AGE OF RENAISSANCE CONDENSED COMPLETE RULES by Liumas

This PDF includes the complete rules on 4 pages, a difficult project edited down to
size over years. Sterling Babcock lent a hand, offering up some sterling detailed
advice over 2 years before I uploaded this.
AOR is not as complicated nor as daunting as it first appears! This file ought to
make it easier for some.
Change Note from v2008-12: There is no difference from the 2008-12 version of
these rules. The only change is in this cover page, which was previously
mislabelled at the top of this page as Turn Sequence Mats. Dont bother
reprinting these.

GAME:
Age Of Renaissance (1996)
BGG ID: 26
Designer: Jared Scarborough
This PDF file includes 1 game aid designed
to be printed on 1 double-sided page.
Chris Conboy, September 2009
chris@ageofgods.com
Liumas at BoardGameGeek.com

Jared Scarborough, 1996

3 6 players (houses)
5 hours
6 player piece sets, player mats, Advance Logs, 3 dice (white, black, green), 64 History cards

OVERVIEW

an epic game of shifting fortunes

Each player leads a great commercial house: Venice, Genoa,

London, Barcelona, Hamburg, or Paris, over the course of 3
Epochs: 7501250AD, 12501500AD, and 15001750AD.
Trace western civilization from the middle ages through the

Renaissance to its establishment as the dominant world culture

in the Enlightenment. Acquire advanced skills, avoid chaos,
and expand into world markets to become the richest player
and win the game!

Pieces

1 Ship Marker for the Shipping Display (double-sided)

12 Commodity Markers for the Commodity Log
Money: Keep in view always; may stack to hide the total.
Recorded cash from the end of each turn is always public.

Player Mats

all information is public

Mat: Each house keeps their stock Q tokens in stacks of 6 in
the central black area. Put Rs bought for market expansion in
the Expansion area to the right, white side up.

Cover each of the 25 white circles with Domination P tokens;

these later move to the map in order starting with 1 and return
here in descending order. The last uncovered circle shows
income and how many provinces the house dominates.

Civilization Advances (26)

these act as skills
There are 6 Advance Categories: Civics, Communication,
Commerce, Exploration, Religion, and Science.

Record on the Log your Advances and those of other players.

Dot each Advance when acquired; at the end of each turn
solidly fill in s to Q to distinguish them from current buys.

History Cards (64)

3 types: Commodity, Event, Leader

Commodities (27): There are 12 types. Each card has a map of
provinces with that commodity. A played card lets all houses
collect the value of their Os dominating that commodity.
Payout boxes at the bottom have progressively higher payouts.
Discard these to the Replay pile to reshuffle for the next epoch.
Dual Commodities: The player of Wine/Cloth or Gold/Ivory
chooses which one of the two commodities the card counts as.

Events (18): After discard or play, put those with a circled

epoch in the Replay Pile, remove those with a squared epoch.
Misery Burdens: Events voided by play of others remain in
hand, useless, counting towards hand size and stability cost.
Discard these only via Master Art, trade via Wind/Watermill.
Leader Cards (19): Lessen the cost of listed Advances during
the Purchase phase if played in the preceding Play Cards phase.
Remove from play after the Purchase phase.

The Map

Commodities (12 types): Trade good sources and transship

points are named and color coded. The 2 New World and 3 Far
East Overseas Province boxes are multi-colored each box has
2 or 3 commodities which are controlled with a single O/P.
Control Panels: One player as Broker moves the markers to
record data on the various tracks. One player as Caller calls out
commodities gained and lost as conflict is resolved. One player
as Banker pays out income and collects the price of items.
Misery Index: Records the degree to which the aspirations
of the populace is suppressed and ignored. A house which
moves past 1000 into Chaos is eliminated from the game.
Misery may not move below 0.
Draw Pile: Sort the History Deck by epoch into 3 piles.
Epoch 1 is the initial Draw Pile. When empty and a card is
needed, shuffle the discards along with the cards from the
next epoch to form a new Draw Pile.
Replay Pile: Discard cards with a circled epoch number
face up here. Players may only view the top card.
Order Of Play: Put each houses turn marker here, from
bottom up in order of most money for tokens spent last turn.
For less than 6 houses, skip the slots listing the number of
houses. For example, with 3, houses move on 2, 4, and 6.
Shipping Display: Mark each houses current shipping
capability with their ship marker. This is off the board at the
start since houses begin with no shipping capability. Use the
single-masted ship marker side if you upgrade to Galley.
Commodity Log: 1st box lists the Shortage/Surplus die roll,
circled base value, and each epochs card count (4 = dual
card). Subsequent boxes track control of 1 province of that
good (area border color) and value of that number owned.
The Broker moves markers as houses gain and lose O/P.

