Fine porcelain! Bolts and bolts
of fabric! Spices for sale!
These are the sounds you hear as you walk through the Italian
marketplace. In Medici, you are a merchant owner whose
job is to buy the most valuable loads for your ship. In addition,
you are also trying to corner one or more of these commodity
markets. However, your ship can only carry a maximum of five
loads of goods at a time. Therefore, you have to be careful in
your bidding at the auctions where one, two or three loads are
available for purchase in a lot. You also have to watch out because
there are other merchants that are also bidding for these valuable
goods. Once you have purchased your five loads, you are finished
buying for this buying session. Then each of the merchants sell
the loads on their ships. The more valuable the items you are
carrying, the more florins you will receive. You will also receive
florins for purchasing the most goods in any of the five different
commodities. After three buying sessions, the game ends and the
merchant who has the most florins wins.
Each turn, the dealer turns over up to three cards, one at
a time. The dealer can decide to stop turning over cards after
one, two or three cards have been revealed. Most of the cards
contain one of the five commodities and a value of 0 to 5. There
is also one special card with the value of 10 representing very
valuable bulk cargo. This card is neutral and representd any
of the five commodities. So while it is helpful in letting you
have the most valuable loads in your ship, it does not help you
corner any of the commodity markets. The revealed cards will
then be auctioned off amongst the players. Each merchant gets
one bid on the revealed cards, starting with the player on the
dealer's left and ending with the dealer. The high bidder takes
the cargo and adjusts his money indicator. The deal then passes
to the left and the process continues. This happens until all
of the players have five cargoes or until the deck is exhausted.
Once the buying session is complete, the merchants sell their
cargoes. The players adjust the commodity markers to indicate
the commodities purchased in this buying session. Each player
totals the value of the cargoes carried on their ships. The merchant
with the greatest total value receives 30 florins, the next highest
merchant receives a lesser amount of florins and so on to the
merchant with the lowest value receives no florins. Then each
of the commodity markets is evaluated. The merchants with the
greatest and second most amount of each commodity purchased receive
florins. In addition, if a merchant has purchased six or more
of any commodity cumulatively over the three buying sessions,
the merchant will receive bonus florins during the payment for
the individual commodity.
There will be three heats of the game, one each on three different
days. Players may participate in one or more heats of the tournament.
Each heat is scheduled for one hour. I will try to limit each
game to five players, although there may be some four- or six-player
games to fill out the field. The winners of each game in each
heat plus enough runner-ups to complete a field of 25 will then
advance to a single elimination semi-final round. The winners
will advance to the final immediately following. It is possible,
but unlikely, that there will be more winners than available
seats in the semi-final round. In that case, advancement will
be determined by the WBC standard MESE tie-breaker rules as follows:
MESE ADVANCEMENT TIE-BREAKERS: In Multiple Entry, Single Elimination
events for multi-player games, players possibly qualify for Single
Elimination play in the second round by winning any of up to
four preliminary Heats. Occasionally, players may advance wihout
winning a heat. Players can enter one or more Heats without limit.
All MESE events for multi-player games consist of three rounds;
an opening Round consisting of two to four Preliminary Heats,
a semi-final and a Final. The semi-final round will advance a
predesignated optimum number of players to fill the second round;
i.e., 25 players for a five-player game, 16 players for a four-player
game, etc. but in all cases will advance no more than half of
all players which participated in the Preliminaries. If insufficient
players advance to warrant a semi-final round, the scheduled
semi-final will instead become the Final.
NEW MESE TIE-BREAKERS: A Preliminary Heat win will NOT in
itself guarantee advancement. All MESE events will advance the
optimum number of players to the next round based on the following
tie-breakers without exception.
1. Win in first Heat entered
2. Most Wins
3.Win in second Heat entered
4.Win in third Heat entered
5.Win in fourth Heat entered
6. has brought a copy of the game if needed for next round; otherwise
GM may substitute game specific tie-breaker
7. average finish in all heats entered; e.g., a 2nd and two 3rds
= 2.67 and beats two 2nds and two 4ths (average: 3)
8.high dice roll
"Win and you're in" is no longer a given although
it is a strong possibility. This system of tie breakers encourages
repeat play in Heats without requiring it. A single win (especially
in the first Heat entered) will probably advance that winner
but is not guaranteed to do so. Conversely, players who continue
to play additional heats after winning a Preliminary game only
enhance their chances of advancement without damaging their prospects,
but a player who wins their only Preliminary game will probably
advance without investing further time in Preliminary play. Meanwhile,
non-winners who continue in Preliminary Heats will have additional
chances to qualify in search of that elusive first win since
in most events, a single win will still advance you to a semifinal
round.
Please note that some players prefer adjusting the markers
on the individual commodity markets after each auction while
some players prefer to wait until the end of the round to adjust
the commodity markers. I do not care which way the participants
do this as long as the players agree. However, if the players
cannot reach an agreement, markers will be adjusted at the end
of the round. In addition, please note that the seating order
will be random for the semi-final and final. However, for each
heat, the players may use random seating or not at their discretion.
As many of you probably know, Rio Grande Games released an
American version of the game, which has a couple of differences
from the German version. I understand that the game designer
(Reiner Knizia) approved the changes in the American version
before it was published. Every year I seem to flip-flop on the
one rule and I am doing so again this year because players seem
to like the American rule better. If I receive enough requests
to change the rules next year, I will do so again. The two rules
that are in conflict are listed below with the rule I am using
in the tournament specified.
1. In six-player games, the player who
has the third highest total cargo receives 10 florins in the
German version of the game, while the American version gives
the third-place player 15 florins. I am going to use the 15-florin
award for the third-place ship if there are any six-player games
required.
2. The American version has an extra 5-florin bonus space
on the third highest level of each of the commodity markets that
the German version does not have. Currently, this space will
not be in effect for this tournament.
This is your tournament, which I am happy to run for you.
Therefore, if you have any ways that I can improve this tournament,
please let me know. I can be contacted via e-mail, snail mail
or personally at the WBC. I will consider all ideas presented
to me for future tournaments.
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