Medici : The classic board game by Reiner Knizia is back in an all-new English edition adorned with stunning artwork by Vincent Dutrait!

Since its first release in 1995, Reiner Knizia’s Medici has come to be considered a modern classic of board games. By one of the world’s most respected designers and with stunning artwork by award-winning illustrator Vincent Dutrait, Grail Games is pleased to present a new, 3rd English edition of this famous auction game.

 * Please note that all pledge amounts are in Australian dollars (AUD).

You are buyers for different merchant houses in the competitive, but profitable age of the infamous Medici family. Ships sail throughout the Mediterranean and beyond, in search of rare and valuable merchandise. Every day you go to the wholesale market where you must compete with other buyers for the merchandise available that day. There you expect to find lush furs, grain from the rich fields abroad, exotic spices, colourful dyes, the finest cloth, and, rarely, gold from mines far across the waters…

Medici is an auction game that takes place over three days (rounds).

• Players take turns presenting goods to be auctioned. Successful bidders will then load these goods onto the decks of their ships.
• Once all ships are full, or the deck of commodity cards is depleted, each day ends.
• Players then receive money for the value of the loads in their ships, and for how much of each commodity they have bought thus far. But be careful – the money you use to bid at auctions is also your end game points!
• After three days and three scorings, the player with the most money will win the game.

Medici is quick to learn, smooth to play and full of player interaction.

For a more detailed description of how to play Medici, please click the link above to read the complete rulebook (pre-release version – subject to change) or watch the review videos below!

Please watch the following video reviews which include brief run-throughs on how to playMedici…

And here are links to a couple of written reviews by Farmer Lenny of iSlaytheDragon and Giles Pritchard!

To find out more about the game, please visit Medici on Boardgamegeek for images, forums and reviews!

Each copy of Medici will include:

• 1 full-colour rulebook
• 1 game board (406 x 406mm)
• 36 commodity cards – 7 each depicting cloth, fur, grain, dye and spice & 1 gold card (44 x 67mm)
• 6 large ship mats (250 x 100mm)
• 2 smaller ship mats – to be used in the 2 player game (98 x 100mm)
• 36 wooden playing counters (6 per player)
• 5 commodity scoring counters
• 2 day tracking counters

And should we reach certain stretch goals…

• 2 scoring aid cards
• 1 start player card/wooden token

…all contained within a sturdy two-piece box (305 x 223 x 43mm)

For 21 years, Medici has remained a tightly designed game. It is simple to learn, yet it provides a lot of player interaction and fun, tactical decision-making.

So what needed to change?

Working with the designer, Dr Reiner Knizia, from the beginning, we have intended for the new edition of Medici to be seen as the definitive edition of the game. No original rules have changed, but the game has been improved on in the following ways:

• New 2-player rules!
  Previously, Medici was only playable with groups of 3-6 players. Now the game can be played with just two, thanks to some extra rules designed by Dr Knizia. (Please see the rulebook for information on how the 2-player game runs.)
• All-new artwork!
  Medici is a difficult game to illustrate. It is so colourful that artists have certainly found this game challenging to make both functional and pleasing to the eye. Vincent Dutrait has done a terrific job of achieving both. This edition of the game will definitely “pop” on your table!
  Card values can be seen from across the board, colours are clear, and the game looks gorgeous.
• New components
  This new edition will include markers to track the rounds of the game and the commodities that have been scored, as well as (should we meet the associated stretch goals) a start player card/token, and player aid cards to remind players how to score points.
  None of these components are essential to gameplay, but they enhance the experience, making the game even easier to follow.

Note: We acknowledge that the board and counters can be problematic for players with colour-blindness. We have done what we can to improve this (icons on cards, background images on the scoring tracks) and hopefully we will meet the stretch goal (see below) that will allow us to print designs on one side of all counters so pieces can immediately be distinguished besides from their colour. This will make the new edition of Medici the most accessible.

What is not in this edition?

• Experienced Medici players will note that this edition uses cards, and not tiles (as in the 2nd edition). This decision was made to bring the game back to its form as originally intended by the designer, and to reduce set-up time.
• This edition is also without the extra cards included in the previously published French edition of the game. These were not designed by Dr Knizia.

With your support, upon reaching the following stretch goals we will be able to afford to make each copy of Medici even better! More details on every addition will be revealed as we approach each over-funding target.

Adding these cards to the game will allow players to remember how their ships and goods will fare against the other players’ at the end of each day.

This start player card will help players remember who is the starting player for each auction as the round progresses.

Being able to print the cards on a linen finish card stock will make the game even more pleasurable to see and to play.

