Concordia rules: how to play and how to score

Concordia quick rules

The goal

Your colonists set out from Roma, and you build houses in nearby cities to produce goods. Everything happens through personality cards, played one at a time. Each card is also tied to a god, who awards points at the end. The most victory points wins.

A turn: play a card

On your turn, you play a single card from your hand onto your discard pile and carry out its action. You start with seven cards: the Tribune, the Architect, two Prefects, the Mercator, the Senator and the Diplomat. Your storehouse has twelve spaces for your colonists and goods, and you may never discard goods to make room.

The Architect

It moves your colonists, one step per colonist on the board: brown lines for land colonists, blue for sea colonists, always ending on a free line. Then you build one house in each city next to a colonist, only one per city, never in Roma. A house costs one brick plus the city’s goods, or one food in a brick city, plus 1 to 5 sestertii multiplied by the number of houses in the city.

Production

The Prefect makes a province whose bonus marker shows goods produce: you take that bonus, flip the marker, and every house in the province produces for its owner. It can instead collect one sestertius per coin showing on the markers, which then flip back. A specialist makes all your houses of one type of goods produce, for you alone. The Praefectus Magnus card doubles the Prefect’s bonus, then passes to the right.

The other cards

The Mercator gives 3 sestertii, or 5 if purchased, then lets you buy or sell up to two types of goods. The Colonist places colonists for one food and one tool each, or gives 5 sestertii plus 1 per colonist on the board. The Diplomat copies the face-up card on an opponent’s discard pile, except a Diplomat or a Tribune.

The Tribune and new cards

The Tribune takes back all your played cards, with one sestertius per card past the third, and can place a colonist in Roma. The Senator buys up to two cards from the display, paying their cost plus the extra shown under their position; the Consul buys one, with no extra cost. The display shifts and refills to seven cards.

The end of the game

The game ends when a player buys the last card from the display or builds their fifteenth house. They take the Concordia card, worth 7 points, and every other player takes one final turn.

Scoring the gods

Each card, in hand or in the discard pile, scores according to its god. Vesta counts your money, goods sold, Jupiter your houses outside brick cities, Saturnus your provinces, Mercurius your types of goods, Mars your colonists, Minerva the houses matching each specialist. On a tie, the Praefectus Magnus card decides.

Beginner pitfalls

Don’t play your Tribune too early: the more cards you take back, the more it pays. Keep room in your storehouse, or production is lost. Buy a card for its god too, and build early in a city, before the price climbs.

How to score Concordia

Vesta

Per Vesta card: sell your goods at the usual price, add them to your sestertii, then 1 point per full 10 sestertii.

Jupiter

Per Jupiter card: 1 point per house in a non-brick city, 15 at most.

Saturnus

Per Saturnus card: 1 point per province with one of your houses, 12 at most on Imperium, 11 on Italia.

Venus (Venus expansion)

Per Venus card: 2 points per province with at least 2 of your houses, 14 at most; in team play, 1 point per province where both partners have a house.

Mercurius

Per Mercurius card: 2 points per type of goods your houses produce, 10 at most.

Mars

Per Mars card: 2 points per colonist on the board, 12 at most.

Minerva

Per specialist card: the points printed on the card, for each house in a city of its type.

Concordia card

7 points for whoever bought the last card or built their fifteenth house.

Praefectus Magnus (tie-breaker)

No points: among tied players, whoever holds the card, or would receive it first, wins.

Worked example

Emma has 45 sestertii after selling her goods and 2 Vesta cards (8 points), 9 houses outside brick cities and 2 Jupiter cards (18), houses in 8 provinces and 3 Saturnus cards (24), 4 types of goods and 2 Mercurius cards (16), 5 colonists and 2 Mars cards (20), a Farmer and 4 food houses (12), and the Concordia card (7): 8 + 18 + 24 + 16 + 20 + 12 + 7 = 105 points.

Common mistakes

• Scoring a god only once: it scores for every card of that god.
• Forgetting to sell your goods for Vesta: they add to your money, at the usual price.
• Counting houses in brick cities for Jupiter: they don’t count.
• Going over the caps: 15 for Jupiter, 10 for Mercurius, 12 for Mars, per card.

How to set up Concordia

Follow the four parts in order. The start player is chosen at random; the last player receives the Praefectus Magnus card.