealt four of the palace cards from the shuffled palace card deck. Of these cards, they will keep two for their initial building(s), discarding the other two which are shuffled back into the palace deck along with the four tower cards.

Players Cards per Palace Rounds
3 5 7
4 4 6
5 3 5

The game is played over several rounds, based on the number of players. The number of players also determines the number of cards that will make up a complete palace. (See table above.) The player order for each round is determined by the number of support shields each player has on the cards of the player's uncompleted palaces. The player with the most shields goes first with the next highest second and so on. Ties are broken by the street addresses on the palace cards with the higher number going first. Once player order is determined, a number of palace card triplets are dealt to the center of the table (one more than the number of players) and the round begins.

On a player's turn he does two things, open completed palaces and then pick and play a palace card triplet.

Opening Palaces
At the start of his turn, a player may open any palaces that were completed on a prior turn and which have not yet been opened. (Obviously, he will not be able to do this on the first turn of the game.) If a player does this, he will score points based on the number of same colored cards that the other players have in their play areas. For each completed, but unopened, palace in the other players' play areas, the newly opened palace will score two points. In addition, the player will also score one point for each card of the same colored palaces that are under construction by the other players. The other players' opened palaces provide no additional score for the newly opened palace.

Playing a Triplet
After opening any palaces, the player must pick one of the palace card triplets on the table and play the three cards, in any order he wishes. There are several options for playing cards.

* Start a new palace: The player may start a new palace in the construction area of their play area. The player may only have one palace of each color in their entire play area (under construction, completed or opened).
* Add to an existing, uncompleted palace: The player may add additional cards to any uncompleted palaces he has under construction. The palaces are complete as soon as the required number of cards are played to the palace (see table above). Each palace may only contain cards of a single color. The new cards are placed on top of the previous palace cards such that the shields and windows are visible but the street number of only the last card played is visible. When a palace is complete, the player will score it. He gets one point for each window in the completed palace. The completed palace is then moved to the Complete Palace area (to the left of the players work area).
* Add to the city wall: If the player does not wish to or can not use a palace card to build a palace, he may turn it into a city wall segment that may provide an end game bonus for the player. He does this by placing the card upside down in his Completed Palaces section of his work area.
* Build a tower card: There are four tower cards that are shuffled into the palace card deck. If a player picks a triplet with a tower card, he places the tower card in his Completed Palaces area. These cards may provide an end game bonus like the city walls. However, tower cards do not need to be "supported" like city walls (see end game scoring below).
* Discard the card: If the player has no use for one or more cards of the triplet he picks, they may be discarded out of the game.

At the end of the round, the unselected palace card triplet is discarded and the next round begins. The game ends after the required number of rounds.

End Game Scoring
At the end of the game, three additional scorings occur. First, player order is determined one last time, again based on the shields of the players' uncompleted palaces. The players then must open all remaining completed, unopened palaces. This is done in player order, so going first here will generally score more points if the other players have unopened palaces.

After opening palaces, the players score a bonus for their city walls and towers. However, to do so, the player first must be able to support the city wall segments he built. To support them, for each wall segment the player built, the player must have two support shields on the cards for the uncompleted palaces left in his play area. If he cannot support the wall segments, the player scores no bonus. (Note that towers do not need to be supported.) If the player can support their wall segments, he will get a bonus equal to his total number of wall segments and towers times the number of completed palaces he has.

Finally, the player with the lowest visible street number must give the player with the highest visible number three points.

Comments:
Lucca Città is a light to medium weight set collecting game. It's a step up from light games like King's Breakfast or Coloretto but it's less complicated than the other recent tower building game, Palazzo (which I consider a middle weight game). Lucca Città provides some nice set management decisions, mainly in the shields vs. windows trade-offs. More shields will get you a better position in the turn order and will support walls at the end of the game, but windows score points. Players need to balance when to get each during the game. Also, since each player can only have one palace of each color, you want to only get cards you can use. Being able to use unwanted cards as wall segments helps and can provide a good bonus at the end. However, you need to be able to support those walls which will tie up more cards with shields for uncompleted palaces.

The timing of opening palaces provides yet another area for player decisions. You want to leave your completed palaces unopened until it will score the most points. However, if you leave it too long, the other players may complete or open their palaces, thus reducing your points. I have found you need to match what the other players are building and what they might complete that round to time the opening of your palaces well. Also, if you leave the openings until the end of the game, you may not score well, especially if you are late in the final turn order. Definitely lots of decisions there. Granted, the decisions aren't as deep as some games and you can get messed with the card selection in any round, but it is nice for a 30 minute game.

Lucca Città is one of the better games from daVinci. The game play is light but engaging, the mechanisms are fairly straightforward and fit the theme and the theme itself, although a little repetitive, is recognizable. daVinci is definitely aiming for the family market and I think that Lucca Città will go over well with that market. I can see playing this with "non-gamers" as a step up from light games to something with a little more meat to it. Regular gamers should find it enjoyable as a 20 to 30 minute filler or lunch time game that provides some decent decisions but isn't going to tax your brain.

