Fanshop
Venedig - Online Guide
Starting The Game
With /join 2-5 players can join the game. With /start the game begins. Alternatively, you can use the Game Tool!
Object of the Game
The aim of this game is to free Venice from the swamp and populate it with a variety of buildings. The builder who plays his or her building cards most cleverly will be the first to navigate their way through the canals of Venice!
This section primarily explains how to use the online interface and does not claim to include the full rules. The full rules may be downloaded from the publisher's website as a PDF file. (Translator's Note: this is the german rules. A translation is available at BoardGameGeek.)
Game Board
- Player Info: included are name, score , building cards in play and the number of cards in hand.
- Master builder display: shows the Master Builders of each type of building.
- Canal: The gondolas travel along this route to their goal
- Supply area with draw pile
- Display showing a player's swamp and treasure cards
- Exit Space
- Own hand: the display can be moved with the navigation cross
- Action display
- Building and (gold) treasure supply
Flow of the game
At the start, each player receives three building cards in their hand. The starting player begins, and the other players follow in turn. A player's move is divided into three actions:
- Play cards and build buildings
- Drain the swamp
- Draw cards
Play cards and build buildings
Play cards
Each building card shows the corresponding building. Above the picture, the number of required building spaces is shown. For example, the Palazzo requires two adjacent building spaces. The number in the top corners shows the number of building cards that are required to build this building.
There are five different types of building:
| Buildings | Building spaces | Build cards | Supply | Gondola movement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Casa (House/white) | 1 | 1 | 19 | 1 Point |
| Palazzo (Palace/orange) | 2 | 3 | 6 | 1 point for every adjacent, undeveloped space |
| Campo (Park/green) | 1 | 3 | 6 | 1 point for every adjacent, developed space |
| Basilika (Church/purple) | 3 | 4 | 5 | 7 points |
| Ponte (Bridge/blue) | 2 | 3 | 6 | 1 point for every house in one of the two connected districts |
A space is undeveloped when it has either a swamp tile on it or when the swamp tile has been removed but there is no building on it. Swamp spaces are counted as vacant spaces. Bridges may only be built on the white lines between two islands. The builder may choose one of the two islands which are connected by the new bridge, all Casas (Houses) on that island, count as one point each.
To build a building (later), a player must play the appropriate building card(s) from his or her hand. A player may play as many building cards as they choose, even of different types.
To do this, the player clicks on the desired cards and confirms this by clicking on the build symbol (located to the right of the 3 poles next to their hand of cards). If a player doesn't want to play a card, he/she clicks on the same point on the arrow.
The player who achieves the majority first in playing cards of a type (50% or more), becomes the master builder for that building. (Exception - Casa: since the Casa only needs one card, it is designed and built by the same player). When a player places more cards of the same building type than the previous master builder, they take over this role.
If you elect to play more cards than necessary to complete a building, the extra cards are kept in the building area to start the next building of that type and can be used in subsequent rounds.
The current Master Builders for each building type are displayed at the top of the display:
Here, Madmax is the master builder for Palazzos (orange) and Campos (green), because he has played the most cards of each. SLC is the master builder for Pontes (blue) and Basilicas (violet) (he is master builder for Basilicas, since he played his Basilica before Nessi). If Nessi placed one or two Basilica cards now, she would become the Master Builder for Basilicas, because she would then have the majority.
If you have all the cards needed to build a building in your hand, you can build this building by yourself, even if there are building cards of this type already in play. However you must put down all the necessary cards in one turn!
Build buildings
If the player whose turn it is has played their desired number of cards from their hand, all buildings with the required number of building cards are built (the building cards of all players are counted here). The player whose turn it is decides in what order the buildings are to be built. The relevant master builder chooses the building site and places the building.
