Pax Renaissance: 2nd Edition – Age of Reformation Promo Cards
Pax Renaissance: 2nd Edition – Age of Reformation Promo Cards Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Map Variant Promo Cards
Pax Renaissance promo map card (Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth)
Promo map card for the 1550 Map Variant. Start this card in the Hungary to represent the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Pax Renaissance promo map card (Constantinople not fallen)
Promo map card for the 1550 Map Variant. Start this card in the Ottomans to represent the political situation had Constantinople not fallen in 1453.
Banker Cards
The two banker cards below each carry a 1550 Map Variant panel on their reverse, which sets up the banker for that variant. The printed panel text is given first, then the front of the card.
Alvaro Mendes
Front: Mendes Bank of Constantinople. Flavour caption: "Marrano Jewish financiers."
1550 Map Variant:
- Start with a Reformist Theocracy in HRE and England.
- The West Trade Route starts in the Red Sea.
- This banker starts as an overlay on top of any banker placard.
- This banker starts with an Ottoman-Hungary Concession.
Cornelius Berenberg
Front: Berenberg Bank of Hamburg. Flavour caption: "World's oldest existing bank."
1550 Map Variant:
- Start with a Reformist Theocracy in HRE and England.
- The West Trade Route starts in the Red Sea.
- This banker starts as an overlay on top of any banker placard.
- This banker starts with an England-France Concession.
King Cards
Each card below shows its faction and campaign labels in the order printed on the card. Icon-only symbols on the cards are not explained here; their meaning is as given in the base game rulebook.
Basileus Basil Megas Komnenos
Faction: Ottoman (Rumelia). Campaign: Komnenian army.
As the son of the last Byzantine ruler, [David] of Trebizond, the youthful Basil was executed on [a] pretence by the Sultan. Had Constantinople not fallen, he [might have] become the next Basileus.
Bracketed words are partly hidden on the card photo and were read from the lower-resolution copy. They are not confirmed.
King Stephen Báthory
Faction: Hungary (Commonwealth). Campaign: Livonian War.
Prince of Transylvania who became the elected Hungarian king in 1576. By containing the Danzig rebellion and the invasion of Ivan the Terrible, he was one of the most successful monarchs of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Pope Reginald Pole
Faction: Papal States. Campaign: Justification by Faith.
For his humanist compromises between Catholics and Protestants, King Henry VIII had Pole's entire family martyred. Fleeing England, Pole became the leading candidate in the long and contentious papal conclave of 1549–50.
Suleiman the Magnificent
Faction: Papal States. Campaign: Italian Wars.
As the first non-ideological alliance between a Christian and Muslim state, the Franco-Ottoman alliance scandalized the West. Joint Christian-Muslim navies caused havoc during the Italian Wars.
Union of Lublin
Faction: Hungary (Commonwealth). Icons printed on the card: Vote (Free Elections), Commerce.
The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth enacted legislative (sejm) checks upon monarchical power, as controlled by the nobility (szlachta).
Byzantine Synkletos
Faction: Ottoman (Rumelia).
The senate of the Eastern Roman Empire was a continuation of the Roman senate of the 4th century. It declined in power until it disappeared in the 14th century.
Age of Byzantine
Age of Byzantine (active side)
Portrait caption printed on the card: "Philotheos of Athens."
To win, have:
- more King cards (not republics), AND
- more Prestige in the Religion with the most Theocracies than each opponent.
Byzantine Decline (inactive side)
Printed heading: "Age of Byzantine – Inactive."
To win, have:
- more King cards (not republics), AND
- more Prestige in the Religion with the most Theocracies than each opponent.
Reformation and Empire Cards
Each card below lists its printed faction, icon labels and banner word, then its card text. Icon labels are given as printed beside each icon, and the banner word is the card's printed action type.
Kaysar-i Rûm
Faction marker: Papal States. Icon labels: Siege (Siege of Otranto); Inquisitor (Martyrs of Otranto); Corsair (Adm Gedik Ahmed Pasha). Banner: Jihad.
