Designed by: Emanuele Ornella
In Byzanz the players are Byzantine market traders, haggling over wares, and the richest trader will win the day.
The market board is placed on the table, empty for now. It shows the five different trade goods, plus a trader. Each player is dealt four cards and the first round begins: in each round, a number of cards are laid face-up as a ‘lot’ and players bid the cards from their hand to claim the lot. The winner pays their cards into the market (each type of good is placed separately in its own stack) and they must pay one card from the lot into the market as well.
A player who has claimed a lot cannot bid again in the same round, but the lots get smaller each time, until there is only a single player left: this player only gets a single card – for free, as there is no-one to bid against – and pays the other card into the market.
But now the second part of the round begins, where players can take all cards of a single type from the market. Here, the player who took the smallest lot goes first, and the player who took the next-smallest lot goes second, and so on. It’s possible that players who paid for the biggest lots will get no cards at all!
When players can make a set of three cards of the same type, they may choose to do so and turn the highest-numbered card into points: the others are discarded. At this point the trader card is very helpful, as he serves as a joker and can represent any type of card in a set. But it’s also worth bearing in mind that a set of three traders is the most valuable of all!
After the final round points are tallied, and the player with the most – wins.
Byzanz feels quite classic - a neat little auction card game with an interesting push and pull between the auction and the freebies at the end of the round. Only played a couple of times but I'd be happy to play more.
None to speak of.
Low, although not entirely absent.
There's a slight tug of war here between high numbers (which are good for both bidding and points) and matching colours, which you need to make sets. Ideally the cards you gather tick all the boxes, but the catch is that cards bid are cards lost!
There's not an enormous amount of variety in play here, but Byzanz doesn't really need it. It's a simple game that sticks to its simplicity for good reason: there's enough to think about here to reward repeat visits.
3-6
Players
8+
Years
30-60
Mins
Sam says
A neat, moreish card game that blends tactical play with a sprinkling of luck. I like the decisions you're presented with - go big on bidding and gain scraps from the market (and lose cards from your hand!) or scavenge around the outside, hoping for a juicy number on the final, free, lot? I gambled everything on this in the last round and came up with nothing! Simple but clever; and fun.