never secret, each house has the following:

36 Market Penetration tokens: Expansion R, Controlled Q
25 Market Domination tokens: New P, Old O
2 Square Markers for Misery and Order Of Play

22 x 32 board
Areas: Thick borders divide the map into 8 large areas labeled
with a Roman numeral matching their border color. Some are
out of play with less than 6 players.
Provinces: Each area is divided into named land spaces
bordered by black lines.
Coastal Provinces: Both land and light blue water in a single
space (including Far East, New World, West Africa, Iceland).
Impassable Regions: Unnamed spaces are out of play.
Province Boxes: West Africa and Iceland are accessible only
with Seaworthy Vessels or Heavens. China, East Indies and
India can be reached with Ocean Navigation. Both North
America and South America need New World.
Water Bodies: Blue spaces with no land along their border
require shipping to cross.
Seas: Named medium blue spaces with no land. Need
Seaworthy Vessels to cross, or Galleys with The Heavens.
Tokens cant end a turn at sea.
Ocean (Atlantic): The dark blue area separating New
World and Far East from the rest of the map. Can only be
crossed with Ocean Navigation.
Market Number: Circled number provinces (as ) support up
to that many Market Penetration Q/R or 1 Domination O/P.
If 1 player has Q/R = Market Number and no opposing pieces,
replace all with 1 P which earns income. Market Competition
occurs when opposing pieces together exceed Market Number.
Square number provinces
support 1 Q/R, no O/P.
At the end of each turn flip all R/P to Q/O.
Capital: The starting point and economic base of each house,
with its Market Number in a colored circle not white . The
original owner gets 2x strength in attack and defense here.
1

Play Notes

Diplomacy: No agreement is binding, but any diplomacy must

be conducted openly. Everyone may comment. No one may
show any hand cards to another. Money may not be paid to
others as bribes. Violators get +1 Misery and forfeit their
written cash this turn. Play an accidentally revealed card at the
next opportunity or else pay this penalty!

Misery Elimination: A house advanced to Chaos is out of the

game. Their pieces remain, affected only by Nationalism if the
house had it. Discard their cards. Income and Turn Order are
still based on the number of houses which began the game.
Fractions: Fractions are always rounded up.

SETUP

houses begin with no shipping!

Cash: Each house gets $40

Cards (improved rules): Add an Epoch 2 Timber to the
Epoch 1 History Deck. Remove Silk, Spice, Walter The
Penniless, Rashid Ad Din, and The Crusades.
O Deal 3 cards to each house; each keeps 2 and discards 1.
O Add back all discards, reshuffle. The 5 removed cards are
shuffled back in later during the Draw Cards phase.
Cards (original rules): Deal each house 1 History card.
Capital Bid: Each player writes down a cash bid, then
select Capitals in order starting with the high bid. Resolve
ties with dice rolls. Put 1 Domination O in each Capital.

