From: Peter Card Subject: Opinions wanted: Serenissima This is also marketed as Mediterane, in the French version. It's the same game though. Its pretty. Its damn pretty, in a big box, for up to 4 players. You get a mounted mapboard of the Mediterranean, divided into sea areas. There are enough model galleys and flagpole bases to go round, with a large but finite number of flagpoles and sticky back national flags (for Venice, Genoa, Marseilles and Istanbul). The first thing you do is to remove the pieces from the sprue, attach the flags to the flagpoles, and stick em into the bases and galleys. If you break a few flagpoles, or screw up a flag, there are plenty of spares. You also get generic round blue pieces, representing sailor/marines, which fit neatly into the galleys, and colour coded cargo pieces of different types, which also fit. There is room for 5 things in a galley. You could put one sailor and four cargo in, for a peaceful bulk carrier which can row one area per turn, or have five sailors and no cargo, which could move five areas in a turn and kick ass, for defensive purposes only you understand, or something in between. Starting with your home port, 2000 crowns, 2 galleys and 10 men, you set out to get rich and powerful. (that lot is worth 14VPs before you start, and its not quite possible to end up with less) All movement is by sea areas. Each area includes the adjacent port, if any. The game revolves around trade and conquest of the Mediterranean ports, which range from the large home ports with big warehouses to dinky little ports like Crete with room for only two cargo bits. Each port also produces a cargo of some type. You get cash if you sell a cargo to a foreign port, and lots of cash if you introduce a new type of cargo to a players empire. You earn nothing for selling to a port you control, but you hope to score VPs for it at the end. Also, recruiting at a port is limited by the goods present in the warehouse. Certain goods have strategic value. You can't build galleys unless a port holds or produces wood and iron, and you can't fortify a port without wood and gold. Each port will only buy one cargo of each type. The large home ports have room for all 6 cargo types that they don't produce themselves, although I have never managed to fill mine. If a player buys a cargo from one of your ports, you can demand cash, quite a lot of cash if you have a monopoly on that cargo. The move, fight, conquer, trade sequence of play means that you have a choice between seizing a port for future use (place that flag) or trading with it for cash. Combat against port garrisons or other galleys is optional, involving a simple die throwing mechanic that tends to cause attrition to both sides until somebody loses or the attacker gives up. Piracy is encouraged. At the end of the game, you score VPs for cash in hand and ports controlled, but the big points come from controlling big ports with full warehouses. If you lose your home port you suffer an especially big VP loss, "and can be made fun of". A game typically starts with peaceful trading, and degenerates into bloodshed towards the end. It is just as satisfying to introduce the delights of spice and wine to one of your "trading partners" for big bucks as it is to take a port from him. Also, building galleys, hiring sailors or fortifying your territory all costs money. There is a judgement to be made as to when the short term reward of selling a trade good to the enemy is worth the benefit he/she gets from filling up a warehouse. The game has a finite number of turns, dependent on the number of players, and will end, in my experience, just before I have brought that last wine to my home port. Say 2-3 hours. It's one of those borderline family/wargame games. I like it, most of the time.