Pax Renaissance: 2nd Edition

Objective and edition: Players are bankers influencing Europe through markets, tableaux and agents. Multiplayer victory normally requires spending an action to declare an activated social-transformation victory whose conditions you meet. If the decks can no longer refresh the market, Patron Prestige determines the fallback winner. King, Republic, religious colors and Prestige are rules terms; use the second-edition components and definitions rather than inferring thresholds from the theme.

Setup and markets: Take a banker board, colored agents and its starting Concession, then prepare Florins, Empires and map pieces as instructed. Each East and West market has six spaces, with the leftmost card face down and the others face up. Each draw deck contains two Comets, and all four Victory Squares begin inactive. East tableau cards go right of the banker board and West cards left. Follow Book I’s player-count setup for deck sizes, positions and starting money.

Action limits: Take one or two actions per turn, in either order, and each must change the game state. Purchase, play and sell may each be chosen up to twice; East Ops, West Ops, an East trade fair, a West trade fair and victory may each be chosen once. Refresh the markets only after the turn’s actions. Buying then playing is possible, but a second action cannot activate the same tableau side again.

Purchasing and hand limit: Buy a face-up card by placing one Florin on each card to its left in the same row. The first face-up card costs one, increasing by column. Collect money already on the purchased card, but not to fund that purchase. Your hand limit is two; play or sell a card before buying a third. Comets resolve immediately and bypass this normal limit. A card on which you placed money this turn cannot be purchased by you that turn.

Playing and agents: Play a hand card into its corresponding tableau side and resolve permitted agent placement. If you choose its One-shot, perform the required steps. Bishops, Knights, Rooks, Concessions and Pirates have different legal positions and roles. Wars, coronations and other regime changes can move Empire Squares into tableaux as Kings, Vassals or Republics; their type and location affect later actions and victory.

Operations and selling: Activating one side lets each card there perform at most one Op, in any order, with at least one valid target overall. Multiple icons on a card do not permit multiple Ops from that card. Pay costs and obey target-type and location limits. Selling normally discards an eligible card for two Florins. A coronated royal pair sells together for four; sold Empires and their Vassals return as the rules specify.

Trade and refresh: East and West trade fairs are separate actions. Discard the chosen market’s leftmost face-down card, then resolve trade-route profits and taxation; money on that card enters the profits. After the turn, slide cards and money left into gaps and refill from the appropriate deck. If one deck empties, use the other to continue. Patron victory occurs only when no cards remain to complete a required market refresh, not merely when one side’s deck first empties.

Comets and declaring victory: A purchased Comet is immediately discarded to activate one inactive Victory Square. Any player can then pursue that condition; the purchaser neither wins automatically nor owns the route. A Comet reaching the leftmost face-down slot is no longer normally purchasable, and discarding it for a trade fair activates nothing. Spend a separate victory action on your own turn and meet all conditions at that time.

Imperial and Globalization: Imperial requires at least two more King-side Empire Squares than each opponent, or three more in a two-player game; Suzerains and Vassals both count. Globalization requires at least two more Concessions than each opponent and more Discovery Prestige than every opponent. These are simultaneous comparisons against all rivals, not fixed totals or a lead over just one player.

Holy and Renaissance: Holy first requires a Supreme Religion: its Bishops in tableaux or Thrones exceed both other religions combined, and its matching unrepressed ruling-class pieces and Pirates in its Theocracies likewise exceed the other two religions combined. The claimant must also lead every opponent in that religion’s Prestige. Renaissance requires more Republics than each rival and at least two more Law Prestige than each rival. Apply the precise definitions of repression, Theocracy and counted locations.

Exhaustion and ties: If a required refresh cannot draw from either deck, the highest Patron Prestige wins. The final tiebreak is most Florins, with a shared victory if still tied. This fallback does not total every kind of Prestige together. Book II separately provides solo material; because the complete current guide could not be read, consult that guide for its setup, automated procedure and victory conditions.