Game: Medici

Thread: Re: Help distinguishing between the 2 older, "Card" style versions

Rikolus — 2008-09-01T14:25:40+00:00

Hey Guys, thanks for the help and clarification!
Eric, good to hear from you. Your outline of the 4 versions was perfect. Cheers!

Thread: Re: Ship Bonuses - Appropriate or Too High?

Eric Brosius — 2008-09-01T13:38:15+00:00

Yes, the bidding should even out these imbalances.

Remember that making it to the top in a commodity is also worth 30 (usually) so there's some sort of rough balance.

Thread: Re: Ship Bonuses - Appropriate or Too High?

dcorban — 2008-09-01T13:35:04+00:00

To me, it sounds like you are not bidding high enough for the high value lots. There is a delicate balance between buying high value lots and holding a monopoly.

Thread: Re: Ship Bonuses - Appropriate or Too High?

Ceryon — 2008-09-01T06:44:37+00:00

BoboTheChimp wrote:
Our group has recently been playing Medici and liking it.
Good choice.
Or are we still very new and not bidding/doing things correct?
Medici isn't hard to understand, so I think, you'll have done everything right. But one part of the goal of the game is to bid against the others, so that they are not easyly able to get those bonuses that fast.

I have never thought about changing those bonuses and I have played many games of Medici (I have rated Medici with 10 Points)

HTH, Carsten

Thread: Ship Bonuses - Appropriate or Too High?

BoboTheChimp — 2008-09-01T03:47:14+00:00

Our group has recently been playing Medici and liking it.

We have often felt that the ship bonus (largest hull) dominates the scoring, giving too much of a lead to those who are able to get it for the second and third day's bidding.

We have considered tempering down the ship bonuses, or at least tightening the spread. Has any other group made a variant on that point bonus? Or are we still very new and not bidding/doing things correct?

Thanks!

Thread: Re: Help distinguishing between the 2 older, "Card" style versions

dcorban — 2008-08-31T23:44:10+00:00

Complaints about the new RGG edition:
1) Cards are far superior to tiles in all aspects other than durability.
2) The circular layout is troublesome. Combined with the fact that the "spice sacks" are too big for the tracks, it makes it much more difficult than it needs to be to see the game state at a glance.

The original Amigo is fine except some colors are too close in shade. Also the cards are in german, if that matters.

While the original RGG isn't the prettiest, I actually find it to be the most functional. Yes, at first when cards are flipped, people will say "which one is that again?" but if you are even the most modest of eurogamer, you have memorized much more difficult patterns in other games. It really isn't that hard to distinguish the cards once you know what to look for.

Thread: Re: Help distinguishing between the 2 older, "Card" style versions

rgmnetid — 2008-08-31T17:53:31+00:00

I've played "2. Latest Rio Grande edition" and I don't recall having any problems whatsoever with the colors.

Thread: Re: Help distinguishing between the 2 older, "Card" style versions

jbetz45453 — 2008-08-31T17:47:27+00:00

It would be good to mention that the newer rio grande version(number 2. in the above example) uses tiles instead of cards.Some people like the cards better than the tiles.

Thread: Re: Help distinguishing between the 2 older, "Card" style versions

eknauer — 2008-08-31T16:21:28+00:00

Hey Rick, it's Eric from Orlando.

I've played all the versions and here's how I would rank them.

1. Original Amigo version is the best of the bunch (not saying much). The art is clean, it has nice wooden pieces and the board is very functional, i.e, easy to gauge how you are doing against your opponents. The blue and gray cards are somewhat difficult to distinguish. It's by far the hardest to find though.

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2. Latest Rio Grande edition. Nice artwork and components. On the downside, the colors are not the easiest to distinguish and the advancement tracks are arranged in a circular way making it more difficult to gauge the progress of your opponents compared to the Amigo layout. Also, the Goa wooden spice pieces are a bit too big for the game board.

