Activating one advisor at a time, players race to spread their citizens across the empire to build a prosperous trade network. This can have one of two effects: either players get discouraged because every move seems to be of relatively equal value, or those who understand the game well are able to calculate those marginal plays so well that the game becomes simple for them–there’s no more mystery to it. It’s a Euro game and follows a lot of Euro game staples with its mechanics, and its theme – trading in the Mediterranean.

Cards cannot be reclaimed (and played again), until the player uses a specific card to reclaim all of their cards.Concordia is a puzzle, one that you’ll be familiar with if you’ve played anything like Terra Mystica or Tzolk’in. As the game goes on you pick up more cards and your settlements start to spread, giving you a handful of cards full of small text and a board full of wooden chits – as well as money and resources to juggle on your player board. One side of the game board shows the entire Roman Empire with 30 cities for 3-5 players, while the other shows Roman Italy with 25 cities for 2-4 players. Guide one of these dynasties and send colonists to the remote realms of the Empire; develop your trade network; and appease the ancient gods for their favor - all to gain the chance to emerge victorious!

I’ve played a three-player game in just over an hour, so it moves quickly the fewer players at the table. And even this is positive interaction: you’re grateful to another player for opening production to you again, even though they receive a benefit from it.Each player starts with two colonists, one for land and one for sea, one of each type of the games 5 different resources, a small amount of money and a personal deck of cards. Without the constant need to refer to the rules, you will all quickly become immersed and, hopefully, enjoy the experience. First, I fear that optimal openings might bring down the beginning game a bit (maybe they’ve already been discovered, but I’m sure not going to try to find them). Concordia is the antithesis of that way of thinking, and therefore I don’t think we’ll ever get along. At cities you can build buildings which give you access to the goods there (of which there are 5 kinds).

With additional maps and expansions, the replayability of Concordia: Digital Edition is near infinite. Building an engine that can provide just enough resources and money to maximise your actions while snapping up relevant cards to multiply your scores is the crux of a winning strategy. It’s an adaptation of a mechanism I first saw in Puerto Rico (then again in Small World and Twilight Imperium) and I think this might be my favorite implementation yet. Without that small bit of influence over the random setup the game would drag a lot in the beginning.

Concordia: Digital Edition is a faithful adaptation of a strategic board game ranked in the Top 20 board games of all time. And for a game that plays up to six players, it’s amazing that you can get a full game completed in just 90 minutes if everyone knows how to play.