How to Play

Concordia Venus

2-6 players 60-120 min 8.3 Board Game Geek Rating

In this Roman-themed economic strategy game, 2-6 players send colonists to establish cities producing various goods. Players use identical starting card sets, acquiring additional cards that serve dual purposes: enabling actions and providing victory points. Strategic planning and opponent observation are crucial as players compete on modular maps. Victory goes to whoever accumulates the most points from Roman gods when cards sell out or someone builds their fifteenth house.

Published 2018

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

Select game board and mode

Choose a game board side and determine if playing Individual (2-5 players) or Team Play (4 or 6 players)

Place city tokens

Randomly place city tokens on matching cities (A-D) and flip face-up so goods are visible

Place bonus markers

Put bonus markers on the small map indicating the most valuable good in each province

Prepare personality cards

For individual play, use the 30 cards with a column on the back; for Team Play, use the double circle cards

Sort and stack cards

Sort cards by Roman numeral on back (I-V), remove cards with numeral greater than number of players, shuffle stacks separately, and form face-down stack with I cards on top, then II cards, etc.

Create display area

Deal the top 7 cards to the display area and place the remaining stack face-down beside the board along with the Concordia card

Place starting colonists

Each player places 1 land and 1 sea colonist into the capital city and their scoring marker on 0

Distribute player components

Each player gets 15 wooden houses and their 7 starting personality cards marked with column or circles

Set up player board

Place 2 land and 2 sea colonists on colonist spaces of player board, and 2 food, 1 cloth, 1 wine, 1 brick, and 1 tool in the storehouse spaces

Distribute starting money

Starting player/team gets $5 and the turn order marker; 2nd player/team clockwise gets $6, etc.

Assign Praefectus Magnus

Give the Praefectus Magnus card to the last player in clockwise player order

Form teams (Team Play)

Choose teams of 2 (or 3) and sit opposite of partner; team members cannot communicate except through use of Legatus card

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

Play a card

Play 1 card from your hand to a personal face-up discard pile and execute the card actions

Manage storehouse

All goods must fit into player's storehouse; cannot discard goods to make room

Use Architect

Movement steps equal total number of colonists on the board

Use Prefect

Either choose an active province whose bonus marker still shows the goods side and receive 1 good of type shown on marker from bank and flip it, causing all houses in province to produce 1 unit of good for their owner; OR collect money equal to total shown on all bonus markers then flip all markers back to goods side

Use Colonist

Either pay 1 food and 1 tool each to place new colonist(s) in Roma or any city where player has a house, OR get $5 plus $1 for each of their own colonists on the game board

Use Mercator

Get $3 from bank (or $5 from a purchased Mercator) then make 2 goods trades with bank at price shown on storehouse

Use Diplomat

Execute a personality card action on top of another player's discard pile (except Diplomat)

Use Senator (Individual only)

Purchase up to 2 personality cards from the display, paying goods shown in red field on card plus goods shown under card's position on game board

Use Praetor (Team Play only)

Works like Senator, but each partner can purchase no more than 1 card; display replenished after both partners complete their turn

Use Consul (Individual only)

Purchase 1 personality card from the display, paying only goods shown in red field on card

Use Proconsul (Team Play only)

Purchase 1 card from the display (except Proconsul), then partner plays a card (not Legatus) and executes the action for themselves only

Use Specialist

Each owned house on the related type of good produces 1 unit, placed in storehouse

Use Tribune

Recover all played cards from personal discard pile back to hand; if more than 3 cards taken back, collect $1 per card over 3; also may place 1 new colonist into capital city by paying 1 food and 1 tool

Use Legatus (Team Play only)

Silently request your partner to play a card by looking at their hand and placing a card in front; partner goes first

Handle Double Choice Cards

In individual play, choose either personality; in Team Play, player who plays the card chooses a personality and their partner must use the other