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3. French version. Arguably the most interesting artwork (cheap cardboard material though) but there's one major flaw, which is that the scoring track is too short with only 60 spaces. This makes it annoying to gauge player scores because they can be in the 100+ range.

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4. Older Rio Grande edition. Very very bad, stay away (probably the one you had difficulty with). In this pic, you can see that someone added strips to the bottom of the pyramids in order to help figure out which cards match the advancement tracks. Otherwise, it's just way too frustrating trying to figure it out at a quick glance.

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Thread: Re: Help distinguishing between the 2 older, "Card" style versions

BFoy — 2008-08-31T15:48:25+00:00

Rikolus wrote:
Hey gang,
Read a few of the topics, but still not sure which version to get.

I had played a couple of times... I remember the 1st time I played, the cards (and particularly the colors) were clear and easy to understand.
But then the next time, it was a different version were it was much more difficult to tell what was what.

Please, can someone say which version is which? I don't want to accidentally buy that muddied version.

The original German version was much nicer than the original English version except the English version has cards denoting who was playing each color. I don't know about any of the modern versions.

Thread: Help distinguishing between the 2 older, "Card" style versions

Rikolus — 2008-08-31T15:35:21+00:00

Hey gang,
Read a few of the topics, but still not sure which version to get.

I had played a couple of times... I remember the 1st time I played, the cards (and particularly the colors) were clear and easy to understand.
But then the next time, it was a different version were it was much more difficult to tell what was what.

Please, can someone say which version is which? I don't want to accidentally buy that muddied version.

Finally, I saw a version that had little Ships that looked to be the scoring mechanism. Is that the new Rio Grande American version?
If the main criticism of the new version is the lack of cubes, could not those be borrowed from other games (Pandemic, Age of Mythology, others) that use cubes?

Thanks...

Image

armed-medic — 2008-08-11T03:13:31+00:00

Thread: Re: New Rio Grande Version... same rules?

kowalskie — 2008-07-31T07:25:31+00:00

sightreader wrote:
kowalskie wrote:
new rules??

of what ou speak?

They have extra cards, like the "Captain", and a special wild card. The Captain is outright confusing (I never understood the translation of the rules), and - all in all - I'm not sure the new stuff improved the game much.

okay,

cheers.

Thread: Re: New Rio Grande Version... same rules?

sightreader — 2008-07-30T22:43:05+00:00

kowalskie wrote:
new rules??

of what ou speak?

They have extra cards, like the "Captain", and a special wild card. The Captain is outright confusing (I never understood the translation of the rules), and - all in all - I'm not sure the new stuff improved the game much.

Thread: Re: New Rio Grande Version... same rules?

kowalskie — 2008-07-30T19:54:25+00:00

jbetz45453 wrote:
The new rio grande version does not contain any new extra rules like the french version does.The new rio grande version also has tiles to draw instead of cards to flip.

new rules??

of what ou speak?

Thread: Re: La Nouvelle Enchere card in the Lui-meme Medici

Gothscheck — 2008-07-17T15:24:21+00:00

Well, we wanted to use the new game (knowing the original), and we read the rules for the new cards and many questions were pointed out.

The card that gave us the most question was the "nouvelle enchère", which we decided we didn't like at all, since it looked too powerful and to nasty for a single person who might have legitimately bidded high for an important card for that person. Forcing someone to pay twice for a card seemed not so interesting...

However, our interpretation was that the card was to be used immediately, following somewhat the same deduction than you.

Now, for a translation of the cards, let me try this:

First, before the cards, they explained that in this set of rules, they made two changes: an auction which was not limited to one turn of the table; and the impossibility for someone to offer more cards than what he was able to buy. They suggest these two rules as optional. That's the paragraph "règle originale de Reiner Knizia".

For the cards:

"le 5 mystère" counts in your cargo of 5 cards. After everyone has advanced their tokens in the goods tracks, you chose which good it is. It is a joker.

