I really need to listen more to what a game is clearly trying to tell me rather than trying instead to manifest what I might like the game to be. Florenza is certainly a good game – it’s just not the game for me. If I explain why, who knows - it might turn out to be a good fit for you!
Florenza: X Anniversary
Designer: Stefano Groppi, P.S. Martensen
Publisher: Placentia Games, Post Scriptum
2020
How to Play:
Originally released in 2010, this ten-year anniversary reprint / updating of Florenza has about as precise a description on its BGG listing as I have ever seen:
“Florenza is a high complexity resource management game, in which accurate planning and precise management of workers and resources are crucial to victory. No mistake will be forgiven.”
….and ouch, it’s not wrong! But more on that later.
Thematically, you will be taking your seat as one of “the heads of the most powerful families in the city of Florenza during the Renaissance period… becoming the most famous patron of the arts by hiring the most renowned artists of the period and financing their works”
Practically speaking though, you are in familiar worker placement and resource management territory…with a devious wrinkle.
Familiar territory as all you are doing for much of the seven rounds of the game is placing out your workers (you start with three, but would be well advised to try and get more over the course of the game) with those workers generally seeing you:
• gaining money and spending it on a range of resources
• building new ‘workshops’ (at a cost) to place your workers onto in future rounds,
• racing to hire specific artists and commission art works on your player board or out on the main board. They will each offer different bonuses but beware, you are going to lose points at the end of the game for any art works on your player board that you have failed to complete.
• Visiting the evergreen generic market space – ‘trade two resources for one of another’ type wheeling and dealing to do.
It’s all very safe and recognisable fare.
‘Devious wrinkle’ territory however as you are only resolving your worker placement actions in a specific order at the end of each round. There is no incrementally going from ‘A to B to C’ here. Instead, everything needs to be pre-programmed: there is absolutely nothing stopping me from placing a worker out at the very start of a round to commission an artwork that costs 250 coins, three stone and two wood - and for me have not a single one of those things currently at my disposal - but you better believe I am now going to have to spend the rest of the round trying to find those 250 coins three stone and two wood! Its less a case here of worker placement and more a case of worker programming. That programming in round one with only three workers might feel quite simple but wow when you are juggling 6, 7, 8 workers towards the middle of the game and are carefully having to ensure that the seeds you sow with your first worker all pan out by the time you place your final worker – utter brain burn.
A couple of other nice bits and bobs along the way – you’re able to use worker placement spots on your opponent’s player board (at a cost) and block them from being able use them. Let’s hope that your entire plan for the round wasn’t dependent on you using that one space on your board that an opponent has just come over and snatched! Aaarggh! There is also some nice tussling for turn order, and a really nice river of cards representing artists and sculptors that gradually ‘pass through’ Florence each round - hopefully you can hire the one you want before they leave, or perhaps you will try to quickly jump on any of the new ones that arrive in the city at the start of each round. Nice.
There are some incidental victory points to be gained here and there but the principal focus of the game is solely on commissioning those artworks. They will be your main source of VP and your main loss of VP at the end of the game for any that you have failed to achieve!
Solo Headlines:
I’m going to talk later in this review about why Florenza wasn’t the right fit for me (whilst still being a more than decent game that I think some others may really enjoy!) Before anyone accuses me of being overly negative, let me make one thing crystal clear – I thought the solo mode here was great!
Now, I know this solo mode might not be for everyone; if you want your solo modes to perfectly and accurately imitate a human player in every way and don’t like solo modes that ‘cheat’ their way to success by never having to pay resources or coins for things, getting to do everything in the game ‘just because’ - then look away now. Personally, I don’t really have any qualms about a solo mode just superficially going about its business and simply ‘feeling’ like a multiplayer game and I think Florenza does this well.
You’re competing here against ‘The Ghost’ - a point scoring opponent that has a few adjustable levels of difficulty to suit all levels of ability. The Ghost has its own unique player board and in each of the seven rounds of the game it will place a corresponding number of workers – one worker in round one, two in round two…you get the idea. I liked how this made its game ‘swell’ incrementally. Much like how the human player’s game starts slowly and gradually builds – so does The Ghosts.
