Reviewed by Robert Marti
VENICE (Braincrack Games, 1 to 5 players, ages 12 and up, 30-90 minutes; £55)
Are you up for an adventure? Then come with me and explore the canals of 16th century Venice in a new game from Andrei Novac and Dávid Turczi and the second in the Braincrack Games series that also includes Ragusa and Florence. In Venice, players will control two gondolas (or more if playing solo or with 2 players). These boats are moved through the canals to visit different locations to place assistants, gain bonuses, and pick up goods that can then be delivered for money and points. As boats move past buildings with your assistants, you can activate them for bonuses, but be careful how you navigate the canals, because as your boats pass other player’s boats, you may gain intrigue and the player with the most intrigue at the end of the game gets arrested and automatically loses the game! 
Venice has a main board, where all of the action takes place, and individual player boards, which are used to track scrolls and intrigue and to place bonus actions when a player completes a mission card. During setup, there are a couple of items that impact the game, so let’s talk about those now.
First, you will shuffle up and create the mission card deck. Mission cards contain a list of resources that you can collect and deliver to specific locations for money and victory points (think contracts or quests). After you complete a mission card, you can also tuck the card under your player board to gain a special ability for the rest of the game. Each player can only have three special abilities, so if you complete four missions and want to use the latest ability, you need to discard one of the previous ones. The mission card deck also serves as a game timer; when the final mission card is selected, you will complete the current round and then play two additional rounds before moving to end game scoring.
Second, the main board has an area called the major council track. Based on the number of players, you will place the second “end game” marker on this track. During the game, players can gain bonuses that allow them to advance upon this track. When any player reaches the end game marker, it also triggers the end of the game and then, just like with the mission deck, you will complete the current round and then play two additional rounds before moving to end game scoring. It should be noted that the players who advance on the major council track also earn additional points during the final scoring phase.
The next part of setup is to shuffle the influence cards, which can be gained through specific locations on the board, and will give a special, one-time bonus to the player if played. Some of these cards require the player to take on intrigue to receive the bonus, so it is not always ideal to play these depending on where you are in the game. Each player is also given ten (10) assistants, two bridges, two gondolas, one gondolier, and four trackers. Two trackers on placed on the player’s board to monitor their scrolls and intrigue, and two trackers are placed on the main board to monitor victory points and advancement on the major council track. You will also set up a stack on money, and may need to prepare the cards for the smugglers if you are playing with one or two players.
Once the game board is set up, the final step is to place your gondolas on the board. Each player is given three mission cards, selects two to keep, and returns the remaining card back to the mission card deck. Based on what resources are required for their mission cards, players can begin to scan the main board to see where they want to initially place their boats. Placing the initial gondolas follows turn order for the first boat, and then reverse turn order for the second – so the first player places his/her boat first, and his/her second boat last. Each player also starts off with 6 coins, and then based on turn order, additional coins are given out.
When the players place their gondolas, they will also place an assistant on that location. Most locations have four bonus positions, and assistants are always placed on the first position when they are placed for the first time. The first position always gives the player a resource, which we will affectionately call the orange, purple, and grey cubes. As assistants are promoted, they move up to the second, third, and fourth spots in order, which then allows the player to gain the current bonus and any lower bonuses if they want when they activate that location. (Note: there are cases where you may not want to collect one or more of the bonuses, so collecting them are optional).
There are two ways to promote assistants. First, each time a player visits the same location, they must promote their assistant to the next level up. Except for the fourth bonus spot, each lower bonus spot can only hold one assistant, so if you place an assistant or want to promote an assistant, but the spot is already occupied, then that assistant must be promoted to make space. This is the second way that assistants are promoted; when other players place their assistants on the same location, and bump your assistant up one bonus space until they reach the fourth location, which can hold multiple assistants. It should be noted that the player who places all ten of their assistants first gains 8 victory points. After all the gondolas have been placed, the game begins.
Venice is played over an indeterminate number of rounds because it uses the two end game triggers described above. During your turn, you may first play an influence card (if you have one). Next you will place your gondolier into one of your gondolas and move it. Your first movement is free, but after that you must pay one or two coins for each additional movement that you want to make. Each subsequent turn, you must move your gondolier to your other gondola, or pay three coins to keep him in the current gondola.