"le sur-stockage" doesn't count in your cargo. Furthermore, you are now able to have a sixth card in your cargo.

"le capitaine" doesn't count in your cargo. It is a tie-breaker card. When you count the total cargo for the extra points and when you count the extra points relatively to your position in each good's column, you are considered in a better position than your tied opponents.

"la nouvelle enchère" doesn't count in your cargo. Our understanding was that, when you buy it, you can force an opponent or yourself to put a card already bought and paid for, in auction. We also understood that this new auction was starting with the player next to the player who bought the card "nouvelle enchère" and forced the auction. The original owner of the card auctioned can't bid in this auction. However, after the auction is done, the former owner can buy back his card for the price of the last bid announced. If everyone passes, he can take his card back for 0 (highest bid announced) or discard his card.

In a way, you would be able to discard a card you don't want. When you buy "nouvelle enchère" your have the right to put one of your own cards in auction (to get rid of it).

Hum... My English is far from excellent, I hope I was clear.

We also had some more questions on these new cards such as: do we shuffle the full deck (now 40 cards) and then discard 4 more cards in addition to the normal discard? Would the special cards be shuffled in the deck before or after this discard ? etc.

To my opinion, it is not clear enough.

For the record, after all these questions were put up and unanswered, we decided to play "the old way".

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armed-medic — 2008-06-25T04:51:56+00:00

Spice!

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petegrey — 2008-06-17T04:39:55+00:00

Medici- older board-scoring was easier to track, but commodities were confusing (hence the tape)

Thread: Re: New Rio Grande Version... same rules?

jbetz45453 — 2008-06-12T12:12:12+00:00

The new rio grande version does not contain any new extra rules like the french version does.The new rio grande version also has tiles to draw instead of cards to flip.

Thread: New Rio Grande Version... same rules?

sightreader — 2008-06-12T07:50:01+00:00

I noticed that the French version (with real bad board warping) had some extra rules. Does the new Rio Grande version include these rules as well?

It looks like the new version is much more readable and playable than the older Rio Grande version.

Thread: Re: Medici - First Play

Eldard — 2008-06-05T17:03:31+00:00

JayB wrote:
. . . I think Medici was a good introduction to auction mechanics, having never played one before. I will definitely be playing this one again.

It certainly is one of the classics. Our group continues to play it almost weekly, year after year.

We often use it to introduce new gamers to the genre.

Thread: Medici - First Play

JayB — 2008-06-05T15:01:31+00:00

This was my first time to play Medici. It was also my first time to play an auction game.

There was six of us playing for this session.

Michael briefly went over the rules with me. I was the only one new to the game out of the six; although, it may have been a refresher for a few. Apparently, I was day dreaming a bit during the scoring explanation of Ship Totals, which I quickly learned after the first day.

Day One - Through some sort of random selection Ed, the player to my right, began as the first player. I was hoping I would have a little more time to observe before diving in; however, it was not the case. I had no idea what to start the bidding at other than the face value of the cards, so I bid about half of the face value for the three card lot.

I quickly developed a strategy to concentrate on two types of goods and try to come away with a decent ship total. Though, I did not realize the importance of the ship total until after Day One.

Day One Scoring - Michael took the Ship total scoring 30 points; wow, shouldn't have been day dreaming during rules explanation. So, that put Michael in the lead with 53 and Stephen coming in last with 34. I was in second place coming in somewhere around 43.

Day Two - My two types of goods to focus on had been decided for me on Day One. I was now concentrating on Fur and Grain. I focused a little to much on gaining these types and with three cards on my ship I had a measly ship total of four. The gold card came up along with a four in another type and I ended up paying 21 for that lot to get my ship total up.

Day Two Scoring - Michael ended up getting the Ship Total again. I came away with 15 points which means my little gold card fandango only set me back 6 points. Michael was still in the lead with 81 and Stephen was still trailing with 39. I was somewhere in the middle.

