Z-Man Games Press Release - Bruges – What’s it all about?

Bruges – What’s it all about?

Today, we take a more in-depth look at what Bruges is all about. Back-story Belgium, 15th Century. The first stock market opens its doors. All of Europe has set its eyes on the wealthy and influential city of Bruges. In this game, your objective will be to gather influence with the local merchants, bureaucrats, nobles, and the many others that rule this beautiful city. With their help, you hope to gain prestige, reputation, and power. But you must be careful, as disasters lurk nearby. Ruse, tactical thinking, and a little luck will allow you to pull ahead. And, if that is not enough, the shadier denizens of the city will be more than happy to help. Lets first take a look at the board Around the exterior, like you see in most games; you will find the scoring track. Interesting thing about Bruges, you don’t start the game on the 0, but on the 5 point space. Then, inside that you will see some little spaces numbered 1-5. These are the Canal spaces. Each player has two sections of the Canal that they can decide to use, or not, throughout the game. In the middle of the board, you will find spaces numbered from 1 to 12. This is the reputation track. The higher you go, the more points you will gain at the end of the game. To the right of the board, you will find the spot where you most put the dice. The dice are rolled at the start of each round, but we’ll get to that later. That’s it for the board, now let’s get into how to play. What one round of Bruges looks like Step 1 – Draw: Player will draw 5 cards from the two different decks available. You will want to choose cards that have the right color for your needs. But you will only be able to see the first card of each deck. Step 2 – Roll the dice: The dice are rolled and placed in their reserved area in order from the largest to the smallest. Step 3 – Distribute Threat markers: Threat markers are distributed to all players. You will get a Threat marker of the color of each die that has a value of 5 or 6. Step 4 – Advance Reputation: Players decide if they wish to advance on the Reputation track. They do so by paying the total cost of all dice values of 1 or 2. So if there is one 1 and two 2’s, it will cost 5 guilders to advance on the track this round. Step 5 – Play cards and perform actions: Each player will play one card at a time, performing one of 6 possible actions (Take 2 workers, Take 1-6 guilders, Discard 1 Threat marker, Build 1 Canal token, Build 1 House, Recruit 1 Person). Once all player have taken four actions, this step ends. Step 6 – Verify majorities: At this point, players verify whether one of them has a majority and can therefore flip their corresponding Majority marker that will allow them to gain points at the end of the game. Players can have majority in three sectors: Reputation, People and Canals. Step 7 – Change the start player: The Start Player banner is passed to the next player in clockwise order and a new round can begin. Well, there you have it. You now know a bit more about how to play Bruges. More info about the game still to come.