Canal Grande Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Components
• Setup
• Course of the Game
  • Round
  • Vote
  • Carrying out the seller's action cards
  • New round
  • New phase
• End of the Game

Game Components

• 52 action cards: 30 district cards (5 per district), 3 spies, 7 traitors, 6 gondolas and 6 Doges
• 14 number cards with values 1 to 3

Setup

• First the action cards and the number cards are divided into 2 piles.
• Then 2 cards are taken from the action cards of each of the 6 districts. These 12 cards are shuffled and each player receives 4 of them as hand cards. The remaining 4 cards are added to the other action cards and shuffled as a pile.
• The number cards are shuffled and both face-down piles (action cards and number cards) are placed in the middle of the table.
• A starting player is appointed, who becomes the first dealer.

Course of the Game

• The game consists of several phases, each of which comprises several rounds.
• In each round the players alternate. One player (seller) divides the cards into 2 offers while the other player (recipient) chooses.
• Then first the recipient carries out his card actions, and only afterwards the seller.

Round

The seller takes the top 5 action cards and 3 number cards from the face-down piles and lays them face up in front of him. He then divides these 8 cards into 2 offers. The number of cards and the composition of both offers can be determined completely freely. Each offer must consist of at least 1 card (examples of a division: 7:1, 5:3, ...). Once the cards are divided into 2 offers, the recipient chooses one of the two offers. The other offer simply stays visible on the table for the time being.

The recipient does the following with the cards in his offer (some actions may drop out if there are no cards of that kind in the offer!):

• Number cards: These are laid face up on the table. The sum of their values later determines the end of a phase.
• District cards and gondolas: These are taken into hand immediately.
• Traitor: For each traitor the player may take 1 hand card from his fellow player and take it into his own hand. Then the traitor card is placed on a visible discard pile. This action lapses if the opponent has no hand cards at some point during the game.
• Spy: For each spy the player may take 2 action cards from the supply pile without showing them to his opponent. Any new spy cards are immediately placed on the discard pile, and correspondingly many action cards are again taken from the pile. The following happens with the cards taken:
  • District cards and gondolas are taken into hand immediately;
  • For each traitor, one hand card of the opponent may again be taken. The traitor card ends up on the discard pile;
  • Doges are laid face up in front of oneself on the table.
• Doge: Each Doge gives rise to a vote in a district (see below). If several Doges lie in front of a player, each of them leads to a vote. They are carried out one after the other as described below. It is important here that each new vote within one round must take place in a different district!

Vote

The owner of the Doge becomes the challenger and determines in which district the vote takes place. Of this district he must lay one or more district cards in front of him on the table. If the challenger had no district cards in his hand at some point during the game, the opponent automatically becomes the challenger. If neither player has district cards, the Doge card ends up unused on the discard pile.

The other player becomes the defender. He decides for himself whether or not he wants to take part in the vote. If so, he must lay down at least one more district card of the chosen district than the challenger. The defender may however also decide not to take part in the vote; the vote is then over immediately.

Instead of playing additional cards of the chosen district after his first district card, the player may also bring reinforcement from other districts. For this he lays a gondola and any number of district cards of one other district in front of him. These extra district cards then contribute to the total of the district chosen at the start. A player may however only bring reinforcement if he will thereby have more district cards than the challenger. If the defender has made a higher bid, both players may alternately raise their bid further.

Important:

• Each gondola can bring reinforcement from only one district;
• A player may bring reinforcement as often as desired only once he has played at least one card of the originally chosen district;
• If a player has brought reinforcement from a district, he must later use a gondola again if he wants to bring extra reinforcement from the same or another district;
• For playing extra district cards of the originally chosen district, no gondola has to be given up.

As soon as one of the two players cannot or does not want to raise, the vote ends and is won by the player with the most district cards laid down. He takes his first-laid district card and lays it face up in front of him as a winning point. The remaining played action cards are placed on the discard pile together with the Doge. The losing player must place his first-played district card and any played gondolas on the discard pile. The other district cards he takes back into hand!

Carrying out the seller's action cards

As soon as the recipient has finished all his cards, the seller takes the remaining offer and deals with these cards in the same way as the recipient did with his.

New round

After seller and recipient have had their turn, a new round begins with the roles exchanged. The player who has just been allowed to choose from two offers (recipient) becomes the new seller and forms two new offers from 8 cards. The former seller becomes the recipient and chooses an offer.

New phase

If after a round the sum of all number cards of at least one player is at least 10, the phase ends. The player with the lowest total of number cards now has 2 advantages:

• He may take 3 action cards from the pile and deals with them as if he were taking a spy card (only 2 action cards instead of 3). Doge cards are put away immediately and for each Doge one extra card may be taken.
• The other player is the first seller during the next round.

Important: If both players reach the same sum of 10 or more with their number cards, the player who was the recipient in the last round becomes the first seller.

The discard pile is shuffled with the rest of the supply pile of action cards and forms a new supply pile. Then all number cards, including those lying in front of the players, are shuffled and laid ready as a face-down supply pile next to the action cards. Now a new round begins in a new phase. Both players start again with 0 points. The players do keep their hand cards. District cards won after a vote also remain lying visible.

Exception: Exceptionally it can happen that the last action card of the supply pile is taken before a phase has ended. The discard pile is then shuffled and used again as a face-down supply pile.

End of the Game

The player who first owns at least one district card of each of all 6 districts, or 4 district cards of one district, wins the game.