Strozzi
Strozzi Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- Rulebook
- 24 player markers (4 wooden markers in each of six different colors)
- 29 ship cards
- 18 flags, 3 for each of the 6 colors (red, green, blue, yellow, purple and orange)
- 60 coins (18 x 5, 30 x 10 and 12 x 50)
- 36 progress tokens (12 each for arts, sciences and architecture)
- 1 game board
Setup
Place the board in the middle of the table. Each player chooses a color, takes the 3 flags of his color and places them in his play area (in front of him), and takes the 4 player markers of his color, placing them one on each of the lowest spaces (with the goods symbol) in each city: Venice, Rome, Naples and Florence. Return unused flags and markers to the game box.
Place the coins near the game board.
Shuffle the ship cards face down and randomly remove the number of cards indicated below, based on the number of players:
- remove 17 cards with 3 players;
- remove 14 cards with 4 players;
- remove 11 cards with 5 players; and
- remove 8 cards with 6 players.
Place the removed cards face down on the table. These will not be used this round.
Place the remaining ship cards in a deck, face down, near the game board; these will be the ship reserve.
Course of the Game
The game is played over three rounds. During each round, every player will have the opportunity to buy 3 ship cards, one for each of his flags. A player cannot acquire more ships than the 3 cards used in that round, but he can acquire fewer.
The players choose a starting player by whatever method they prefer. During the turn, the player whose turn it is turns over the first card from the top of the ship deck, placing it face up in the play area. Every ship has a number of sails shown on it (from 1 to 8) and possibly one or more goods, scrolls and progress tokens shown on it. The active player decides which ships he wants to acquire and which he does not.
Acquiring the Ships
If the player wants a ship card, he places one of his flags on the back of the sail. When he plays a "pirate flag," he claims the card for himself and gets it immediately.
If, instead, he places a "+1 flag" or a "goods flag," another player may claim the card by playing a "pirate flag." Then, in clockwise order, each following player decides whether to play his own "pirate flag" on the sail to seize the ship or not. If a player plays his "pirate flag," he immediately takes the ship card and returns the previously played flag to the player whose turn it is.
If no one plays his "pirate flag" on the ship card, the player whose turn it is takes the ship with the flag placed on it.
Rejected Ships
If the player whose turn it is does not want the ship, he must say so. Then, the other players, in clockwise order, have the same option as the player whose turn it is. If a player wants the ship, he places one of his flags on it. When a player places his "pirate flag," he claims the card for himself and gets it immediately.
If a player places the "+1 flag" or the "goods flag," another player may decide to take the ship card by playing his "pirate flag." Then, in clockwise order, each following player decides whether to play his "pirate flag" or not. If a player plays his "pirate flag," he immediately takes the card and returns the other flags to their rightful owners. The player to the right of the active player is the last to decide whether to play the "pirate flag."
Placing the Ship Card
The player who has taken the ship card places it, together with the flag he chose, near one of the three ports: Venice, Rome or Naples on the board. Florence is not considered a port, so a player cannot place a ship there. Each player may place only one ship with his flag in each port during a round. When a player places his ship near a port, he should place it in order of sail number relative to the other ships already present there. So the fastest ship (highest number) will be placed at the top, and the slowest (lowest number) will be at the bottom of the group of ships at a port. If the player finds a ship with the same number already present at the port, he places his below the ship with the same number.
If the player has used his "+1 flag," the ship's speed is increased by +1. It is then placed in sail-number order together with the other ships. For example, a ship numbered 4 with a +1 flag will be placed in sail-number order as if it had speed 5. Players who place their ships later in the round must consider that ship to have a sail number of 5 rather than 4.
After the player has placed his ship near the port, he moves his marker at that port forward one space for each goods symbol on the ship that matches the symbol shown at the port. Goods symbols for other ports have no effect. In addition, if the player used the "goods flag," he moves his marker one further space. The player moves his marker to the far left of the space he reaches, unless there are already other markers on that space. In that case, he places it to the right of all the other markers present on that same space.
If the ship card shows one or two scrolls, the player moves his marker on the Florence city track forward one or two spaces accordingly, and positions it in that space in the manner described above.