Day Three - There were gains across the board, I was able to get three more Fur and two more Grain putting me in the 20 bonus area on Fur and the 10 bonus area on Grain. I stayed in the bidding a little longer this round to make sure I was getting good deals while still trying to figure out ways to reduce Michael’s score. He wasn’t leading in any goods so I assumed Ship Total was his main strategy at this point. He ended up being the last one without a full ship and randomly drew 14 points for his last three cards.

Day Three Scoring - Michael still came away with the Ship Total due mostly to the lucky draw of 14 points for free at the end of the round. He ended up winning with a score of 116; I came in tied with Ed for second with 96; Richard, third with 87; Darrell, fourth with 72 and Stephen, last with 53.

Session Time: 61 minutes.

I think Medici was a good introduction to auction mechanics, having never played one before. I will definitely be playing this one again.

Thread: Re: Medici - Variant

Paul65 — 2008-05-25T22:32:25+00:00

Thanks for your comment.

I must say that the idea at the start of this post was really just the seed of an idea. I'm new to BGG & thought that it would be a good place to exchange & develop ideas.

As to your question concerning token placement, I suppose this is one of the areas I was looking at long time players of the game to offer some advice.

The three options I see is

1) at the start of the game when no auctions have occurred.
2) once players have added the cards of their first auction to their ship.
3) at the start of each day.

There are probably other issues that haven't been taken into consideration, but my hope in this posting was the fun of collaboration.

p.s. Got to play Medici over the weekend & was pretty happy with it. The guys I play with got in a large collection of games, so we tried to have a look at a number of games. This being the case, we didn't get time to dwell on any one game & so, did not have a look at my suggested variant. Maybe next time.

Thread: Re: Medici - Variant

Dave — 2008-05-23T05:12:29+00:00

I am not a fan of people posting untested variants (not to mention when they haven't played the game itself).

One of the aspects of games that combine set collection and auctions is that, eventually, you are going to run into situations where something is worth a lot more to someone than anyone else. A big part of these games is setting yourself up in the early game for later windfalls (Pizarro is the most blatant example that comes to mind).

Medici has this too, although you can usually count on the random multi-card lots and the "total cargo value" race to keep things in check. Thus, I am wary of a variant that introduces a wide variability in lot value out-of-the-gate.

Note that the once-around bidding introduces a seating order element (e.g., you really don't want to be collecting what your left-hand opponent is collecting, because he will usually get the chance to outbid you, but not you him). So I'm curious how the token placement would pan out; you may need to consider a fixed configuration, or counter-clockwise placement.

Good luck with your playtesting; let us know how it goes.

Thread: Re: Medici - Variant

Paul65 — 2008-05-23T03:17:30+00:00

You could always be first.

In all honesty, if you don't want to play it then don't.

I'm hoping that others may.
In the future, when my group has had a number of plays, we might give it a go.

Thread: Re: Medici - Variant

Ceryon — 2008-05-22T23:22:51+00:00

Paul65 wrote:
It may not work or it may.And nobody knows if nobody tries.

Carsten

Thread: Re: Medici - Variant

Paul65 — 2008-05-22T22:58:06+00:00

Thanks for your comments.

As I've said I haven't played Medici yet.
In my mock games against myself, it looks quite good & I wasn't suggesting this variant as a fix for any perceived problem.

I'm a bit of a fiddler & when I'm learning games, thoughts come to me.
As my group will be newbies to Medici, we would not be in any position, or have the need, to give this variant a go for a while, so I thought I would put this out there for the wider gaming community.

It may not work or it may.

Thread: Re: Medici - Variant

Ceryon — 2008-05-22T12:32:12+00:00

Please try the game first, before posting variants.

Maybe I'm not the only one who thinks, that Medici doesn't need a variant. Maybe - maybe not.