As you move your gondola, two things may happen: you move past other gondolas (called meetings) or you move past buildings. When you move past a building that has one of your assistants, you may activate it (that is, gain all of the bonuses based on your assistant’s location on the bonus spots). Assistants cannot be promoted when you pass a location, only activated. When a gondola passes another gondola, this is called a meeting. If you pass one of your own boats, you may move goods back and forth between the two boats (this allows you to adjust the contents so you can satisfy mission cards). If you pass another player’s gondola, both players must either gain one intrigue or lose one scroll. NOTE: As mentioned, managing your intrigue is critical as the player with the most at the end of the game automatically loses.
When you stop your movement, you may complete a mission, which requires you to have the correct cargo and be at the correct building. Completing a mission will gain you victory points (which you score immediately) and coins. Additionally, each mission card provides a special ability that you can activate on your turn for the rest of the game. Some special abilities can only be activated at a specific building or as part of a specific action, and others can be activated at any time (the “spend two coins to remove one intrigue” is a particular favorite of mine). If you do not have a mission card for that specific location, or do not have the required goods to complete the mission, you skip this step and may place an assistant (if you do not already have one on that location) or promote an assistant (if you do), and gain the associated bonuses.
There are two kinds of buildings in Venice. The communal buildings, which are printed on the board and do not have change location from game to game. Assistants cannot be placed on these buildings, but each provides a specific set of bonuses when you stop there. The other buildings are randomly placed on the board each game, and have the four bonus spots for assistants as described before. It should be noted that a player can never place both gondolas in the same location. Additionally, if you stop your movement at a location with another player’s gondola, this is not considered a meeting, but the other player will gain a victory point if they were there first. In fact, if three gondolas stop at the same location, the second player there gains one victory point, and the first player there gains two.
After you collect your bonuses, the next player takes his/her turn, and this continues until one of the two end game triggers is reached.
The components of this game are excellent but can be a bit fiddly. The gondolas are very cool and each only holds five cubes, which is the most that a mission card may need. This makes planning where you stop and which bonuses you activate important, and also when and where you pass your other gondola so you can trade cubes critical. That being said, getting the cubes into the gondolas (and back out again) can be tedious, especially as they begin to get full.
But let’s talk about the elephant in the room: the main board. The board has its problems. First, it is extremely tight as you add more gondolas to the board. It may seem fine when they are all at different buildings but during the game, there will be times when multiple people stop at the same location. There is really only space for one boat at each location so stacking the other boats alongside the first becomes messy. The best player count for this game is 3 player and that makes sense as six gondolas are required for solo, 2p, and 3p games. In the solo game, the AI controls two sets of smuggler boats, and in the 2p game, each player controls one smuggler boat. After playing the game at 2p and solo, I think six gondolas is the most I would want to have on the board.
The second area of concern is the buildings. When you place assistants on the buildings, they cover the bonuses so when you activate a building, you must pick up each assistant to read the bonus. I did not find this to be too much of a problem but I can see how it might detract from the game. One solution to this issue is the rule book. The back page lists all of the building bonuses, so you could easily photocopy the back page and hand out copies to each player. You can easily see where your assistant is on the building, and then look up what bonuses are available. I have found this to be very useful for planning purposes too. (On a side note, this game does provide an AI player [the Doge] for solo players, and he is sneaky and tough. I highly recommend this as a solo game. I found it slightly more enjoyable that Star Wars Outer Rim (Fall 2019 GA Report), my other solo pickup and delivery game.)
The game has a nice balance between collecting cubes, climbing the major council track, and managing your intrigue. Although in my games we never had a problem with intrigue, this might become more of a factor with additional players. That being said, I think it is important to point out that you cannot win purely from satisfying mission cards. In a 2p game, there are only 9 mission cards, and both players start out with 2 each, so there are only 5 mission cards up for grabs during the game. Each mission card is worth 5, 8, or 10 points, so they are worth doing, but being first on the major council track also gives you 9 points (in 2p game) and getting all 10 of your assistants out gets you another 8 points, so there is 17 points if you just concentrated on those two things. Additionally, there are buildings that also award victory points when activated, which gives another way to score by placing assistants on these buildings, promoting them to the right level, and then continually activating them by passing by. For this reason I think players who are not put off by the busy board will really enjoy this one, especially with repeated plays.
I have not played too many pickup and delivery games so it is hard for me to compare Venice against others but I really enjoyed this one. – – – – – – – – – – Robert Marti
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