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Games played

La Città

	author Gerd Fenchel
	sponsor Kosmos

Die Fürsten von FLorenz

	author Richard Ulrich/Wolfgang Kramer
	sponsor Ravensburger/ALEA

Carolus Magnus

	author Leo Colovini
	sponsor Winning Moves

Merchants of Amsterdam

	author Reiner Knizia
	sponsor Jumbo

Summary La Città

Each player is given two cities to start with, a small population and some money. The goal is simple: expansion. Players build farms to feed their people, quarries to finance their expansions, marketplaces to allow growth in their cities, and bath houses to keep their people clean and healthy. Additionally, structures can be built which give the city influence in one of three aspects (religion, health and science). Superiority in one these aspects can cause population to shift from other nearby cities when the Voice of the People (which aspect is requested by the whole population) is decided at the end of each turn.

At the end of six turns, the player with the most victory points, which are determined from well-rounded cities, well-fed populations and overall size of population, will be the winner.

Summary Carolus Magnus

The games starts with the land tiles arranged in a circle (like small islands). Mercenaries, in the form of small wooden blocks in different colors, can either be placed onto the land tiles or be brought over in the court where the player an try to get or maintain a majority in one or more colors. Once a player has majority of control markers on a piece of land, he can build a tower there. The tower serves as a semi-permanent control marker, as well as a way to win. If two land pieces are controlled by the same player, the land pieces are combined into one, which makes the position harder to take by the other players.

The first player to place a set number of towers wins the game, but the game can also end when the land masses are reduced to three or fewer, in which case the player with the most towers placed wins. In case Carolus Magnus is played with 4 players it becomes a teamplay, where 2 players become partners. At the tournament Caralous Magnus is played 2 times per table with a different team setup each game.

Summary Merchants of Amsterdam

Players have to divide their attention on different categories throughout the game to be able to be victorious in the end. The categories are commodity markets, trading colonies, and warehouses in Amsterdam.

On a player's turn three cards are drawn and the player decides how they will be resolved for the turn. The player can either remove the card from the game, keep it for himself, or put it up for auction. The cards allow players to advance or place one of their markers in the various categories.

There are also time marker cards which when drawn move the game through various "historical" phases until the last which ends the game. The historical phases follow a period of time in the history of Amsterdam which can range from no effect, scoring rounds for particular categories, bonuses, and towards the end some penalties as wars begin to disrupt business markets.

The unique twist in the game is that the game comes with a spring driven auction clock to perform the dutch auctions throughout the game. When the clock is started it ticks down, so the price of the auction goes down.

The idea is that as time passes the cost of the card lowers and it is simply an issue of who will pay for it first by slapping down on the clock and thus stopping it at a certain price.

Summary Die Fürsten von Florenz

This game involves developing renaissance cities to attract various professions, which enriches the cities culturally. Each player is given a city grid and reference chart and attempts to gain the most victory points after seven rounds. Scoring victory points can be done in a variety of ways although the real chunck of it involves generating enough "work" points in a round to play a personality card. There are a variety of personalites ranging from astronomers, artists, architects, etc. Each personality is attracted to a particular combination of building, lanscape feature, and social freedom.

The more the player can match these personality preferences, the more work points are being generated. If a player satisfies the minimum requirement of work points for the round then the personality can be played and the player can then cash out these points for cash and/or victory points.