Thread: Medici - Variant

Paul65 — 2008-05-22T04:16:15+00:00

I recently purchased Medici, but haven’t had the opportunity to play it yet (hopefully this Friday night).
As I read through the rules & had a few mock games to get an idea of the game, I got an idea for the following variant.

Basically, when the players place their tokens in the commodity markets at the start of the game, each player only places tokens in 4 markets. The last token is placed in one of the markets in which they have already placed a token.
Throughout the game, there is one market for which a player will score nothing, but there is also another market in which the player has the chance to earn double the points.

As I said, I haven’t had the chance to play it, but if anyone does, please let me know if/how it plays.

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Rokkr — 2008-03-01T22:50:21+00:00

the 5 commodities - dyes, furs, grain, spices, cloth + gold tiles

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Rokkr — 2008-03-01T22:45:08+00:00

rule book cover

Thread: Why I love this game

Rush2112 — 2008-02-27T03:20:58+00:00

Number 1 reason: so much fun, in so little time.

So 4 merchants set out to woo the young Medici daughter. Honestly is was more like 3 trying to woo the daughter and 1 who might be after their "chisled" son who seems to spend all day at the public bath house. But I digress.

To woo the Medici of their choice they chose their finest garments of azure, violet, garnet and jet.

Azure quickly began to hoard silks, dye and some furs to woo the young lady. His bids were clever and his expenses well planned, in the end he faired well in his pursuit of the you lady, but more on that later.

Garnet was a complete and total nubcake and chose to make bad puns and frighten small children instead of bidding on riches. Being unable to focus on any specific type of goods, he was ejected from the trading halls after many large weights were dropped from the scales of commerce onto his manhood. He went home and wimpered at his failure...at life.

Violet cared not for the gentlewoman who's affections he was supposedly bidding. He'd already known her affections at a ball last week, but that's our little secret... Instead he fixed his attention on spices and herbs that greatly resembled a weed found in Turkey, and was soon lost with his own thoughts.

Jet was cunning, bold and often more than a little sneaky (bastard!). His fortunes this day were double Garnet's or Violet's. And only slightly ahead of Azure's.

While Jet won the day, he failed to win the lady's heart an so Azure must be declared the true victor of the day (huzah!). Jet really didn'y care though as he was far to busy spending his day's earnings on expensive food and drink among gentlemen of distinct talent and negotiable virtue whilst at the bath house.

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axelay80 — 2008-02-08T03:16:30+00:00

Blumpy excitedly unpacks our most recent order.

Thread: Re: Comparing Medici and Ra - one group's opinion

Caldis — 2008-02-03T22:00:13+00:00

I'm with the Medici bunch even though I like RA alot.

It's a tough call and though the margins of victory may be really close on some I agree with your scoring on all 7 of your points.

Medici auctions are more tense, there's more interaction with your neighbors, less luck.

Thread: Re: Just like Ra... I love it and I'm terrible

bnordeng — 2008-01-15T17:52:34+00:00

I hear what you are saying... I just meant that I will also need to learn not to overbid by too much as it could be unnecessary and costly.

Thread: Re: Just like Ra... I love it and I'm terrible

BFoy — 2008-01-15T16:25:06+00:00

No, you need to learn when to overbid them.

Thread: Re: Just like Ra... I love it and I'm terrible

bnordeng — 2008-01-15T14:17:27+00:00

I hadn't really seen any scores before but I felt like these scores were high. For some reason, I felt like we should be closer to or under 100. Even so, if they don't adjust to my bidding then I will need to adjust to their's... at least to some degree.

Thread: Re: Just like Ra... I love it and I'm terrible

BFoy — 2008-01-15T13:43:00+00:00

Those scores are very high. Your opponents are actually under bidding. Eventually you will be able to win using that strategy. Then they will have to bid more.

