Pax Renaissance

Players are the major banking families (think Fugger and Medici) of the Renaissance, influencing the development of the Western world. They finance kings – or bankroll Republics they sponsor voyages of exploration – or great art they provoke jihad – or fund Crusades.

The game's mechanisms are similar to the other Pax games: players buy cards which they then deploy in their 'tableau', representing what's under their influence. The key cards are the 'comets', which add a victory condition to the game. Hence, as with the other Pax games, the trick is to force an end to the game on your terms – ensuring only you can win.

Along the way, there's an awful lot of historical detail on the cards. However, the main point of the game is that the players are deciding how history should go. And the type of victory sets the seal on how Europe develops: the continuation of Feudalism, the birth of Capitalism or the Enlightenment? Great stuff.

The expansion (see below) adds extra, different cards that really do expand the game.

For 2-4 players, aged 12+, playing time 2 hours: £25.00 (£20.83 without tax outside the UK)
 

Out of stock

Pax Renaissance was designed by Matt and Phil Eklund and is published by Sierra Madre Games

Find out more:
        Pax Renaissance at the BoardGameGeek

Pax Renaissance expansion

This adds another 59 cards to the game – the rules for which are already included in the base game.

They introduce another type of card, the polymath or Renaissance man. While these cards do not introduce playing pieces, they do provide actions, including a couple of new ones. One of these provokes a clash between religions if players hold a mixture. The other allows victory conditions to be de-activated, which could be crucial in the game.

As far as I'm concerned, though, one of the useful effects of the expansion is reducing the size differential between West and East decks. This provides more variety to the game, given that it's played with a sub-set of the cards.

This is now out of print and Games from Pevans has sold out
 

Pax Renaissance expansion was designed by Matt and Phil Eklund and is published by Sierra Madre Games

Find out more:
    Pax Renaissance expansion at the BoardGameGeek

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