After conquering Constantinople, the Ottoman sultans claimed to be the legitimate Roman emperors, in succession to the Byzantine Basileus. The "Caesars of Rome" claimed to be the rulers of the entire world by right. To legitimize this claim, Mehmed II invaded and sacked Otranto, part of the Roman heartland, in 1480. Christian forces recaptured the city in the following year.
Netherlands Inquisition
Faction marker: France. Icon label: Behead (Edict of 1521). Banner: Crusade.
The most notorious inquisitor of the Habsburg Netherlands was Pieter Titelmans. In his zeal to exterminate Calvinist and Anabaptist ideas, he used informers, torture, and burning at the stake.
This was a factor in the Dutch Revolt against the Habsburgs.
Sarmatism
Faction marker: Hungary. Icon labels: Vote and Commerce (small print partly illegible in the photo). Banner: Crusade.
Sarmatism was the dominant Baroque cultural ideology of the nobility (szlachta) within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
It held that Poland originated from Sarmatians, an Iranic people. It respected "Golden Liberty" (the rights of nobility) and Catholicism, which distinguished them from their Turkish and Tatar peers.
Bureau of Barbarians
Faction marker: The East. Icon labels: Behead; Inquisitor; Repress (small label text partly illegible in the photo). Banner: Conspiracy.
Disinformation (printed in a tan box on the card): "This card's Behead Op can only be used on any East card with a Bishop token."
Officially part of the Byzantine Imperial postal service, the Bureau of Barbarians dealt with various barbarian nations including with espionage, translation, communication and correspondence.
Szápolya family
Faction marker: Holy Roman Empire. Icon labels: Siege (Siege of Vienna 1529); Tax (Ottoman Tribute). Banner: Conspiracy.
In 1526, the king of Hungary was killed fighting the Turks. Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, the brother of Emperor Charles V and brother-in-law of the late king, claimed the crown.
Another pretender to the throne was John Szápolya, voivode of Transylvania, who conspired with Sultan Suleiman to support his bid. Suleiman invaded the HRE and put Vienna into an unsuccessful siege.
Uskok Pirates
Faction marker: Ottoman. Icon labels: Tax (Hundred Years' Croatian-Ottoman War); Corsair (two icons, each with a name printed beneath; the names are partly illegible in the photo).
Uskoks were irregular Croatian soldiers along the eastern Adriatic. They used swift galleys to fight a guerilla war against the Sultans.
Although nominally accepting the sovereignty of the Habsburg Emperor Ferdinand I, when their salaries were not paid, the freebooting Uskoks were a law unto themselves. In addition to attacking Ottoman ships, they attacked Venetian merchantmen.
Huguenots
Faction marker: France. Icon label: Commerce (Human capital). Banner: Reformation.
The French Protestants (Huguenots) were industrious artisans, entrepreneurs, and craftsmen, particularly in trades in the banking, textile, weaving, clockmaking, and optometrics industries.
Jealousy of their wealth and middleman status may have been the source of their widespread persecution.
Reformation Parliament
Faction marker: England. Icon labels: Tax (Crown Annates); Behead (Royal Supremacy). Banner: Reformation.
The English Reformation Parliament of 1529–36 passed the major pieces of legislation leading to the Break with Rome and establishment of the Church of England.
London Royal Exchange (printed in a tan box on the card): "Your emporium subsidy for all trade fairs is 2 instead of 1 Florins."
Margaret of Parma
Icon labels: Siege (Dutch Revolt); Inquisitor (Iconoclastic Fury). Suitors printed on the card: Portugal, Aragon, France, Holy Roman Empire. Banner: Coronation.
As governor of the Netherlands, Margaret faced the Dutch Revolt against the Inquisition and Spanish despotism.
Promising to rein in religious persecution, she quelled anti-Catholic iconoclastic riots.
Set Notes
- The promo pack's printed cards are the map cards, banker cards, King cards, Age of Byzantine cards and Reformation and Empire cards above. The pack's cover card (Pax Renaissance: Age of Reformation Promo Cards, with barcode) carries no rules text and is not transcribed.
- The photos do not show a rules sheet, a Victory Square card or any market cards. Those items are not transcribed here. Check any setup or market instructions against the official promo materials before relying on this text.