Leonardo da Vinci

Being an apprentice to an inventor is no easy matter. Not only do you have to collect all manner of resources for your master and proposition the city council for favours, but you have to be prepared to do a bit of hard grafting in the laboratory.

Leonardo da Vinci as the name suggests, is about creating inventions in renaissance Italy. You take on the role of a master inventor with a variable number of apprentices, resources and money (Florins) at your disposal. It's your duty to develop requested inventions before your rivals, not only for the prestige and patent but also for the Florins awarded.

Using the basic setup at the beginning of the game you're allocated one or two labs, a variable number of apprentices, resources, and Florins. The setup for each player is different adding a bit of variety and once you're familiar with the game you can use the more advanced rules to customise your setup.

The game consists of nine turns, seven of which are split into distinct phases with the final two turns only allowing research and completion of developments:

Invention Phase: Inventions come in five different types, three levels of difficulty (easy, medium and hard) and all require differing resources. Easy inventions can be researched in seven weeks, medium in eleven, and finally hard inventions in fifteen weeks. However, the research time can be cut by two weeks for each invention of the same type you've already completed. Each player states whether or not they are going to research an invention, but they don't openly declare what they're aiming for. The resource cards for each invention will be secretly placed underneath the laboratory which is to undertake the work and will only be shown when the invention is finally complete.

Apprentice Deployment Phase: Players take it in turns to assign tasks to apprentices. They can be placed in the city to queue for various resources, laboratory upgrades, favours from the council, recruit additional apprentices or they can be assigned to work in a laboratory. Queues work on a majority rule, so even if you're first in the queue with one apprentices someone else would be prioritised if they joined the queue with just two apprentices. The master can also be assigned a specific task and for these purposes he is equivalent to two apprentices. Play keeps moving around until finally there are no more apprentices to place.

City Resolution: Once all the apprentices have been placed the resolution of the tasks is undertaken in order. Apart from council favours and laboratory work all the other tasks have a cost associated. The first player in the queue gets the item for free, second has to pay two Florins up to four Florins for fourth place. The final resolution is to advance your research in your laboratory by one week for each man, or by two for each mechanical man (bought via a lab upgrade) or for the master.

Invention Completion Phase: If an invention has been researched for the minimum number of weeks then it can be declared. If more than one player has invented the same thing then they must blind bid on whom will own the patent, each player however is still awarded the full amount of Florins. If you're still working on an invention when it is declared then all is not lost, you can continue to work towards completion but you will only get a decreased number of Florins.

At the end of the game the winner is the player with the most money. However you do get bonus points for the number of types of inventions you've built as long as you have at least three types and these points can be invaluable.

Although the rules summary make this game sound fairly dull, it's actually a fun game. You soon get drawn into deciding what inventions to research, managing your resources and apprentices and trying to be the first to complete inventions. I'm always a sucker for any game that has resource management but there are some particular standout mechanics that I like about the game. For starters I really like the queuing mechanism during the deployment phase. I tended to find that this led to lots of head scratching as I tried to second guess my opponents and decide upon the optimum number of apprentices to commit. There's a great sense of satisfaction as you bully your way to the front of a queue when no one can counter your move. On the downside you'll be cursing when you have to pay three or four Florins for a desperately needed resource.

I'm also keen on the hidden inventions, not knowing what your opponents are researching leads to some tense turns as you send "all hands to the pumps" hoping to beat or at least match your opponent to the declaration. It's wise to try and keep an eye on the resources your rivals are buying to try guess what they may eventually research. This is however easier said then done and for all the games played so far I've always ended up researching the same inventions as my rival.

There's virtually no luck to this game, in fact the only element really is the order that inventions are drawn, but even these are stacked in such a way that the more difficult inventions are more likely to appear towards the end. You really have to make your own luck with this game as all your decisions you make will have an impact on your chances of winning.

I wouldn't say that this is a casual game, it can get quite intense and the game can last quite a long time. If you're going to play the game with a four or five players make sure you've got at least a couple of hours set aside. If you're after a game which is fairly easy to learn, but will make you scratch your head with some thought provoking decisions then I'd recommend giving this game a go.