Surely Reiner Knizia is meditating in an isolated hermitage somewhere. Alone with his thoughts, he spends his days communing with nature, reflecting on the great mysteries of life, and capturing small furry animals to sacrifice to nether powers in dark, arcane rituals. Surely it must be so, for I can scarcely imagine how else one man can create such innovative, entertaining games with the frequency and consistency Knizia has shown over the past few years. And while Medici isn't likely to win Game of the Year (even if Die Siedler von Catan wasn't in the running), it is nevertheless a solid and respectable game. Although essentially an expanded version of Mercator from Knizia's New Games From Old Rome collection, surely the artwork on Medici is reason enough to pick up this version.
Players in Medici assume the roles of traders in Renaissance Italy. With a starting capital of about 30 florins (depending on the number of players), you invest in goods to bring the greatest return on your money.
On a player's turn, she turns over one, two, or three cards from the deck. The number is entirely up to her, and she may choose to stop after any card. Each card depicts one of five commodities: spice, metal, porcelain, cloth, or dye. There are seven cards of each type, numbered 0-5 (there are two fives for each commoditiy). There is also one 10 card which is not of any commodity. The cards a player flips over form a set which goes up for bidding. The auction is conducted in an orderly fashion, starting at the current player's left and continuing around the table. Each player may only bid once, with the current player getting the final bid. Whoever bids the most takes the set into his warehouse, moving his scoring marker backwards to pay for it.
Each player's warehouse can only hold five cards. If a player doesn't have room for all the cards in a set, she can't bid on that set. When all players have filled their warehouses, scores are tallied. First, everyone adds the value of all the cards in their warehouse and points are awarded in decreasing amounts for the highest totals.
In the middle of the board are five ziggurats, one for each commodity. Players move up one step on each ziggurat for every card of that commodity they own. Whoever is highest on each ziggurat earns a ten point bonus, with five points going to the runner-up. Additionally, the upper two steps of the ziggurat carry an additional 10 or 20 point bonus for anyone standing on them.
Once points are tallied, all cards are shuffled and a new round begins. The highest score after three rounds wins.
Medici is a game of hard choices. First, when should you stop turning cards? If a low spice comes up and you're not collecting spice, should you leave it and let other players spend their money on it? Or should you flip another card and perhaps force spice collectors to swallow an unwanted card along with their spice? Of course, the risk is that the second card will be something you are interested in, forcing you to suck up the spice along with it. When the first card is something you want but which other people may not like, should you let it be and collect the one card cheaply, or flip another hoping to add to your bounty? When good cards are part of large sets, players have to fill up their warehouses in order to get them. You can only buy one set of three per round— you can't fit another. If you can hold back until other players have three or more cards in their warehouse, on your turn you can turn over three cards and buy them for a single florin.
How much to bid for cards is a common question from new players. Unfortunately, there's no good answer. "Average" bids depend entirely on the group of players. Of course, you want to avoid spending more for goods than those goods will be worth to you. The biggest mistake players make in Medici is overbidding. I won my most recent game because I only spent 1 florin in the first round while other players spent substantially more. When in doubt, bid conservatively.
After a few plays, I've come to the conclusion that the first round is best spent gaining the lead in two of the five commodities, if possible. This earns you twenty points in the first round, and if you can hold onto the lead you continue to get twenty more points in each of the next two rounds, with the possibility of the bonuses. I'd spend the second round consolidating your lead in those two commodities and trying to snag one of the warehouse bonuses. In the final round, try for the 30 point warehouse bonus.
Medici bears some similarity to Modern Art, Knizia's game which was nominated for the Spiel des Jahres a couple of years ago but which lost to Bluff, the German version of Liar's Dice. In Modern Art, paintings are auctioned using four different methods, while in Medici all bidding uses the "once around" style. In both games, deciding which cards to bid for depends to some extent on what cards other players have. Both games are played in a series of rounds. Modern Art players may sense deja vu with Medici, but it does have a distinct flavor of its own.
Attractively presented, easy to explain, fast-moving and with plenty of hard choices to make, Medici chalks up yet another winner for Herr Knizia.