Players

Capitals

Areas Used

Unused Areas

Barcelona
Ships may trace
Genoa
moves through
3
Venice
IV VIII
unused areas;
4
+Paris
III VIII
no pieces may
5
+London
II VIII
be left in any
6
+Hamburg
I VIII
unused area
Each player records their starting cash ($40 Capital bid),
puts their Misery marker at zero, and puts 1 P covering
each white circular space on their mat (never cover zero).
Before the 1st turn play the Order Of Play phase .
Draw Card
Play Sequence
play Order Of Play phase before the 1st turn
Buy Card
Draw Card (skip on 1st turn)
cancel a shortage and/or surplus; draw 1 card
Play Cards
1st house may cancel a shortage and/or surplus
Shuffle in the 5 cards removed during setup
Purchase
by paying that commoditys base value.
3 4 Players: After 1st turn card draw
Expansion
nd
5

6
Players:
After
2
turn
card
draw
Income
Each house in turn order draws 1 card.
Play Order
Buy Card
buy and/or discard 1 card (if holding the required Advances)

Urban Ascendancy: Holders may in turn order

Master Art: Holders may discard 1 card with no effect after buying or not
buy 1 extra card for $10.
buying a card. Variant: May discard 1 card on buying this Advance.
Play Cards
each house in turn may play any number of Commodity, Event, and Leader cards, or pass
Patronage: Holders may use Cr of Leaders played by others,
Commodity: Bank pays each house with O in a province with
but not the 1st Leader played this turn (who is in the Leader
the played commodity. Use payout box matching the number of
Display). Player of a vulnerable Leader can put protection $
these provinces the house has. Thus 3 Wine O earns $45.
on him when played Patronage holders pay Leader owner
Industry: Holders use the next highest payment box, but must
this much to use the Leader Cr (amount may be 0). Pay all
have at least 1 such province of the played Commodity card.
protection $ on Leaders to the bank at end of Purchase phase.
Event: Card player chooses the cards target when possible.
Printed Word: Holders may play a Leader to earn immediate
Some Events replace O with Q if O owner has no Q in stock
rebate of Leaders credit for any previously acquired Advances.
they may use Expansion Rs as Q or leave the province empty.
Multiple credit Leaders may discount a purchase later this turn
Leader: Put face up on the Leader Display, in front of you if
and rebate another already held. Patronage claims dont apply
display is filled; remove card at end of Purchase phase. Owner
to rebates, nor does the +$10 Written Record discount.
gets Leaders discounts to purchase Advances next phase.
Purchase In turn complete all 4 items in order
buy ship upgrades, Advances, card stabilization, and Misery Relief, or pass
Navigation (Seaworthy 16 is not 1st required!).
Ship Upgrade: Buy up to 1 upgrade for $10 each turn. The
3 ship types each have 4 grades purchased in order (Galley 2 to
The Heavens: Holders galleys may transit 1 sea province as if
4 to 6 to 8). Shipping is needed to put tokens in provinces
it were a coastal province.
separated by water. Unlimited shipping is allowed each turn,
Example: Stockholm presence allows Galley 2 to ship 2 R
but only up to your ship capacity to each province.
each to Danzig and Riga across the Baltic Sea. Without
Ship Capacity Distance from any friendly Q/O
Heavens may ship no further than Stettin.
Galley 2
2R
2 coastal provinces
Seaworthy Vessels: Holder flips to the 3-masted ship and
Galley 4
4R
4 coastal provinces
moves it to Seaworthy 10. May now place up to 10 R in any
Galley 6
6R
6 coastal provinces
Coastal Province (not Overseas box, nor Area V without
Galley 8
8R
8 coastal provinces
Overland East). Upgrades increase capacity to 12, 14, and 16
Galley 8 is max without Seaworthy Vessels. Ships move only
Rs. May buy Seaworthy Vessels before reaching Galley 8.
via coastal provinces until Seaworthy Vessels or The Heavens.
Ocean Navigation: Move ship to Ocean Navigation 1. Holder
Example: Paris may not place Rs in London until developing
may now transport unlimited R to any Coastal Province (Americas
Galley 2 or Seaworthy Vessels. London with turn 1 Galley 2
still requires New World, Area V still requires Overland East), but
can ship 2 Rs to Edinburg, York, Portsmouth, Cornwall, St.
may enter and maintain only 1 Overseas box. Each further upgrade
Malo, Paris, Bruges, and Amsterdam.
allows entrance/maintenance of another Overseas box.
New World: May enter/maintain Americas Overseas boxes.
Oceans and the 5 Overseas Provinces are off limits until Ocean
2

 Advances: Buy any quantity. An Advance and its PQs may

be bought the same turn. Use Cr of Advances bought in prior
turns to purchase 1 or more Advances from the same category
now. Use Cr of Leaders played in preceding Play Cards phase.
May use an Advances attribute immediately on purchase.

