Thoughts on Leonardo da Vinci

Thanks to Brian, Rob, and Al/Michael for helping me try out my newest acquisition, Da Vinci Games' Leonardo da Vinci. The drawing by the Maestro at left bears a striking resemblance to my expression as I counted up my final score and realized how totally I had been trounced.

To me the mark of a good Euro is one where it is simple to learn and play, but it takes you 5-10 plays before you really feel you're understanding how the various mechanisms all fit together. This game has several: the pre-game favor picks; the worker allocations; picking your council options; when/how to upgrade your labs; when/how to save money; and which inventions to pursue.

This is not the typical game in my collection, as there's no killing involved or even implied, but fortunately there is real resource conflict. In fact, I think the real crux of the game is the bluffing and screwage that goes on during the worker assignment phase. I found it very tempting to forget about the real work to be done back at the lab when there's so much to be done out in the city. Still, you can't be everywhere at once, so you need some form of a plan to prevail.

Anyway, I won't get too longwinded in my rambling thoughts... what did everyone else think about the game?