Palazzo - Palace Building in the Late Renaissance

As-well as being a console geek I've also been playing board games for many years. Luckily I've got a great friend who's a collector of board games and supplies us with some of the finest games on offer.

Last Thursday we tried out a new game: Palazzo. The premise of the game is to build one or more palaces from a number of available "floor" tiles on offer. Each palace will be a minimum of one floor up to a maximum of five and can be made up of all the same material (brick, marble or sandstone) or a mixture thereof. Floor levels are purchased with money, either direct from the quarry or from an auction site.

At the end of the game victory points are awarded for each door and window in the palace as long as it has at least three floors. Additional bonus points are also awarded for palaces with four or five floors and if the palace is made of all the same material.

We were only playing the two player version of the game and I would like to see how it works with three or four players. With an increase in competition for the floor levels on offer you may not have the luxury of waiting for a perfect tile to suit your palace, thus leading to a more dynamic approach to your palace building.

Although I lost (it seems to be the trend these days) I found the game to be thoroughly enjoyable. It's a fairly light hearted game, easy to learn and doesn't strain the grey matter too much. It's perfect for those evenings after a hard day at work when a more sociable game is in order.