Designed by: Reiner Knizia
In Medici players represent merchants haggling over the goods being unloaded from ships (represented by tiles) in the docks of Renaissance Italy, in order to load up their own waiting boats. There are five different types of goods tiles and each tile has a value of 0-5 points. Each players’ boat can hold up to five tiles, and at the end of each (of three) rounds the players boats are scored for the cumulative value of their tiles.
In addition to that, having a tile of a particular resource will move you up a track on the game board, and your position on the board is also scored – so it’s possible to have the most valuable ship in all three rounds but still not win, if you haven’t considered your position on the board – or if you’ve overpaid. Medici is a game of bidding, and you need to consider your bids carefully, as each successful bid moves you down on the score-track, which doubles as your purse (or wallet, if you prefer).
Finally there is a slightly rogue card in the form of 10 Gold Pieces, which can secure you most valuable boat, but on the other hand doesn’t contribute to your presence on the board at all.
Medici is wonderfully accessible game with very simple rules.
Very little. You can try and force other players bids up, but this may backfire if they pass and you are forced to take tiles you didn't really want.
Almost none - as long as they have room on their boat, every player is involved in every turn.
The choice is simple - bid, or don't bid. The agonising comes in in deciding exactly how much you're willing to pay!
The simple rules and randomness of the tiles (which are drawn from a bag at the start of each turn) make Medici really easy to learn and fun to revisit.
2-6
Players
8+
Years
30-60
Mins
Sam says
A fun game of bidding where you can play safe and make sure you get points or go a bit crazy, spending less to take whatever comes out the bag at the end of the round. High risk! You can go for points for cargo value in each round, or points for colour value - the latter brings long-haul results and is probably a more rewarding - but will you get the colours you need? A game that is far more involving than it first appears...