It has eight pre-defined spaces for its workers on its player board that let it take certain actions – build a workshop, commission an artwork, block out some spaces, hire an artist. Simply roll the (included) d6, start counting from the first available space on its board and slap its worker on that space and do the basic action displayed – no paying costs, no figuring out flow charts. It just cheats and does whatever it wants to do. If it needs to select anything specific it uses the d6 again to randomly select. Once all of the spaces on its player board are filled, its board is cleared to start taking random actions once more. Random, cheaty solo mode! BUT every time I took breath to look up and see how the game was panning out it was like some sort of dark arts had been taking place. The Ghost was matching me everywhere, its game swelling at the same pace as mine, neck and neck, chasing similar priorities, growing in what appeared to be an intelligent way – completing everything largely at the same pace and time as me. It's clear that the solo mode designer understood the game arc so well that they were able to artificially replicate it in such a simple, unassuming, spooky way.
I think it's fair to say that Florenza will most likely play best at higher player counts. At two player (or this solo mimicking two player game!) the puzzle itself was still a challenge for sure, but the competition for spaces, places and resources lacked the tension that would inevitably come from three or more players hustling and jostling and colliding. Brilliant therefore that the solo mode in Florenza lets you play against multiple versions of The Ghost, lets you adjust the difficulty levels of each version of The Ghost and best of all - never feels cumbersome or onerous as The Ghost is so easy and smooth to run. It’s been the very first game that I have played where I have felt the need to play against multiple solo opponents (well, other than a suspicion that Scythe would be better with multiple automa. Note to self: I really should pick up an additional copy of that particular solo deck), and I really enjoyed how simple and effective it replicated a multiplayer game.
General Headlines:
Florenza told me exactly what type of game it is:
"a high complexity resource management game, in which accurate planning and precise management of workers and resources are crucial to victory. No mistake will be forgiven.”
….so, I can't have any complaints. The game does precisely what it said it would do. I might have wanted something less beige. But one look will show you that it's as (splendidly) beige as can be. I might have wanted a game with some modern twists and turns. But it’s a game originally released (at the time of writing) over 14 years ago. I’m not a fan of punishing games, so of course I was likely to bounce off a game that tells me that ‘no mistake will be forgiven’….
Actually, I have little to no complaints about the beige – the production of the game is really nice and in keeping with the theme. Indeed, there is some charming artwork on the cards of famous artists and sculptors from the period (as well as some biographical information about each in the rulebook). Everything might feel beige, but it also feels more than appropriate. It's worth noting though that the game is a table hog. It’s not just the main board and player board(s) to contend with but also a large display of cards and a large display of workshop tiles, things felt quite cramped on my 6x4 table so if you are playing on something smaller then you might struggle.
I prefer games that have distinct strategies to chase game to game with a melting pot of mechanisms to explore e.g. “that game I went heavy on tracks, this game I am going to go heavy on set collection” type fare. It's not that Florenza doesn’t have subtle differences game to game, but the core loop is the same – place workers, get stuff, hire artists, commission artworks, repeat. I enjoyed that core loop actually but after a few games it was clear that Florenza challenges you to dig deeper and deeper into getting better and better at that core loop rather than offering a menu of vastly different things to taste. It’s a focused, concise resource management affair– and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that at all. I might have played this much more and grown fond of its charms but for one thing:
“No mistake will be forgiven”
…. you see, while I do enjoy Florenza’s big twist of being able to program all of my workers out onto the main board and resolve their actions at the end of the round, this leaves absolutely no room for error. There are no enjoyable tactical pivots along the lines of “oh I don’t have the one piece of wood I need to do the thing that I would like to do, let’s have a look at what other options are available”. Don’t have that one piece of wood? Your entire plan and your entire round crumbles into dust. Everything that you had set up unravels and fails - no take backs, no pivots, no Plan B. Your round is over, you get nothing other than an empty feeling of failure as you crawl into the corner and lick your wounds! Now of course, anything that you did gain in that failed round will be at your disposal for the next round, but you’re going to be carrying one helluva sour taste in your mouth. I hear you though, “just get good at the game and don’t make any mistakes”. Sure, that’s the goal of course, but there are inevitably going to be a few missed steps or a few tired eyes from time to time. The game does not care, however. The game laughs in your face and tells you “No mistake will be forgiven”. Too many mistakes from this average Euro player saw me giving up on Florenza, albeit with some grudging respect!
At a Glance:
Florenza wasn’t the right fit for me, despite being a decent game that I think others might well enjoy. I found the solo mode great however, even though it might not appeal to everyone, especially those who dislike solo modes that ‘cheat’. While I appreciated Florenza’s resource management and worker placement programming twist, the lack of tactical flexibility and the punishing gameplay were not to my taste.
Final Score:
6 out of 10 (Reviewed after 5 plays)
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