Patrician: Towers of Influence
- Designer: Michael Schacht
- Publisher: Calliope Games
- Players: 2-5
- Age: 8+
- Time: 20-40 minutes
- Played with review copy provided by publisher
Welcome to 13th Century Italy, a time when wealthy Patrician families build magnificent towers to represent their power and prosperity: the more influential the family, the taller the tower! You are a master builder, ready to profit from the vanity of the Patrician families. You take building orders, adding floor after floor, and when a tower is complete, you’ll be there to take the credit. At the end of the game, the builder with the most victory points wins!
This new version of the classic game includes several expanded ways to enjoy the game. When playing with two players, you compete against the Architetto, a wily bot opponent who thwarts your plans. The Trade Routes and Delegates modules can optionally be added in to increase the decisions and affect final scoring.
To set up the game, place the board (side based on player count) on the table. There are nine or ten cities on the board, and each will have its two prestige tokens placed on the designated spots. Each city has two building sites where players will build towers. Each player gets a starting hand of three cards, and the rest of the building deck is shuffled. One card is dealt out face up next to each city on the board.
On a turn, the active player goes through these five phases in order:
1] Play a card – choose one of the three cards in your hand and play it into a pile in front of yourself. You can look at your stack at any time, but the rest of table can only see the top card
2] Place Tower pieces – the card played will have 1 or 2 tower pieces; you play that many tower pieces of your color onto the city shown on the card. You can choose which building site(s) to play on. The Roman numeral at the top of the crest shows the total number of tower pieces that will be built in that city. If that number is reached, the city is complete and will be scored – the player who has the most floors in the taller tower gets the larger prestige token, and the player with the most floors in the smaller tower gets the smaller token. Ties are broken by the player who is closest to the top of the tower.
3] Take a Building card – in general, take the building card that is next to the city you played in. If your played card has a question mark card on it, you can choose any face up card.
4] Perform special actions – some cards have a move action on them; this allows you to move the top floor of either tower in another city onto the top of the other building site. You must have a piece in that city.
5] Draw a replacement card – flip the top card of the draw pile and place it in the empty spot created by your card draw
The next player then takes their turn. The game continues until all the cards have been drawn and played. At this point, all the cities will have been scored. The game is then scored. Players score points for each of the prestige tokens that they have collected; additionally, they score 6 points for every three matching Patrician portraits on the cards they have played during the game. Ties broken in favor of the player with the fewest floors played to the board.
There are also two advanced modules that can be added to the game – they can be added individually or combined.
The first adds Trade Routes to the game. Each player gets Trade Route marker(s) to use; and they can be played anytime a player plays one of the start cards (starred in the corner). You place a trade route between any two cities; though neither can be shown on the card you played. You can choose to play it on the +1 or -1 side. Whenever either of the two cities next to it are scored, the trade route will modify the scoring of that city by the trade route markers next to it.
The second adds Delegates bonus cards. These cards are set near the board and are awarded at the end of the game. There are three minor delegate cards, and each is awarded to the player who has the most 2pt/4pt/6pt Prestige tokens. These delegate cards can be used as a wildcard for any Patrician portrait. The Major Delegate card goes to the player who has the most points from Verona, Parma and Ferrara. The Major Delegate card is worth one Patrician portrait of EACH type.
My thoughts on the game
According to the publisher, this game is “The definitive version of a Michael Schacht classic, Patrician: Towers of Influence features an updated presentation, new two-player rules, and two expansion modules.”
When I first heard about this version, I honestly wasn’t sure if the original 2007 game required a new release. I had owned the original way back when, and we definitely played it a lot. Schacht was one of my favorite designers, and his games were always worth a try. Somewhere along the way, the original Patrician made its way out of the collection (along with California, Paris Paris, Dschunke and other good games) – and it was actually quite nice to get to play this one again. It definitely reminds me a lot of how games used to be, primarily because it actually is one of those games that used to be made. Patrician: Towers of Influence is a wonderful abstract game with minimal rules overhead but plenty to think about during gameplay. It’s admittedly still not my favorite Schacht – that will probably always be Web of Power; but it has definitely not been an unwelcome return to the Gaming Basement.
There is really a nice elegance to the game where you simply play a card, play pieces, draw a card. Repeat. Timing can be crucial because the tiebreaker for a tower is being closer to the top – so obviously you’d like to hang on to certain cards as much as possible in order to lock in a nice Prestige token. Of course, you only have a hand of three cards, so you don’t have room to hang on to everything you like – and you always have to be wary of the special action that moves the top floor of one building to the other site. Timing at the end becomes critical as many cities are not determined until the final play, and getting to place the last piece in a city often makes all the difference.
You must be efficient in your play. In the four player game, you only get 12 turns, and you’ll play every card that you’re dealt and/or pick up – so make each one count. There are times when you might end up playing a card sooner than you want if only because it gives you a nice card to pick up from that city. You’ll be balancing the desire to lead in the tower building while also getting the right Patrician portraits on the cards. The ability to switch the tops of towers in a city can also be very powerful at the right time, so it’s nice to have one of those in your hand too.
I have tried both of the expansions in the past, and while they are interesting in concept, I find that they make the game a bit clunky. For me, the regular game is where it’s at – but I do like the fact that this version gives you all the options. In fact, IIRC, the Delegates expansion was print and play only; Schacht used to have his own website where he would periodically release free expansions that you had to print out yourself to add to his games. At least in this version, you get nicely produced components should you decide to add that particular bit to your game.
Patrician is a good example of an old-school Euro game that has now received a well deserved return to the market. If you haven’t played it, you’ll find a lot of strategy and interesting decisions crammed into a 30-40 minute space. It’s definitely worth a look if you haven’t played it before; and if you’re like me, it’s a refreshing walk down memory lane to play this one again.
Thoughts from the other Opinionated Gamers
Craig M – Having professionally produced components for the small expansions is great, but I totally agree with Dale in saying that they are a bit on the clunky side. I love that the new edition has helped shine attention on the game again which has always been a favorite. The new edition has a slightly smaller footprint on the game shelf which is nice. I hope the game sees greater exposure for everyone who entered the hobby after its first printing.
Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers
- I love it! Craig M
- I like it. Dale Y
- Neutral. John P
- Not for me…
