Ahhh Venice!

We had Emily and Drew over to our place finally to have dinner and games. We served salmon with rice and veggies. After Liz's lovely meal, Emily was eager to play Quizzard which she saw in my office. Drew pretty much took the entire game. After that, I was determined to take another game off my list.  I got out...

Rialto 2-5 players
I saw the gameplay of this game and liked the odd hand management and bidding style. It was weird enough to merit me buying the game.

The game is moderately heavy on the brain. The main reason is because everything you do is based on what happens with everything else. The board displays 6 districts of Venice. During the game you will be be spending 6 rounds (one for each district) trying to get your council members in each district. The value of each district is determined by the bridges and gondolas that get place around it during play. This means you could be cramming district one with your council when it could only be worth 6 points in the end. Before each round, sets of 6 cards are displayed face up for the players, they each choose their card set and then have a chance to swap out some cards. The game moves on to playing the cards you have. players then bid for actions in this order: "leadership", gold, building, bridges, gondolas, then councilmen. Each card represents one action. The more you play of a card means the better chance you have of getting the bonus. Everyone will take each action, but the winner gets a bit extra. There are wild cards and you don't have to use all you cards by the end of the round. You can add them to your next hand. Of the actions that I didn't talk about, doge or leadership effects turn order and ties, buildings gain you bonus powers during the game. and gold lets you use those powers. Once the six rounds have been played majorities are tallies and point are awarded based on those majorities and on other factors like the buildings you own. Most pints win.

Drew and Liz took a good lead on the doge track. Emily was pretty lost for most of the game, but didn't fall too behind. In the end, Drew and Liz tended to have the most control in districts. Liz won, followed closely behind by Drew, me, then Emily.
I'm fine with this game. I believe I've only played it twice before. I don't think it's won over Sarah,.. or Liz for that matter and that may be influencing my opinion. Although after her win, Liz is liking the game more. I will admit that it can be a bit blah. My biggest criticism is that the scoring track around the board is really irritating. I often forget whether I'm suppose to put the marker on the lamp posts or in-between the lamp post. It's a little thing, but it's the first thing I think about when I pick up the game. It's certainly not my favorite, but it's no where near the bottom of the barrel.

It was getting a bit late, but Drew was up for more. We played a game of The Duke and two games of Quarto. They were all pretty intense. Drew won Duke and I won both games of Quarto. By then is was past midnight and the ladies were more than ready for bed. Good night.

Tally: 180/185  Bonus: 44/50