Example: Buy Patronage, claim a played vulnerable Leaders

credits now.
Institutional Research: $10 credit on any Advance purchased
in Science, Exploration, Communications, and Commerce
(all but Civics and Religion).

Card Stabilization: Cost is based on

hand size, which is otherwise unlimited. 1
card costs $1, 2 cards cost $2 more ($3
total), 3 cards is +$3 ($6 total)
Failure to Pay: Gain Misery spaces whose
value is Stabilization cost. Partial
payment is not allowed.

Example: Paris, Misery 90, owes 5-card Stabilization of $15.

Gaining 1 Misery to 100 is only $10, not greater than the
unpaid amount; instead gain 2 Misery to 125.


0
1
2
3
4

$
0
1
3
6
10


5
6
7
8
9

$
15
21
28
36
45

Example: Genoa at Misery 100 fails to pay 6-card $21

Stabilization. Gain 1 space worth $25 to 125.
Middle Class: Stabilization cost is (round up).

Misery Relief: Pay the difference of your current Misery

and the next lowest space to drop to that space. May improve
up to a number of spaces equal to your Advance Tiers.
Advance Tier: A group of any 1 Advance in each of the 6
categories. To improve Misery 2 spaces requires having at least
2 Advances in each of the 6 categories.
Advance MR Rating: Apply along with $ to reduce the cost of
Misery Relief in the same turn the Advance is acquired. May
use MR from more than 1 Advance bought this turn.

Enlightenment: Misery Relief is price (round up).

Human Body: On buying, immediately reduce Misery by 1
space. Lessen the Misery affect of Mysticism Abounds by 1.
Improved Agriculture: On buying, immediately reduce Misery
by 1 space. Lessen the Misery affect of Famine by 1.
Laws Of Matter: Lessen the Misery affect of Mysticism
Abounds by 1. Protects holder against Alchemists Gold.
New World: Reduce Misery 1 space in each Income phase .

Expansion
Overview: Houses in turn put on the map all Rs purchased in
prior Order Of Play phase . Put Rs in any province in reach
of prior existing friendly Q/O except impassable areas. House
capital is friendly even if dominated by another! Provinces
must share a common border with original presence, except for
Caravan. Shipping allows multi-province coastline traversal.
Ship Upgrades and sea/ocean transit Advances increase range.

place Rs and exchange Rs for cards

Put new R/P white side up; flip to Q/O in the Income phase.
Pieces never move, remaining until eliminated or exchanged
for Ps. May never exceed Market Number except to attack.
Cant use newly placed R/P as basis to place more R in same
turn. Return unused R/P to stock; cant save for later turns.
Immediately put P in newly dominated provinces; move
required R directly from Expansion to stock.

Holy Indulgence: Expansion phase start: Holders add 2 Rs for

each house without this Advance; if not enough in stock, earn
$1 for each short. Non-holders return 2 R to stock for each
holder; if not enough R, pay remainder in $ or gain 1 Misery.

Caravan: May put R 2 spaces away through uncontrolled land

provinces. Province is controlled if it has either Qs (not R) =
Market Number, or a O (not P). Cant combine with sea move.
Overland East: Holders may enter Area V.

Exchange Rs For Cards: Any time in your Expansion 

action you may buy up to one card by paying Expansion
1
2
Rs to stock. 1st card bought in entire Expansion phase by
3
any house costs 3 Rs, 2nd costs 6 R, 3rd costs 9 R, etc.
4
Greatest Expansion Bonus: House with most Ps (not
5
Os) on map at Expansion phase end draws 1 free History
6
Deck card. If tied, winner is who went earliest this phase.
Max Expansion R: Allocation can never exceed 36 R (only 36
are available). You may spend more $ than you have available
Rs in an attempt to become last in Order of Play.