If the ship card shows a progress token, the player chooses one of the three available face up on the board. The token represents arts, sciences or architecture. The token has a value of 1 or 2, which will be added to the final score at the end of the game (see below). Tokens with value 1 also show a goods symbol. When a player takes one of these tokens, he moves his marker on the track of the port matching the symbol shown on the token forward one space and positions it there as described above. This happens regardless of which port the ship card was played at during that round. When a player obtains a progress token, he draws the first token from the pile to replace the one he took and places it face up next to the two remaining progress tokens.
After the player has placed the ship and carried out all the actions associated with it, the player to his left begins his turn. Because of this, it is likely that players will not take their turns in the normal clockwise order; this is part of the game.
If all players decide to refuse the ship, the player who turned it over places it face down (it will not be used this round) and turns over a new ship. He again has all the same options and the game continues as described above.
Note: since there are only three extra ships per round, when players have decided to discard more than three ships, one or more of them will finish the round with fewer than three ship cards.
Example
Anna is the active player. She decides to use her "+1 flag" to place a ship in Naples and her "goods flag" to place a ship in Rome. She draws the first card from the ship pile and places it face up in her own play area. Since the card shows no goods for Venice, it is not interesting, so she rejects it. Scott is next and has not yet placed ships in Rome. So he places his "goods flag" on the card and gains the advantage of two grain symbols. Todd is next and, like Anna, is not interested. Heather is next and, with no card in Naples, wants the card at all costs and places her "pirate flag" on it, claiming it. Scott takes back his "goods flag." James is last, but can do nothing against Heather's "pirate flag." Heather places the card near Naples with her "pirate flag" and moves her marker on the Naples space forward two positions. Since the ship card has the progress token symbol on it, Heather now chooses the arts progress token from those available face up in the play area. Since it shows the Venice symbol, she moves her marker in Venice forward one space (even though she does not have the ship card in that location). She then ends her turn by drawing a new token from the progress token pile to replace the one she took.
James (the player to her left) now becomes the new active player and begins by drawing the first face-down card from the ship pile.
End of the Round
When a player has used all three of his flags in a round, he can no longer take part in the rest of the round. When it would be his turn during the rest of the game, he is simply skipped and the turn passes to the following player.
The round ends when:
- all players have used their 3 flags
- all ships have been taken or discarded
When the round ends, players score points from their ships and from their markers.
Scoring the Ships
At each port, the player with the ship positioned highest (fastest) earns 15 points. The player with the second ship at that port earns 10 points, and the player with the third ship at that port earns 5 points. There will be no ties, since the position of the ships was already determined during the round. Players may keep the amount of their money secret.
Scoring the Markers
For each port and for Florence, players earn points. The player with the marker positioned highest at each location earns 15 points. If there are several markers on one space, the leftmost marker is considered the highest.
The player with the second-highest marker earns 10 points, and the player with the marker in third position earns 5 points.
Again, there will be no ties, since the position of the markers was already determined during the round. Players receive these points in money. Markers on the starting space earn no points, regardless of their position.
If a player has his marker on one of the bonus spaces (5, 10 or 15), he earns those points in addition to the others, and receives these points in money as well.
Note: players cannot move their markers past the bonus space 15.
New Round
After the scoring phase, players begin a new round. Each player takes back his own flags. All ship cards are shuffled, the required number of cards is discarded, and the new pile of ships for the round is placed face down near the game board. The player whose turn it is for the new round is the player with the marker in the highest position in the city of Florence.
Note: player markers remain where they were in the previous round.
End of the Game
After a complete third round, including the scoring phase, points are counted for the progress tokens. The player with the greatest value of tokens in one of the three categories — arts, sciences and architecture — earns 30 points. The player with the second-highest total earns 20 points, and the third earns 10 points. In case of a tie, the player with the marker in the better position in the city of Florence is considered the winner of that tie. So players earn 30, 20 and 10 points for each of arts, sciences and architecture.
Players reveal their money, and the one with the greatest sum is the winner. In case of a tie, the player who has the marker in the better position in the city of Florence wins.