Printing an individual crest on each player’s sets of counters will increase the visibility of each token on the board. These will be printed in black on one side of every counter so players may decide to ignore them or to use them as per their preference.

All player mats will already be printed on 1mm thick cardboard. Increasing this thickness to 2mm will improve the quality and longevity of these components.

Reaching this goal will replace the start player card with a large, wooden Medici family crest.

We hope to have the opportunity to announce more stretch goals as the campaign continues. Thank you for your support!

Simply select the pledge level from the list on the top-right of this page to secure your reward as listed below. Please note that quoted prices may fluctuate, depending on currency values at the end of the campaign.

Backers may add to their pledges to receive more games! To do so, simply select your pledge level and add the following amounts to your pledge in the editable text field. All add-ons have shipping included in the costs listed below.

By supporting Medici on Kickstarter, not only are you helping us to produce the game in the first place, but you are ensuring that:

• You will receive your copy of Medici below retail cost and shipped to your door! (MSRP in US will be $39.95US and RRP in Australia will be $49.95AUD)
• You will receive your copy of Medici at least a few weeks prior to the game being made available at online and bricks & mortar game stores.
• Your support will make the game better! More stretch goals means more components and a  better quality.

Note that Grail Games runs no-frills Kickstarter campaigns without promotional extras that increase costs and time-frames. We intend to get a high-quality product to your door as quickly as possible. Thank you for your tremendous support!

All rewards at all levels include shipping costs to all available countries (USA, UK, Canada, Australia, NZ). No more shipping costs need be or will be added to your pledge totals!

If you live outside of these countries, unfortunately we cannot ship Medici to you at this time. We hope international publishing partners will be able to publish the game in other regions and languages soon.

Vincent Dutrait is highly regarded in the board game community as an illustrator of the highest quality (Lewis & Clark, Broom Service, T.I.M.E Stories, Augustus, New York 1901, etc.) His work is bright, eye-catching and functional – who better to ask to illustrate this classic game!

We asked Vincent to produce illustrations that were beautiful, colourful, bright, and (in the case of the board and cards) extremely user-friendly. The artwork had to invoke the game’s setting, while giving it the “look” that this classic game deserves.

We believe Vincent has outdone himself!

The attention to detail here is terrific. The board, for example, was influenced both by Franz Vohwinkel’s 2006 board design, as well as by the Medici-built Chapel of the Princes’ ceiling that you can visit in Florence:

The cards were designed to be highly visible, highly usable and highly beautiful:

And the same goes for the player mats which help players to feel as if they are placing goods on their ships:

Being influenced by what has come before, while looking modern and stunning in its own right,Medici will look stunning on your shelf and on your table!

Matcha is a 2-player only card game released by Grail Games last August. In it, players attempt to collect the utensils required for a Japanese tea ceremony. It is a simple set-collection game with a surprising amount of depth for its small size. We are happy to provide the game at a big discount during this campaign.

Tom Vasel named Matcha his “Best Card Game of 2015” and “Best Small Game of 2015.” Here is his review (which also shows you how to play):

 And here is another review from the Game Boy Geek:

* Backers of Medici who also pledge for a copy of Matcha will be sent their copies ofMatcha in March.

For more information on the game, please visit our website or boardgamegeek.

Circus Flohcati, like Medici, was designed by Reiner Knizia. Originally released in 1998, Grail Games is about to release an all-new edition of this fun, push-your-luck card game. Can you collect all the acts required to put on a stellar flea circus?

With art by Heiko Gunther (Glory to Rome), this new edition is due to be released in April.

*Backers of Medici who also pledge for a copy of Flohcati will be sent their copies ofFlohcati in March.

For more information on Circus Flohcati, please visit our previous Kickstarter campaign page,our website or boardgamegeek.

Grail Games is a card and board game publishing studio located in Sydney, Australia. We have already run four successful Kickstarter campaigns, all of which delivered games to backers at least one month early.

Grail Games’ aim is to produce board and card games that are:

• Family-friendly: We believe that games can strengthen friendships and families. All of our games can be enjoyed by players of a variety of ages.
• Fast to teach: our games have clean, straight-forward rules sets to decrease the number of barriers to entry.
• Deep and replayable: Games blossom when they offer a variety of pathways to explore. All our games have a high Depth>Box Size ratio.

➼ Follow Grail Games on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook!

➼ Visit the Grail Games and Dr Reiner Knizia websites!

➼ Visit Medici on BGG for videos, forums, photos and more!

And feel free to show your support across social media with the following downloadable avatars:

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

Source: icnw