Thread: Just like Ra... I love it and I'm terrible

bnordeng — 2008-01-15T05:55:09+00:00

When I first read about Medici and then when I read the instructions for the first time, I saw a lot of similarities between it and Ra. Other than the random tile draws, both are auction games that make all of the information public to all players. Both games are quick-playing. Both games require reacting to the situation and making tactical decisions. Obviously, there are differences which is what makes it fun to play both games but there are also many similarities in my view.

We played Medici tonight for the first time and it was great. Ra is one of my favorite games and I've won it about 5% of the time. I'm well on my way to the same record with Medici, but it just doesn't seem to matter.

In this four player game, I finished 4th twice and tied for 2nd once for biggest numbers to barely score any points that way. I overpaid for many tiles, especially early when it doesn't seem to make sense to pay for much other than the gold or a collection of the same types of tiles (like 3-of-a-kind). That was costly as I was WAAAYYYY behind after Day 1.

Day 2 was also very bad and I didn't end up well. No points from the numbers total and not many tiles that helped the items I was collecting. Ouch!

I did quite a bit of catching up in Day 3 by bidding low and getting a 20 point bonus and a 5 point bonus and finishing in the top 2 in four of the five items. Still, the other players did much better. D finished high with the numbers every round and Mo and Ma landed big bonuses in the last round too. The one way I was outplayed the most was in bidding... I simply overbid early even after reading the instructions aloud which reminded us not to overbid. The final scores were...

D: 127
Mo: 125
Ma: 119
Me: 107

Short game, simple rules, agonizing decisions. All of these factors make our game group a happy game group and this game was enjoyed by everyone.

Thread: Re: Is there a "new" version and is it good enough?

David Gardner — 2007-12-14T05:18:34+00:00

Thank you all for your perspectives. That was most helpful. --David

Thread: Re: Is there a "new" version and is it good enough?

Ceryon — 2007-12-13T00:00:22+00:00

I have the german version and I wanted to have other versions too.
So I traded the french version, that look like:
]]> ]]> ]]> ]]> ]]> ]]> ]]> ]]>

Now I'm looking for other versions to trade - I love medici.

Thread: Re: Is there a "new" version and is it good enough?

ixnay66 — 2007-12-12T22:37:48+00:00

I traded my old german copy for the new Rio Grande version. I think it looks nicer and the box size and tiles were selling points for me.

Thread: Re: Is there a "new" version and is it good enough?

Scott Firestone IV — 2007-12-12T22:21:26+00:00

Bobby4th wrote:
Yes, there is a newer version from Rio Grande. The original Rio Grande edition is the bad one which you mentioned. I really like the look of the newer version. My only complaint is the use of the wooden pieces from Goa instead of cubes to track the goods. The bags are a little bigger than the size of the spaces, but it is a minor issue for me.

It uses tiles instead of cards to represent the goods and I really like them.

The box is the same size as the Carcassonne box so it is more convenient to carry around than the German version.

I'm with Bobby here. The box size and tiles make this a better version.

Thread: Re: Is there a "new" version and is it good enough?

Bobby4th — 2007-12-12T22:06:35+00:00

Yes, there is a newer version from Rio Grande. The original Rio Grande edition is the bad one which you mentioned. I really like the look of the newer version. My only complaint is the use of the wooden pieces from Goa instead of cubes to track the goods. The bags are a little bigger than the size of the spaces, but it is a minor issue for me.

It uses tiles instead of cards to represent the goods and I really like them.

The box is the same size as the Carcassonne box so it is more convenient to carry around than the German version.

Thread: Re: Is there a "new" version and is it good enough?

Stormbull — 2007-12-12T22:06:06+00:00

I prefer the older US version personally.

The new one has a round track on a square board, where the colors/symbols are kinda hard to see.

The cubes have been replaced by Goa-style spice bags.

And what I really dislike is that the cards have been replaced with tiles -- the numbers and colors are much harder to distinguish than before.

Thread: Is there a "new" version and is it good enough?