One thing I keep seeing is that many family gamers are looking for non-confrontational games. Ones that the players don't attack other players directly but yet their actions influence the other players' moves. Lucca Città fits that bill well as the players compete for turn order to get better card selection and score points based on the other players' cards when they open palaces.

Given the relatively low price of Lucca Città, it is well worth checking out as I think you will get a good bang for the buck game-wise.

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puppi — 2005-12-04T18:58:05+00:00

back of a box of a japanese version

Thread: Get your fill of Towers

MWChapel — 2005-12-02T19:59:23+00:00

Got a chance to play this new title from daVinci Games this afternoon and thought I'd write a review on it. The game "Lucca Citta" at first seems to yet another renaissance tower building game such as Campanile or Clock Tower, and well it is. But hey, you never know maybe they've added some flare to the game to make it different? We'll see

The components are straightforward. It comes in a small box with two decks of cards. The cards consist of a Player shield card and a player-building card. The shield card is used to show turn order and the building card is used to show what phase a building is in. Then there are four "tower" cards. The remaining cards are the building cards. These cards COM in six different colors, and have three distinguishing features; shields, windows, and address numbers. The number of shields plus the number of windows always adds up to three. Yet there maybe three windows and zero shields, or two windows and one shield and so on. The numbers on the address go up to I believe 100. That's it for components. Simple, clean.

The players "field" is made up of three sections. The first or the bottom is the "building" field. Here a player may build one tower of each color by placing one card section on top of another card section. These must be placed in order; they may not be shuffled around once they are placed. The second field is the "completed" tower field. These are where the towers are placed once it reaches three levels. The last field is the "show" tower field.

The game is played in rounds. In a five-player game we had five rounds. Before the first round, each player is given four cards. The player will choose two out of the four, and then the other two are shuffled back in the deck. These two cards are all showed simultaneously. This will show the starting build field for each player and then player order is determined. Whoever has the most shields showing from card in their build area goes first and so on. Ties are broken by the player that has the largest address number showing. Then at the beginning of each rounds a set of three cards are laid out up to the number of players plus one. So in a five-player game there would be six sets of three cards dealt to the middle of the table.

So on the first players turn he does these set of action. First he "may" show a completed tower to the show field. By doing this he scores his completed tower equal to the number of the same color cards as all other players have in both their build and completed pile. Then the player chooses one set of three cards showing and plays them. He may place cards in his build area by placing it on top of an existing tower or start a new one (a player may only build one of each color up to six). Or he may lay a card out for the city wall. Or he may discard the card. Once he plays his cards, any tower that was completed goes into the completed field and is scored. He gets one point for every window in the completed tower. If he gets a "city tower" card he may place that off in his city walls area.

After the first player plays, then every other player in the turn order does the same actions. The last set of three cards is discarded.

After the fifth round the game is completed. Then in turn order each player may "show" a completed tower, and score them accordingly. The final scoring deals with the city walls. For each card a player set aside for the city wall (placing them face down) he first must determine if he can support them. To support them he must have in his building area 2 shields for each wall segment. And he must be able to support ALL the wall segments or he looses the bonus. Then if he has wall segments and any "tower cards" he adds them together and multiplies that number by the number of completed towers he has. So is he has 2 wall segments (and four shields to support), 1 tower card, and 4 completed towers then 1+2x4=12 bonus points.

That’s it. The person with the most points wins.

My feeling of the game. I liked it, it seems to have a nice balance of tradeoffs in turn order collecting shields and scoring windows. Timing is everything. You don't want to "show" towers too soon, as you won't get as many points as waiting for other players to play the same color cards. However on the flip side, there are only five rounds of play, and you need to squeeze as many completed towers in to score. The luck comes in of course with the card draw, as it is random what each pile will contain. Which may work for you or not. But it didn't seem to screw anyone in the game I've played. I did notice that by the end it was quite close the number of towers and number of wall segments that each of us had played. So the scores for the bonus were quite close. I think the real scoring happens in looking what other players have been playing, and determining when to complete and show a tower to receive the maximum points against others unfinished towers. Remember, you don't score the same color cards in other players "showed" towers. So turn order is important, timing is important, and paying attention to what other players is playing is important. Very interesting play. It also plays fairly quickly, you can get a full game in about 20-30 minutes tops. I'm not sure how it will scale with fewer players, but with 5 it seems quite balanced and solid. I believe the gameplay is original enough make for one of the better tower building games.

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panteo — 2005-11-10T19:57:37+00:00

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Thaur — 2005-10-30T11:47:13+00:00

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Thaur — 2005-10-30T11:46:49+00:00

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tmeistad — 2005-10-18T11:29:34+00:00

Lucca Città table overview