Game Preview: Lungarno

By Andrea “Liga” Ligabue
October 9, 2008

Publishers: Red Glove / QWG Games
Distributors: ElfinWerks (U.S.) and Mario Truant Verlag (German)
Designer: Michele Mura
Players: 2-5
Playing Time: 45 minutes
Release Date: October 2008
Languages: Italian & English / Dutch & French
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In Pisa during the fourteenth century, gold rules over all. Knowing – and knowing how to use – the great families of the city is the route to success, wealth, and power. Merchant houses compete to make deals with the great families and earn the greatest profits. Meanwhile, master builders erect splendid palaces, marvelous tower houses, beautiful plazas, and fabulous shops, hoping to impress the great families and earn prestige. The center of this quest for wealth and prestige is the Lungarno district, along the banks of the River Arno. Can you overcome your rivals to dominate the Lungarno and become the richest merchant in Pisa?

Using tiles, you will build the various districts of Lungarno, sending your merchants to trade with six great families (represented by shields of different colors). When a district is complete, you will earn profits for your merchants based on the prestige of the families in that district. At the end of the game, the player with the most gold is the winner!

Lungarno is tile-placement game combined with an area control mechanism. The map is built up by tiles with the Arno river running through the middle of the playing area and three roads bridging the river in order to create eight districts, each of which has space for six tiles. At the start of the game, each district contains a face-down privilege token that will give points to the players trading with the families depicted on the token.

During a turn, players perform one or two actions with the choices being the purchase of a new tile from the three available ones or the placement of one tile on the map. Buying a tile costs from 0 to 2 Florins, depending on the position of the tile in the draw line. Performing two actions in a turn costs you an extra Florin.

Most of the tiles bear shields for one or two of the six families, and as soon as you place a tile, you can place one of your merchants on one of those shields, as in Carcassonne; the merchant is now trading with this family in that district. You can’t place a merchant on a family shield that already belongs to another player in that district. When a district is closed, every player collects as many Florins as the shields of the family he has merchants on, a total that can be altered by special buildings in the district and also by the privilege token revealed after the closing. You can then retrieve your merchants from the closed district.

You have only five merchants and must place them carefully as merchants on towers remain in place until the end of the game. Special tiles like shops, churches, offices and plazas add a few more options and variety to the game. The game ends when the last district has been closed, and the player with most Florins wins.

While Lungarno will feel familiar to those who have played somewhat abstract tile-placement/area-control games, the game is nice, seemingly well-balanced, and provides a fun playing experience in the right amount of time.

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