R
3
6
9
12
15
18

Capital Strength Bonus: Original owners tokens are 2x

strength during defense and attack in their Capital.
Military Advantage Card: +1 strength (as though +1 R). If
Attacker played card then they win if Black White.
Repeating Attack: A repulsed attack may be repeated in the
same Expansion phase by again committing the necessary Rs.
Coexisting: May add Rs to an occupied province with no
attack if all tokens present dont exceed Market Number. May
move through an occupied province only if the province is not
fully occupied; else, it must be attacked, even to move through.
Multiple Houses Defending: Qs/Rs from different houses
coexist if total is Market Number. Attack triggers as soon as
total > Market Number. All defenders fight as a single group.

Market Competition is triggered any time a province has more

tokens than its Market Number. 1 O/P = Market Number Rs.
May put new Rs in full or dominated provinces to attack.
To put Rs in a province to make its population exceed its
Market Number, match defense force strength plus Market
Number and have Rs Market Number. Then roll all 3 dice:
Attacker Wins if Green
or if Black
Defender Wins if Green
and White

>
>

Domination: May replace Rs with 1 P in a province with a

circled Market Number in you have at least as many Q/R
tokens there as its Market Number. May also replace 1 O with
1 Q in order to use the limited number of O/P elsewhere.
Satellite Provinces
have arrows pointing to a province
they support, and cant contain O/P. Only 1 Q/R may occupy
a Satellite after Competition. Each Satellite with a Q (not R)
supporting that houses O/P gives that O/P +1 defense.
Cosmopolitan: +1 strength to attack into a province per Q you
have in that provinces Satellites (no longer just O/P defense).

Attacker Order Of Play

White
Attacker Order Of Play
Black

All losing tokens return to their stock. All winning tokens

remain; immediately replace them with a P if they equal the
Market Number with no opposing tokens.
3

Attack Example: Venice controls Belgrade (1 O) and has in

play Nationalism and Stirrups. Belgrade is fully occupied so
London needs 6 R to contest it (Market Number + Venice
strength 4 [O = 2, +1 Nationalism in home area, +1 Stirrups]).
Entry with less than 6 R is not allowed!

Venice has 1 Q in Belgrade. London may Caravan unlimited R

through. Market Number means 1 R may remain with no
attack. To leave > 1 requires 5 R to contest dominance (Market
Number + Venice strength 3 [1 Q, +1 Stirrups, +1 Nationalism
in home area]).
[see more examples on page 7 of the rules]

Caravan: May attack via a newly controlled province.

Cathedral: Win 1 non-War attack each turn against each nonholder. Fill in your Logs Cathedral Usage box each time.
Nationalism: +1 strength to forces in their home area, before
doubling for Capital bonus. Also applies to War resolution.

Proselytism: Win all attacks if Green die your Order of Play.

Wind/Watermill: Once per turn, on taking province from
another, may force them to trade. Pay Market Number Rs then
roll d6 Market Number to trade chosen hand card for random
card from victim (both must have cards). No voluntary trades.

Income
Flip Tokens: Flip all P/R to O/Q.
Income: Each house gets $ as per the last uncovered player

each house earns $ based on # of markets they dominate

New World: Reduce Misery 1 space in Income phase (now).
Interest & Profit: Double your remaining $ up to your income.

mat circle (matching the number of Os played out). Use the

value next to the number of houses which started the game.
Middle Class: +$10 income; raises Interest & Profit ceiling too.

Example: London has 17 O for $100 Income. With Interest &

Profit, and $108 on hand, London gets an additional $100.

Surplus/Shortage: Roll 3 dice twice. Sum of Black + White

Effect: Lasts until that Commodity is played or end of next turn.

2 Shortages or Surpluses in the same commodity affect 1st 2 of
those cards played, not double for a given payout. Shortage and
Surplus of same commodity cancel each other; neither occurs.
Cancel Shortage/Surplus: 1st house in turn order next turn may
cancel a Shortage and/or a Surplus at the start of the Draw
Cards phase by paying the commoditys base $ value (Gold &
Ivory costs $10 to remove both at once).
allocate R and bid to be 1st house next turn
their remaining cash. Announce these purchases in turn; pay the
bank $1 for each O, move these O from stock to Expansion R.

is a commodity affected next turn (12 is Gold and Ivory).