David Gardner — 2007-12-12T21:52:28+00:00

My father fell in love with this game as we played over Thanksgiving. I have the German version that many people favor for its simplicity of presentation:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/168035

I know that at least one subsequent English version came out (Mayfair?) and was fairly roundly criticized for poor presentation; my cousins have it, and whenever I come over they always ask me to bring my version because they don't want to play their own!

My dad wants Medici for Christmas. I'm trying to obtain a good copy for him.

Has a revised English version come out in the meantime? I see on Funagain this:

http://www.funagain.com/control/product/~product_id=015582

It says "2007 version." Is this an improvement over the previous English version (if it's even different) and/or comparable enough to the German edition that he enjoyed playing that this will work as a Christmas present for him?

I would love a response. Thanks in advance to all my fellow Medici fans....

--David

Thread: Re: Medici vs. Modern Art?

sbauer9 — 2007-12-03T08:15:23+00:00

I see Modern Art as more of a pure auction game where Medici has an aspect of specializing/collecting a particular good. I think this is because in Medici the last round you are playing off your previous choices with the best purchases pretty straight forward where in Modern Art it is like a betting game, the purchases become risker in later rounds can have huge payoffs possible for very unlikely outcomes and smaller payoffs for more likely ones. Note modern art you are bidding on art and midici you are bidding on goods.

In modern art the value of the art is the same to all players an all cards are exactly the same for value except type. In Medici the value is based on previous purchases so things can be useless to one player and valuable to another. Also Medici the goods are valued based on type, which is the equal for all goods, and ship value which is variable by good from 0-5. This tends to get more contious bids in Modern Art.

In modern art the value of the art is based on how many are purchased. It works kind of like a horse race game with payout only to the top three artist(types). In Medici all the goods will payout at a fixed rate but only to the top two buyers plus a bonus if you reach a certain number in the game. There is also a second payout for ship value from best to worst. This makes for very different dynamic with modern art benfiting the person who picks the most popular artist and medici rewarding the person who invest in the least.

Another big difference is the things up for bid are random in Medici and chosen by a player in Modern Art. Modern Art also plays with the auction theme having many different types of auctions. Medici, all auctions are once around.

I think Modern Art is simpler to teach but it is very hard to value the art on your first play. Medici has a few more rules but is easier for people to play the first time as they can go by the ship value as a rule of thumb bid.

I would say Medici offers the reverse mechanism of trying to be in the least popular good and not the most. It also forces you to trade off between good type and ship value and deciding when to sacrifice one for the other

Thread: Re: Medici vs. Modern Art?

ososnilknarf — 2007-12-03T05:49:02+00:00

I love both games. They are both purely auction based games, but they do have a very different feel though, to me. Medici has a push your luck element when deciding whether to turn over another card for auction. It is sometimes very tempting but you don't know whether it will hurt you or help you.
I highly recommend Medici if you enjoy Modern Art.

Thread: Medici vs. Modern Art?

Anarchosyn — 2007-12-03T05:38:06+00:00

I was curious if anybody could elaborate on how these titles feel contrasted against each other?

I've never played Medici myself, but after getting turned onto Modern Art my curiosity level has gone up for Knizia auction titles.

What does Medici offer that Modern Art lacks?

Thread: Turn of an Unfriendly Card

Chuckles — 2007-11-11T18:59:06+00:00

Haven't written a session report for a while, but this game was pretty well recorded in progress, so here goes.

Venue: At Kelly's. Players: Kelly, Laura, Ron and me. Ron gave us the sad news (for us, anyway) that he'll be moving away. He won't be easily replaced in our game group!

Round 1: Ron and Laura bid aggressively. Kelly took the gold 10, which we clearly all undervalued. In retrospect, its worth in securing most valuable ship hull was obvious, but for some reason I didn't assign it the worth that it deserved. This round was a bit odd -- I thought everyone was overbidding, so everyone completely filled up before I won any bids. I wound up picking up 5 cards, randomly, for free. I was lucky, drawing a hull worth 17, to tie Laura for third place there. Laura, the newcomer to the game, was thus at a disadvantage and had a bad start.

