This review continues my series of detailed reviews that attempt to be part review, part resource for anyone not totally familiar with the game. For this reason I expect readers to skip to the sections that are of most interest.
Image Courtesy of samoan_jo
Summary
Game Type - Euro Game
Play Time: 45-60 Minutes
Number of Players: 3-4
Mechanics - Area Control, Majority Scoring, Card Drafting ('I Divide You Decide')
Difficulty - Moderate (Can be learned in under 30 minutes)
Components - Excellent
Release - 2001
Designers - <PERSON>, <PERSON>, Union Pacific, Ticket to Ride, 10 Days Series, Airlines Europe, Incan Gold, Isla Dorada, New England, Oasis, Cloud 9)
Overview
San Marco is a classic area control Euro from the early 2000s that comes to us from the highly productive and successful partnership of <PERSON> and <PERSON>.
In San Marco, the players are the heads of powerful aristocratic families in the city of Venice. Venice is controlled by the powerful ruling families and it just happens that a new place on the council has opened up. Cue infighting, deceit and trickery as each family tries to manipulate and influence the quarters of Venice in the hope of gaining the favour of the <PERSON>. The family that gains the most esteem will be appointed to the high council and become part of the elite!
Translation - The above theme translates into an area control Euro in which the players must use a variety of actions to further their cause but a few twists are thrown into the mix.
Let's see why this game is so well respected...
The Components
San Marco offers up excellent components and for its time looked a cut above other Euros on the market.
Board – The board displays the 6 key districts of Venice, which the players will be fighting for control of. Each district is painted in contrasting colours to make them easily distinguishable and each district is separated by the canals of Venice.
Each district features a name and two other keys bits of information; a dice value and two numbers that reflect the value of a province for 1st and 2nd place (in terms of majority control).
The board is flanked by the score track and in the top and bottom right hand corners are an Action Table and a Passage Tracker respectively.
The board is a lovely piece of artwork as each district reflects images representative of Venice in something of a collage style. The colours that are used are muted rather than garish, making it easy on the eye. 581
All in all the board gives the impression of a water based painting and somehow feels like a piece of renaissance artwork, which only adds to the theme.
Two points worth making here are that the board is not an accurate representation of the physical layout of Venice, but this isn't the first time a board game has chosen game play over 100% accuracy (something that <PERSON> would again do in Ticket to Ride for the record).
The other slight negative is the fact that for some reason the score track uses artistic flourishes in the corners, which requires scoring markers to jump a spot. This can lead to scoring errors if the players are not paying attention and really should never have made the final production.
Image Courtesy of <PERSON>
Action Cards - In all San Marco makes use of 5 types of Action Cards, which the players must try to utilise to gain influence within the city and position themselves to outwit their opponents. Whilst the following image only shows two examples of District Cards, of course there are such cards for all of the 6 Districts featured in the game.
Image Courtesy of <PERSON>
Limit Cards - Limit Cards come in values of 1, 2 and 3. These cards serve to hamstring the players and unlike the above Action Cards, these are not desirable.
Both these and the above cards come in a small format, much like those seen in the first edition of Ticket to Ride or in Pirate's Cove.
Image Courtesy of <PERSON>
Bridges – The beautiful bridges found here are a lovely component to be sure. Complete with 6 steps and brickwork on the sides, these plastic curved creations add a real visual element to the game and are heads and shoulders above what most other Euros were doing around the turn of the century.
Image Courtesy of <PERSON>
Aristocrat Cubes - Ah but now for a return to the classic Euro. In case you were in any doubt that this was a Euro, San Marco uses small wooden cubes to denote the members of your family (or those that work for you) that seek to vie for control of the city. Unlike most games though, slightly unusual colours are used in blue, white, black and yellow. I suspect that this was done to help them be more visible against the muted colours of the board. 872