Florenza: X Anniversary Edition

Florenza: X Anniversary Edition reminds me of those older resource-management games that do not try to impress you with complicated rules, but quickly make you sweat over every correct choice. It is charming, fairly brain-burning, and not difficult to learn; the hard part comes when you try to play genuinely optimally.

Each player begins with two basic production buildings and, every round, gains basic materials and workers. With them, you try to develop better buildings and gather the resources needed to sponsor works of art in Renaissance Florence. Its core is clear: build up my production, organise my workers, and turn what I collect into more efficient options and, ultimately, into artworks.

The game begins very tight and loosens only a little afterwards, so interaction mainly comes from hard cuts to the available raw materials. The buildings and artworks are always the same, with the initial workshop draft as the main variable. That means you can theoretically pursue the same strategy from game to game, but a first play contains so much material that it is easy to suffer from overload. Once the group learns it, though, some honest stabs in the ribs begin to emerge.

That fixed content is both weakness and aid: it limits freshness, but gives you time to get past the initial shock and see the game at the level where it really works. Restrained, satisfying scoring, interesting decisions, and a pleasantly old-fashioned feel: overall, a very nice blast from the past. Next up, a friendly serving of cooperative cannibalism.