Round 1 payments: Laura 24, Ron 23, Kelly 21, Chuck 0.

Round 1 winnings: Ron 42, Kelly 39 (30 from best hull), Chuck 26, Laura 24.

Since we each started with 40, that made the scores:

Chuck 66, Ron 59, Kelly 58, Laura 40

Round 2: This time Laura bid more carefully and started a nice comeback. I spent big (10) on a single 5 dye, trying to dig out of a low hull point total. Kelly once again spent reasonably big on the 10 gold's lot, but got a good price. This is the round that won her the game, really. Ron had a bad round, neglecting the value of his hull.

Round 2 payments: Kelly 19, Chuck 18, Ron 15, Laura 14

Round 2 winnings: Kelly 44, Laura 37, Chuck 30, Ron 22

Totals after 2: Kelly 83, Chuck 78, Ron 66, Laura 63

Round 3: This time we made Kelly pay a bit more for the single 10 gold. She was the most aggressive bidder, but I wasn't far behind. Ron suddenly became stingy. I lost the game on the final card. Kelly and Laura had been the last ones in the running. Kelly won the previous card, giving Laura the final card for free. That card happened to be a 5 that pushed her 1 past me in hull value, costing me 10 points. I did well in commodity bonuses, but it wasn't enough. Nice comeback by Laura, and good job by Kelly in getting best hull every time.

Round 3 payments: Kelly 31, Chuck 28, Laura 13, Ron 4

Round 3 winnings: Kelly 47, Chuck 40, Laura 39, Ron 17

Totals:
Kelly 99
Chuck 90
Laura 89
Ron 79

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michely — 2007-11-04T13:01:48+00:00

Ongoing game using wooden block insead of cardboard chit.

Thread: Re: Best way to pick tiles not used each round?

TheKeck — 2007-10-08T21:01:56+00:00

We also shuffle the tiles around on the table face down.

Thread: Re: La Nouvelle Enchere card in the Lui-meme Medici

Ceryon — 2007-10-06T23:24:06+00:00

This is an Image of the 4 additional cards: ]]>

Here you can see the rules for these cards.

I can't read french - can you? And can you tell me how to play with these 4 cards?

Carsten

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Ceryon — 2007-10-06T22:50:37+00:00

4 new cards of the french edition - and I can't read the french rules ;-(

Thread: Re: Best way to pick tiles not used each round?

fivesheff — 2007-10-05T00:41:27+00:00

As you suggest in your initial question, we simply mix the tiles on the table while they are face-down, and then remove the proper number. You could then put the remaining tiles in the bag, but we don't bother.

Thread: Re: Best way to pick tiles not used each round?

jbetz45453 — 2007-10-01T12:03:14+00:00

Thanks for the suggestions.

Thread: Re: Best way to pick tiles not used each round?

Blackberry — 2007-09-29T18:53:31+00:00

There are some people in my group who can't feel the difference between the front and the back of the tiles no matter how much you explain the raised or rounded edge.

Our solution is just to spread the task around. Have every player draw an equal amount of the things to be drawn, each player drawing from the bag under the table and glancing at the things in their hands to make sure they place them on the table face down.

It's not perfect, but it does assure that each player only sees 1/N of the items, plus it makes it as fair as possible.

Thread: Re: Best way to pick tiles not used each round?

Rick Young — 2007-09-29T16:02:32+00:00

Feel the edge of the tiles.

The back edge is sharper, and once you are able to detect the difference, you can pull them out without revealing them with 95% + accuracy.

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Skyjoker — 2007-06-29T02:55:34+00:00

Components fresh from the game store

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Liggur — 2007-05-18T00:28:28+00:00

Cover of Rio Grande Box