“If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favourable.”
~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Strozzi is based on choosing vessels from a deck of cards and then deciding if you want to use them to deliver their goods to a particular port.
Each player has 3 tokens that they will use to bid on boats that are coming into port…
At the start of a turn, a boat is revealed. The active player can put one of their 3 tokens on it as a sort of ‘bid’. If they don’t, in turn order, players will have the opportunity to do so instead.
But If someone puts a Pirate token on it, they ‘win the bid’ straight away.
If one of the other two tokens is used to bid, play continues around the table. Players are given the chance to win the ship by playing their Pirate token. They then take it for themselves.
Whichever token you use, when you win a ship you put it in one of the 4 Ports.
3 of the Ports represent a different resource, the other represents… something? no idea.
Boats in Ports
When you put a boat into a Port you move up the matching track for the number of resources of that type on the boat. If you won the bid with the token showing one of each resource, you add an extra one onto the track.
Then the boat is put to the side of the selected track and they are arranged in Speed order, fastest to slowest. If you won the bid with the +1 tile, add one to the speed of the boat.
Some of the boats let you move up on that mystery 4th track, and others let you take one of these square tokens.
Eventually, everyone will have 3 boats, or the deck will run out first. Either way, the round ends.
At the end of the round, you score 1st, 2nd and 3rd on each track and 1st, 2nd and 3rd for the fastest boats in each Port.
After 3 rounds of this the game ends. You score each track again as well as points for the most of each of those square tokens, most points win.
Strozzi Positives
The auction system is pretty fun and requires some forward planning.
The strategy is decent as you balance bidding on ships that move you up the resource tracks, fast ships to score points there or a good balance of both.
Strozzi Negatives
Auctions can be slow… When someone bids with non-Pirate tokens only players that haven’t used their Pirate token yet can bid. But as the tokens are small and the Pirate looks like the other two it’s tough to see who is left in the game.
It needs a graphical update and a uniquely shaped Pirate token 🙂
Summary
Strozzi is a very fun game, but it’s Knizia so what else did I expect?
Jesta ThaRogue