Medici

Medici is a German-style board game designed by Reiner Knizia. The game is set in 16th century Florence, where rival merchant families compete to find profitable markets. Before becoming a game designer, Reiner Knizia was a quantitative analyst, a profession that manages and attempts to price risk for banks. This is fitting as the Medicis were bankers and traders who improved accounting standards and as such would have built their financial empire on judging risks.

Why is Medici Popular?

Medici is a popular game due to its unique Gameplay Mechanics of Medici and the strategic thinking required to play it well. The game is based on the pricing of risk, where each lot of commodities has an uncertain future value based on how cards are drawn from the deck, what other players buy, and other factors. Players must judge and price the risk attached to each lot of cards, buying them for a price appropriate to their expected value and the riskiness of the investment. Medici placed 5th in the 1995 Deutscher Spiele Preis and placed in the top 3 in the 1995 Meeples’ Choice Awards.

Game Components of Medici

90 commodity cards5 commodity overview cards1 game board1 rulebook1 score pad1 pencil

Game Setup of Medici

Shuffle the commodity cards and place them face down on the board.Place the commodity overview cards on the board.Each player starts with 1 florin.Determine the starting player.

Gameplay Mechanics of Medici

Players take turns being the auctioneer, who auctions off lots of commodities.Each player has a hand of cards and can bid on the lots.Players score points by collecting sets of commodities and by having the most of a particular commodity at the end of each round.The game ends after three rounds, and the player with the most points wins.

Game Objective of Medici

The objective of Medici is to score the most points by collecting sets of commodities and by having the most of a particular commodity at the end of each round.

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