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Siena
Author: Mario Papini
Publisher: Zugames
Year: 2005

review by
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The first requirement of a game is, that it captures the participating players from the beginning to the end. Has this been met, then it might be possible, that it is a good game. If it fails, then it is a bad game, how many new mechanisms, surprising themes or ingenious possibilities the author has put into it. A quiche, burnt in the oven, or one that has soda instead of cream in it, is not consumable, despite the many expensive eggs that have been added to the flour.*


* after Gerard Reve
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Do you have some time? May I take two and a half hours of your time? Because that is the minimal playing time of ‘Siena’ that plays on and around a painting of the city, the painting serving as game board. In ‘Siena’ the two to five players start as farmers, and work their way up from merchant to banker, and as such doing business in the city. The players who as a banker has earned the most prestige points, has won.
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As a farmer we use the production of grain, wine and olive oil that we grow by playing cards. Each of the production areas requires a different amount of units to deliver a product; the player who meets this requirement may harvest, gets the money that goes with it and marks it on the score track around the board.
At the beginning of a round the cards are taken one by one from an open series of cards and the possible amount is paid. Most of the cards deal with the production of goods (and are circuitously called Salesmen or Worker cards); some other cards, with special actions, bring more money or might hinder another player.
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The merchant deals with the production of linnen and spices that bring considerable more money when produced, but to become merchant a player must at least have 30 florins at his disposal. Once a player has decided to raise his level to merchant or banker, he cannot downgrade anymore. So a merchant may no longer profit from the (farmers) production of grain, wine and olive oil, but by playing cards with these symbols he unwilling contributes to this for players who still are farmers!
As a merchant the collecting of prestige points comes into sight. Each time a merchant harvests, he may dispense with a part of the revenue and instead take one or two special (‘Senesi’) cards; these are direct victory points! The points on the cards vary from 1 to 4 points. By playing special cards the merchant may also undertake a journey to Firenze (Florence) or Arezzo where a verying sum of money awaits him. During this journey no linen or spices card may be produced (played) by him, otherwise the trip must be cancelled.
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A farmer also has a similar possibility by playing the ‘Via Francigena’ card, if,  by playing other production cards, this leads to the production of grain, wine or olive oil. From a small deck of fate (‘Fato’) cards with one devil card among it, the player decides how many he will take. If he draws only ‘normal’ cards, he gets the sum of the produced goods on these cards, if the devil card is among the drawn cards, he has bad luck and returns home empty handed.

As a banker, which status might be chosen once a player has assembled at least 80 florins, a player has entry to the city and one by one he walks through the various quarters. The goods cards for a banker now only serve as movement cards. Some of the quarters earn  him money just by showing up; at others like the ‘Palazzo Tolomei’ he must pay; it suddenly feels like Monopoly!

In the inn artists can be hired; the player takes a card from the artists card deck, looks at it, and offers it blind in an auction. Other players may look at it after paying for it - unfortunately this payment does not go to the auctioning player. The artists cards have values from 1 to 8, and thes too are direct victory points.
A courtesan can be placed in the inn, who will attract any banker that passes by, and lets him pay 10 florins. And it can become crowded ánd expensive with these girlfriends for one night, especially when the beggar, walking counterclockwise through the city, also wanders around and purges us double gifts.
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