Medici is an auction game for 3-6 players. In this game the players are merchants bidding on items to load into their ship. A particular feature of this game is that the richest player at the end wins. However bidding on auctions requires spending money, so players are bidding with their victory points. Each player has 5 spaces in their ship; this means they can only buy five good tokens each round. Each good token has two features, the type of good (spices, cloth, dye etc) and a face value. When everybody has a full ship every merchant is paid out. There are two ways to be paid, and all players receive both. The merchant with the goods that have the highest face value receives a bonus, (the big ship bonus) with the player who has the second biggest ship gets a lesser bonus, and a player who has the third biggest ship a lesser bonus and so on down the line. A second bonus is paid out in each good type. So the player who has purchased the most cloth tiles will get a bonus, with the player who has the second most cloth tiles gets a smaller bonus, but no other players get a cloth bonus.
The game is played over 3 'days'. So each player will full their ship up three times. It is important to note that the big ship bonus is reset at the start of each day, but the number of tiles in each area are transferred from day to day. So if I brought three cloth tiles on day one, and two on day two, at the beginning of day 3 I would have brought 5 cloth tiles. If I brought no more cloth tiles I would still get the bonus provided that no other player had ever brought more than 4 cloth tiles in the entire game.
The method of auctioning is also important. The auctioning player draws a tile from the stack (or bag if you use the bag provided). He can then decide to add another tile to the auction pile. If he does not the tile (singular) is auctioned. If he does, after drawing the second tile, he has the option of adding a third tile. However the maximum lot size is 3 tiles. So each auction will be for 1, 2, or 3 tiles. After the size of the lot is determined the auction begins. The player left of the auctioneer has the chance to make a bid. Each player in a clockwise fashion can then make a bid or pass. However each player only gets one option to bid or pass. So they either make one bid, and this will be their only bid, or they pass and will not win the auction. When the bidding reaches the auctioneer they can either make one bid (and win the auction as they are always the last player to be given the option of bidding) or pass, letting the highest bidder win the auction.
Those of you who knew the rules can start reading again.
So when is the game fun? Firstly you have to be playing with people who are not appalled by lack of 'chrome'. Actually that is an understatement. The game is ugly. The artwork is ugly, the board is too small. The method for keeping track of how many 'cloth' or 'dye' tiles people have won is clumsy. The tiles themselves are difficult to tell apart. The greeny tile in particular, much discussion has resolved that this tile is spice. But players see the red tile and seem to immediately think 'spice'. Additionally instead of providing poker chips with this game, player's money is meant to be kept track of using a scoring track on the outside of the board. (A recipe for error). In short, the game is ugly. It will not be fun with people who cannot get past this point.
The game also feels like a fog for your first few plays. Everybody who has played seems to instinctively know what to bid. Value seems so arbitrary to new players. This does have its upside. The game is subtle, with many nuances. But feedback from most new players seems to be that they are unsure of what a viable strategy is. So it will only be fun for those who either enjoy learning nuances, or who are prepared to make an investment of time to understand the game's fine subtlety.
The game is also fun with quick players. There is nothing to do if you are not drawing tiles or bidding. Players who sit, calculate what everyone else's score will be if they pay X for the tile set, stare into space, do more figures, sigh, and then bid are no fun. They are boring. Due to the nature of the game there is nothing to do when one player holds the game up. It is no fun. So don't do it.
The game also requires savage players. One obvious strategy in this game is you need to work out what the value of the lot is to the player who wants it most, and bid just under that. This is particularly true when you are just to his right. To put this as an example, suppose you are player 1, he is player 2 (on your left) with players 3, 4 and 5 in clockwise order. Suppose player 2 will pay 30 for the lot. However no other player will bid more than 10. Player 1 should bid 25. (Or maybe 29, but at least more than 10). The reason is this, player 2 will bid up to thirty. However if player one passes, player 2 will bid 10 and win the auction because nobody else will outbid him. By bidding 25 player 1 has just deprived player 2 of 16 victory points. (the new cost player 2 will pay, over the cost he would have paid previously).
If that doesn't make sense, reread the example. If it still doesn't make sense Medici may not be fun for you. This type of thinking is rife in this game. Players need to bid to 'bid up' the bid for others. If players do this the game becomes a tense game of judgment. If they do not the game because a light hearted 'let's let bob win' affair. The first is generally more fun. [But if the second is fun for you, by all means buy the game and play like that].
Next the game is fun for mental number crunches. If you can enjoy doing sums like 84 -15 + 5 +10 = ? then you will enjoy this game. However if you would rather have teeth pulled, play something else. The game functions on mathematics. You always need to know if you score is likely to go up or down if you pay X for collection. You need to be able to do this quickly, or the game will slow down making it less fun for other players.
So in conclusion the game is fun with quick, savage, mathematically inclined people who are prepared to commit to learning the game. I love the game, but I do find it difficult to get people to play it. It lacks the production value of other games. It lacks 'immediate feedback'. For example in Modern Art, in the sealed auctions new players often realize that they are over or under bidding. Instead it is often difficult to see if you made a good or a bad bid. It can also feel dry and like 'accounting homework'. However I personally love it, and I wish I could play it more, however due to the reasons listed above I find it hard to find players who find it fun.
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