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You can't judge a book by the cover or a board game by the box...but it sure as hell doesn't stop us from trying. I remember when I first came across Concordia, I was repelled by the dead-eyed, body snatcher version of Fran Drescher on the cover. Then I physically picked it up and was equally put off by the weird dimensions of the box. I finished up by flipping over the box and seeing a pretty standard looking map of the Mediterranean. I was putting it back on the shelf when I noticed it was by designer Mac “Master of the Rondel” Gerdts. Hmmm, did I miss a rondel in this game? No? In a moment of 70s induced clarity I thought “But Dad, It's Mac!”
When I received the newest version of Concordia, I looked at the box art and went “Huh, that's not near as bad as I remember.” It turns out I was right, the cover has been reworked. Somewhere, at a used game store, the zombie nanny still haunts all those who pass by. Of course, they are kind of tied into the box art because, despite it's initial appearance, it is now synonymous with the amazing gameplay found inside.
The “Trading in the Mediterranean” Trope (or, more accurately, the “Trading in X during the Y time period” Trope) was already “tired” when Concordia was first released in 2013. One could only assume Mac Gerdts said “Leonardo, Hold my Vino.” when he sat down to create Concordia. Still using his Rondel mastery, Concordia uses a card based system that creates, what feels like, an expanding rondel where you get to add new actions when you purchase additional cards. But that card rondel also adds a second, end of game scoring condition at the bottom of the cards. The Rondel circle wouldn't be complete without a card/action (Tribune) that lets you take all of your previously played cards back into your hand...and without the decision space of “Oh, you also get bonus money for each card past three that you have played before taking cards back into your hand.”
All roads may lead to Rome but, in Concordia, you'll be taking all the roads leading away from Rome as you send your colonists out by land and by sea to create a trading empire. Setting up houses in cities will allow you to produce Food, Bricks, Tools, Wine, and Cloth. It is then a game of knowing when to expand, where to build, when to sell and trying to perfectly time your production. Oh, and while all the goods have a set price that never varies, you'll be perplexed by what your optimal move could be to keep you cash fluid while holding the products you need to expand and purchase cards.
If Concordia was simply an efficiency puzzle, it wouldn't be as great as it is. The other players will definitely impact how you try to power up your production. If you build into a city where another player is already established, you have to pay a premium. If you want to take a card from the tableau that isn't the first one on offer, that also requires you to pay extra. But you can also ride the coattails of other players actions with your Diplomat card, that lets you take the action on the top of any other players discard pile. If someone managed to get the Five Coin Mercator, it's a card you definitely want to copy. There is nothing like riding their coattails and kicking them in the ass at the same time.
One of the most interesting cards in the game is the Prefect Card. When played, you pick a province and gather a good of the kind shown on the corresponding tile and flip that tile. If there are any houses in the cities of the province, the owners of the houses gather whatever goods they produce. Again, player interaction is key, because you want someone to activate this card but you don't want to be the one spending the action to do it. Factor in that you can also choose to flip all the previous flipped tokens back and simply get a huge cash infusion and you'll see where the “who will blink first” challenge comes in.
Concordia isn't satisfied with putting a round peg into an oval hole and saying “Close Enough.” You'll find two different maps in the base game. Once focused solely on Italy and “Mare Nostrum” covering the Mediterranean. When playing two and three players the map of Italy thrives and Mare Nostrum is equally balanced for four and five players. You won't find any fudging out a map to all player counts here. It would have been simple enough to permanently assign goods to certain areas of the maps but, no, Concordia randomizes where the goods are placed and what is the dominant good in an area. I call that “Adding 3 minutes to set-up to create a lifetime of replayabilty.” One last example that comes to mind is that the cards in the deck that you can purchase is defined by the number of players to keep that knife edge the game balances on sharp. This isn't by any means a complete list of the refinements but it is a good indication of the thought that obviously went into the game.
The manual suggests that in your first game you score half way through the game, just to see where you stand. This is a great suggestion. So much so, that I suggest you do it in your mind every time you play Concordia. Because half way though is almost the exact point where you pivot from simply expanding to cities to picking up more cards for your hand. Knowing if you have five of the six city types you need to score a specific bonus or if you are heavy on the farmer cards are all key to knowing your direction in the last half of the game. And, lest you forget, those bottom half end-of-game scoring conditions compound, so if you have three cards featuring Jupiter that allows you to score based on the number of houses you have in non-brick cities you get to score that bonus three times.
The game concludes when a player builds his 15h house OR when all cards have been sold. Again, this gives you have ability to rush the end game by placing houses or keep trying to highten the bonuses you have earned by snatching up cards.
It's kind of ironic that Concordia was mocked for going back to the well of Trading in the Mediterranean when it was released and, now, it is the definitive Trading in the Mediterranean game. I guess sometimes when you spend a brick (Concordia Humor!), it becomes a cornerstone.
A review copy of this release was provided by the publisher. Therewillbe.games would like to thank them for their support.
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