At its height, the Roman Empire extended from Britannia, to Egypt and Babylonia, and encompassed the Mediterranean Sea. With uniform law, and a common currency established throughout the provinces, the economy boomed. From this foundation, savvy merchants could thrive and establish their own empires (of sorts), built on the trade of commodities. This is the setting for Concordia, a two – five player, mid-weight, strategy game of economic development. Concordia is a strategy game that requires advance planning and consideration of your opponent's moves. Every game is different, not only because of the sequence of new cards on sale but also due to the modular layout of cities. Play will continue like this until all the cards that can be bought are bought or until someone places their final house on the board. Final thoughts on Concordia When the smoke cleared, the host pulled out his copy of Concordia (2013, Rio Grande Games). All of us had played recently enough that we remembered the rules, so save for a few refreshers on the scoring mechanics, everyone knew what they were doing. Players are not allowed to trade goods with each other. Goods and coins are considered to be unlimited. The number of colonists is restricted to 6 per player.

The set up for both solo and cooperative games is identical to base game Concordia, you start with a hand of cards, a few resources, as well as a land and sea colonist starting in Roma. You also start with six sestertii in both games. Your opponent is called Contrarius, who also has a hand of cards, as well as starting with one specialist card. Contrarius collects cards, but doesn’t collect currency or resources. Combining my first two worries a bit, I also worry that this game will have that Puerto Rico problem, where there’s so much interaction between the players that a new player making the wrong play at the wrong time can allow a more experienced player to catapult into victory courtesy of their blunder. Concordia is a 2-6 player hand management game which, as of this writing, sits in the BGG top 25 games of all time. Although I am categorizing this article as a review, most, if not all, seasoned tabletop hobbyists have known about Concordia for a long time. It also feels easier to take your time on snatching the cards that you want. When you only have to worry about one other player, you can regularly size up the competition and it’s easy to remember which cards that player has in hand for planning purposes. My experience is that Concordia is best at the highest player counts. Every element provides a level of tension. Which card should I play first? Which card should I play, knowing that another player could copy my action? When should I take the recall action, to maximize the number of cards I’ve discarded which gives me a small sestertii (coin) bonus?a) The player may place new colonists on the game board each to be paid for with 1 food and 1 tool. New colonists can be placed inside "Roma" or inside any other city where the player owns a house. If a new house is built in a city where there are already other houses, the cost in coins is multiplied by the number of houses that will be in the city after this build (i.e., to build the fourth house in a city the cost in coins is multiplied by 4). The cost in goods remains the same. Players may not build more than 1 own house in a single city and never in "Roma". Prefect Each player has a storehouse with 12 storage spaces. Each space may house either one colonist or one unit of goods. At the beginning of the game, 4 storage spaces are occupied by colonists and therefore are not available for housing goods. However, if a player places new colonists on the game board, additional storage spaces become available.

And don’t worry, I’m going to be going on and on about these delightful mechanisms. But first, the conceit. Like I said before, Concordia is very much in the infamous “trading in the Mediterranean” sub-genre, though that’s never bothered me as it does some. You’re going to start at Rome and expand your trading network by sending ships and people across the land. At cities you can build buildings which give you access to the goods there (of which there are 5 kinds). Acquiring goods and expanding your trading network is really the entire point. Cost of the Diplomat card in subset number IV (English card set only): The card states “Food” as cost (in the red area at the bottom) but shows the symbol for tools (the anvil). – The symbol is correct, the cost of the card is tools, not food.But Concordia? Make a new map, and you are in a new world. Do not add a single new rule, or a new component. Such things are just not a requirement to breathe new life into the game. Steve, my wife, and I all have different favorite maps to play. That said, if someone wants to play this game, I do not care which map we chose: I am ready. Just point me to the table and give me my yellow men and ships. a) The player chooses a province where the houses produce goods. He can only choose an active province whose bonus marker (province tile) still shows the goods symbol. It is not necessary that the player (or any other player) owns a house in the chosen province. He flips the bonus marker of the province to its coin side and receives 1 unit of the goods type depicted on the bonus marker out of the bank. In addition all houses inside the province, regardless of their owner, each produce one unit of the goods produced in that city. Concordia is a game with rules that are easy to learn, but mastering it can take a lifetime! With additional maps and expansions along the way (all the official ones, in fact), the replayability of Concordia: Digital Edition is near infinite. Play against the AI or challenge your friends in the hot seat mode or online cross platform multiplayer on PC, iOS, Android and Nintendo Switch. The authentic feel of the board game, along with the intuitive UI makes it the perfect addition to your gaming collection! What can you expect? About This Game Build the greatest trade empire of ancient Rome!Concordia: Digital Edition is a faithful adaptation of a strategic board game ranked in the Top 20 board games of all time. Plan ahead and make crucial decisions every turn. Always be prepared to make a trade-off - your actions can very well benefit other players as well as yourself.

A funny thing happened at the end of this particular play of Concordia: a number of us looked at each other and said the same thing: You see, knowing what Contrarius is going to do is all well and good, but finding the balance of what’s best for you and what’s worst for them is hard. Equally, in the co-operative mode you both take the action of the card played by one person… but what if that action is no good to you? What if your partner playing their Architect card is no good to you because you don’t have enough resources to build anywhere? It’s a glorious little puzzle to try and work out. Know When To Fold ‘Em The number of colonists a player has on the board determines the number of possible movement steps that a player can freely allocate to his own colonists. Land colonists are moved only along the brown lines and sea colonists only along the blue lines. A colonist's first movement step is out of his starting city onto an adjacent line. Any further steps will move the colonist through a city and onto the next adjacent line to that city. Players take on the role of leaders in the Roman dynasty who are tasked with growing their empire, settling in new regions, trading goods, and acquiring new cards to score the most victory points. Over the course of a series of rounds, players manage a hand that begins with seven cards and will slowly grow over the course of play. All of the game’s scoring is tied to these cards—in that way, Concordia so elegantly dictates each turn with its card action choices and its end game with those same cards. The value of all goods in the storehouse (usual price as depicted) is added to the cash money. Then the player receives 1 VP per full 10 sestertii, any fractions are ignored. JupiterConcordia is a strategy game which requires advance planning and consideration of your opponent's moves. Every game is different, not only because of the sequence of new cards on sale but also due to the modular layout of cities. (One side of the game board shows the entire Roman Empire with 30 cities for 3-5 players, while the other shows Roman Italy with 25 cities for 2-4 players.) When all cards have been sold, the game ends. The player with the most VPs from the gods (Jupiter, Saturnus, Mercurius, Minerva, Vulcanus, etc.) wins the game. Sometimes Contrarius’ reaction is simply gaining victory points. If you play on the standard mode, you can see your 20-point head start slowly ebb away. It’s so disheartening. The co-operative mode also comes with two extras.