Green denotes Shortage or Surplus (see table). The Majority
Holder controls more (not tied) of that good than any other.
Green
13

Result
Shortage

46

Surplus

Payoff Majority Commodity Holder

+1 box Draw 1 free card now.
Pay $1 now for each province with
1 box
this commodity that they control.

Order Of Play (skip on last turn)

Buy Expansion Tokens: All players secretly record on their
log their total cash, O from stock bought for next turn, and

Order Of Play: Move the house buying the least R to the 1st
slot, then the next house, and so on. Ties: house who chose their
capital last chooses their position vis--vis other tied houses.
May spend zero or negative for no tokens in order to go earlier;

each 1 costs $1, and is less than 0.

Renaissance: Once per turn at any phase start may swap turn
order with a house without Renaissance who is 1 directly above or
below. Players wanting to at same time do so in current turn order.

Mark Advances: Solidly fill in all Advance s to Os to

distinguish them from future current buys.

GAME END
The game ends at the end of the turn in which anyone acquires their
26th Advance. Or at the end of the turn in which all cards have been
drawn in the final epoch (standard: Epoch 3, intermediate: Epoch 2,
short: Epoch 1) finish the turn; no more cards may be drawn.
Final Card Play: After the final turn Income phase, as part of
the final turn, play all unplayed hand card in current turn order.
1st house may not remove a new Shortage/Surplus. Pay houses
dominating provinces of played Commodity cards. Play Events
normally. Undrawn and previously discarded cards (via Master
Art) have no affect. May not now discard cards via Master Art.
Leaders provide rebates to their players who hold both Printed
Word and the Advance(s) listed on the Leader.

all Advances purchased OR all cards drawn

War: If tied it is not carried over to the non-existent next turn.
Each time sides tie in a round they get +1 Misery and reroll in
the next player round until War or the turn ends. Nationalism
and Military Advantages played this turn apply. Max allowed
ties = # of remaining player rounds this turn (War played by 4th
house in a 6-player game lasts up to 3 rounds). If still tied at the
end of the turn then the game ends with War unresolved.
Civil War: Victim can choose to lose their zero Rs.
Final Score: For each house, add the value of all Advances they
acquired plus $ on hand minus their Misery value. High total wins!
The Log lists each categorys total value. The total value of all
Advances together is $2100.

HOUSE STRATEGIES

Venice: In order of importance: Be 1st to reach

the Easts silk and spice; contest Genoa for Italy;
reach north into Europes heartland. Likely get
Galley 2. Or Caravan to contest Hamburg in
the Baltic, or Paris in Central Europe.
Genoa: Complicated position can be rewarding.
Race East to silk and spice; keep Barcelona out
of Montpelier and Marseilles; contest Venice
in Italy, especially Florence; Galley 2 helps.
Barcelona: Plays easily. The low defense
commodity provinces and limited Nationalism
base hurt in the end game. Either tag along with

document by chris conboy 2005-11, updated 2008-03, 2008-11

Venice and Genoa racing East or focus on the

short term: with Caravan dominate at least 6
commodity provinces to get the free card at end
of turn 1. A fast starter with mixed later results.
Paris: Expand into Europe! May upgrade ships
to later expand to Med via Montpelier. Main
concern is mass of commodity provinces east
and south. Can win with no Galleys. 4 player
game has no pressure north and west.
London: Likely to commit less Expansion $
than Paris for a chance to go 1st and dominate
St. Malo to scare off Paris who must gamble 4

R to take it. Paris should have more pressing

problems in the center. Problem is youre left
with an unproductive $11-14 usually buy an
Expansion card. Early Heavens and Seaworthy
Vessels for sure. Your weakness (corner spot,
poor commodities) is also a strength: your few
neighbors are less tempted to take your stuff.
Hamburg: Has the most varied options. Can
uniquely afford Caravan instead of ships, for
possible turn 2 income $51 vs $27 for Galley
2. Overland Area V route means you can most
afford to skip galleys for Seaworthy Vessels.