Florence is live (Befriend the elite)
Update: Florence is live on Kickstarter and the campaign will run for 29 days. You may pledge for a copy of the game or order it together with Venice and Ragusa.
Our preview post below was published on April 17.
Florence is a 1-5 player area control game in which you are trying to win the favour of the Medici family in order to raise your social status. It will launch on Kickstarter on April 21.
In Florence, Cosimo de Medici, his wife Contessina, and their son Giovanni are moving around the board with their carriage each round. Your goal is to be in the right place at the right time by sending your family members to attend various social gatherings. If the Medici interact with them, you gain victory points.
The game takes place over 9 rounds. In each round, one of the three Medici will arrive by carriage in one of the city locations. The dial on the board will tell you which is their next destination. If you have a meeple at the front of the queue in the location they visit, they will award it points. You also gain points if you have a bragging meeple at the gossip spots the carriage passes by.
The Medici dial indicates how much time you have available to do your actions on your turn. Each action you perform takes time, and you will use the dial you have on your personal board to mark it. The actions you can do are: Deploy a family member on a board location, Move them, Give gifts, Brag, and Upgrade debutantes to donnas and youngsters to maestros.
Each Medici has a different way of awarding points. Cosimo will grant points to anyone in the queue according to their position. Contessina also gives points in the queue but only to upgraded meeples (donnas and maestros). Giovanni gives his points only to meeples who have time to chat with him. When you send a meeple in a queue, the first to arrive will have priority. Donnas and maestros, however, will bypass the queue and skip ahead any other lowly meeples.
One way of gaining the attention of the Medici is by offering them gifts. These gifts will allow you to use mercenaries to guard locations or spy, so that you can secure the best spots each time.
The solo mode is designed by David Turczi but hasn't been revealed yet.