Concordia

Concordia sees players compete to spread themselves over either Italy or all of Europe (the board has two sides) to establish themselves in various cities and harvest the good produced in that region – food, bricks, metal, wine and cloth. It’s an involving game, but for one that invites so much thought, surprisingly fast-moving once everyone has a grasp of what they’re trying to do.

The game moves forward through playing of cards – each player has the same starting hand, and more cards can be purchased during the game. Once a card is played it goes face-up onto your discard pile (each player has their own discards), and can’t be used again until a certain card (the Tribune) is played to return all expended cards into your hand.

Cards allow you to move your colonists around the board, build houses in cities, collect resources from the regions, and trade the resources you have with the bank. There’s also a delightful Diplomat card, which allows you to copy the just-played turn of one of your opponents (i.e. the card currently at the top of their discard pile).

At the end of the game the little banner at the bottom of every players card comes into play, as these dictate everybody’s scores. Each card has the name of a Roman God on it, and they each have a particular way of scoring points. They might reward having a lot of colonists, or having built houses in a lot of regions, or houses in a particular type of city. There are six Gods and really, the key to winning is to keep an eye on what cards you purchase during the game – focussing on one or two of them is more likely to reward than a smattering of everything!

The game is beautifully designed, and with very few rules, not too difficult to pick up and play. Winning is a different matter – it’s all about making the right choices with your cards, and not finding that on every turn you want to play a card that’s sitting in your discard deck!