Hi! I am a peasant. I live in the beautiful Itialian city known as Siena. Actually, I do not spend a lot of time in the city. Me and my fellow peasants are busy beyond the walls working the fields, trying to produce and sell goods. We peasants all focus on selling corn, wine and olive oil to the citizens of the city. Not a glamorous life, but hey, it's a living. If I am lucky, I may acquire a mule which helps me sell even more goods. When I am feeling like fate is on my side, I will take a trip down the Via Francigena to sell my wares for an even greater profit out of town. However this can be a very dangerous journey, for you see, robbers who will steal your goods, also ride up and down this road. Nonetheless if I can just earn a few more Florins, I can become an established merchant......

[later......]

I did it.....I have made enough Florins to become a merchant. I still spend a lot of time outside of the town selling goods, but now I have moved up to selling fine cloth and spices.....a much more lucrative trade. I can also forgo some of my earnings to earn respect from fellow citizens of Siena. Afterall, respect is what wins this game. I can also journey to the neighboring towns of Florence and or Arezzo to sell my wares. Despite my increased profits, I still feel a bit like a peasant......If only I had a few more Florins, I could become one of those rich pompous bankers, who walks around town all day....

[even later....]


Guess what? now I am a pompous banker. I paid my Florins, now my life is easy. I spend all day walking around Siena from destrict to district. The money just rolls in. Life is so much more interesting; no more toiling outside the town trying to sell wares......I leave that to the peasants and merchants. I even make money from the merchants everytime they sell something. Life is good...I just wish that pesky beggar, Calandrino, would leave me alone. If I have to pay him any more Florins, or heaven forbid, if I have to buy him a feast at the inn one more time.......On the other hand, if I keep blowing him off, people are going to think I am too stingy; Folks will then lose respect for me for sure. Where's those guards when you need them? Another aggrevation: there seems to be a lot of weddings down in the Palazzo Tolemei district. I hate having to stop at them (that's the price of fame and fortune I suppose), but if I don't stop I have to buy a wedding present, which is even worse. Oh yes, speaking of stopping, I must confess one of my guilty pleasures: Those courtesans at the inn sure are pretty, but they do put a hurting on my pocket book. Luckily I hardly notice them when they are distracted by their girlfriends. That is good because one of my favorite activities is going to the inn to book an artist. I just hate when everyone else (peasants and merchants included!!) try to outbid me to book the same artist. Believe it or not, they will sometimes try to outbid me before they even know who I am trying to book!! The nerve of them. Well, I guess I can't blame them because some of these artists sure are special and will make everyone respect me even more for booking them....I almost forgot my most important achievement........helping fund that big tower over in the Torre del mangia district. Talk about respect form the townspeople!! Keep in mind however, this is no cheap endeavor. Every floor seems to get more expensive to build.......and the labor cost......highway robbery. If I am lucky, I can hire some cheap masons to help cut down the costs......Anyway, I am off to the inn to see some wenches, er book an artist......Remember: respect (as in consent points) is everything in this game!!!





Just to summarize, Siena is a great game with lots to do. Basically each player takes actions based on cards they have achieved by purchase or via auction. You start as a peasant and work up through the ranks of merchant then banker. A player wins by owning the most consent points at the end of the game. All the gameplay aspects are too involved to go into detail, but they are kind of outlined above.

My Ratings are as follows:

Theme: 8.5 There are actually 3 themes in this game: peasant, merchant and banker. The first 2 are similar in that players produce and sell goods. Being a banker unlocks all sorts of activities, as described above.

Mechanics: 8 Get cards, and use them for various purposes. Nothing terribly novel, but given the amount of things to be done, it works. There is also an auction component, though only for certain cards. Bankers can perform certain duties without cards depending on which district they occupy.

Rules: 7 Most of the rulebook is clear, though there were a couple points that were unclear. For example, I was a little unclear abbout how to move the beggar to the inn. However, all of these unclear points have been addressed here by the author of the game.

Strategy: 7.5 there is some luck, but one has to make tough strategic choices based on options that have been made available via card acqusition.

Asthetics/components: 8.5 the board is very ornate and certainly helps immerse gamers into the game's theme. The cards are sturdy and also very ornate. The other pieces are wooden discs, wooden cubes and a wooden pawn to represent the beggar. I wish the cubes were a little bigger, and I wish the player disks were all more muted colors, but those are minor gripes

Overall fun factor: 8.5 I would categorize this as a heavy eurogame with lots of choices to make. I really enjoy Siena quite a bit and refute some of the negative things said about it:

1. The board and cards are confusing because they are not labelled. The board is perfectly fine. All the labels are above and below the Siena pictures . I think labeling the actual pictures would detract from the game's beauty. The cards only take a little white to become familiar with them. Remember, sometimes less is more.

2. The rules are poorly written: They are not. I understood the majority of them. Yes, there are a few things that I didn't quite understand, but these issues have been cleared up here on other posts.

3. The game is chaotic because there is simply too much going on. Yes, there is a lot going on, which makes this a rich game with lots of decisions to make. It is only chaotic if you don't understand the rules. If that's the case, make a summary of all actions available for peasants, merchants and bankers.

I would recomment this to anyone looking for a challenging, heavy eurogame. The game is very pretty and the gameplay is very rich. Works fairly well with 2 (despite other comments made here) though works better with more. Don't let the petty negative comments detract you from this one

Ciao!!

Dear Dan

if someone had asked me to give an idea of the atmosphere of my game, probably I couldn't have found words better than yours.
What you say is exactly what I feel every time I play Siena.

I'm there, in those fields and those streets.
Starting from nothing, after 2 hours that seem 2 years, after many girls(possibly),against all the difficulties, if the city of Siena gives me the honour of its consent,it's a great satisfaction for me...and Life is beatiful.

You have made me happy and when this happens I think that spending one year on the idea and development of a game has been the right choice, independently from the money, earned or lost.
I don't know if you have played Feudo, but if you are interested also in medieval knights, you can get that atmposhere there.

I thank you again.

Mario Papini

wow, I never expected a response from the game author.... It is an honest review. I think this game is very cool and quite ornate. I wanted to share my opinions with others, since this game never got as much attention as a lot of the others here

While I do respect others' opinions about Siena, I keep wondering how this game got so many bad comments.

I agree about the lenght problem, the layout of the italian rulebook could be better (and I understand that english translations of italian games share common problems), but I and my friends have enjoyed everytime we played it (except one of them, who declined to play it again). Now it's a long time since our last play (new games arrived in the meanwhile and called attention), but given 2.5 hours of free time, I wouldn't refuse a play.

It could be true that (as someone else stated) Siena is a game developed starting from the theme; but I don't feel it as one of its weak points. Most of us play games for fun, and Siena is a fun game for me and my friends. Fortunately, there are so many games for the others.

Please note that I don't have any connection with the author or the publisher.