Here, Nessi and Madmax both decided to build a Palazzo: Nessi prlayed two cards, Madmax one. Therefore Nessi receives the Master Builder (shown in bold in the build circle) and the choice of the building site for the Palazzo. Nessi and SLC both decided to build a bridge: Nessi played two cards, SLC only one, so Nessi is the Master Builder again. The active player may now decide the order of building. To do this, he/she clicks on the desired building.
The selected building is now shown with a red border and the responsible master builder can select the building with one click and place it on the desired (vacant) space on an island. If there are no or not enough vacant spaces to build a building (without building and not swamp), the cards are discarded without any effect.
Once all the buildings have been built in the round, the points are allocated. If only one player built a building, s/he receives all the points for it. If several players participated in the building, the master builder gets the full points allocation; all others receive half of the points (rounded off). Gondolas are then moved along the canal according to the points received by each player: the masterbuilder moves first, then the other participating players move in order. Only one gondola may occupy each space. Occupied spaces are skipped over and are not counted in the movement count.
At the end of the building phase, each player may have at most two different types of building in front of them. If a player has cards of a third type, he/she must dispose of one type of card.
The "Abreißen" (disposal) symbol is shown, and the player must click on a type of building in his/her card pile to remove it.
Treasures
If the gondola of a player who has participated in building is next to an island which has just been built on, the player receives a treasure. For bridges, it is sufficient to beside one of the two islands. Taking the treasure tiles happen before the gondolas move. The treasures have values of between 3-6 gold. If the supply of treasures is exhausted, the players do not receive any treasure.
Drain the swamp
After building, the player whose turn it is may remove 0-2 swamp tiles from the islands, to create new building spaces. To do this, the player simply needs to click on the tiles that are to be removed.
To not remove any tiles, click on the "Weiter" (continue) arrow.
A value of 0-2 is shown on the back of each swamp tile. Just like treasuers, they may be converted into Gondola movement points in a ratio of 5:1 at any time during the player's turn.
To exchange tiles, move the mouse over the money bag in the top left hand corner:
A window opens, showing the money supply. Click on the desired tiles and confirm the exchange with the button on the lower right. Treasures and swamp tiles may be combined here: any excess gold is lost. Next, the treasures are returned to the supply.
Draw cards
After the swamp has been drained, the player draws more cards. There are two options:
- draw one card from the face-up supply or from the face-down pile
- Place one card (from hand) in the face-up supply and draw three cards
Rules for the second action:
- players may not discard a card which is already in the face-up supply area.
- the player may draw cards from the face-up supply as well as from the face-down deck
- if the player chooses to draw from both supply areas, cards must first be drawn from the face-up supply and then the remainder from the face-down deck
- a player may not pick up the card that they just placed in the face-up supply area
- as there is a hand limit of 5 cards, this action may not be selected by a player who has more than three cards in his or her hand
If there are more than three cards in the face-up supply at the end of a turn, they are all placed in the discard pile.
End of the Game
The game ends as soon as a player has reached or passed the space with the number 60, or as soon as all buildings of one type have been built. The player(s) who participated in the last build may move their gondolas. Beginning with the player to the left of the player whose move triggered the end of the game, each player may now convert their swamp and treasure tiles to move along the canal.
The player whose gondola is in the lead is the winner.
Two-player game
Klaus-Jürgen plays with you in a two-player game - many will remember his brother Dirk from Alhambra ;-)
Klaus Jürgen does not own a boat or cards in hand. The active player may uncover before or after his turn a card for Klaus Jürgen's play window.
If the active player would like to draw a card for Klaus Jürgen at the beginning, he clicks on the button to the right of the build button. If it would like to draw a card at the end of his turn, he clicks on the build button (left) and continues his turn.
If you elected not to give Klaus Jürgen a card at the beginning of your turn, you see another option at the end of your turn. You can now decide to still give Klaus Jürgen a card (the left button) or not (the right button).
If this card completes a building and Klaus Jürgen is the current Master Builder for this building, the active chooses the location of the building. If the drawn card would start a third building type in Klaus Jürgen's play window, it is placed on the discard pile.