Pax Renaissance – Quick Rules Summary

In Pax Renaissance, players take on the roles of powerful bankers during the European Renaissance. You control the flow of capital, influence monarchs, and trigger religious or political upheavals to shape the world.

Goal of the Game

The game ends when one of the four Victory Conditions (Victoria) is met or the market deck is exhausted. Four paths to victory must be activated by purchasing Comet cards from the market (2 in East & 2 in West):

• Renaissance Victory (End of Feudalism): Having the most Republics and 2+ more Law prestige.
• Globalization Victory (Age of Discovery): Having the most Discovery prestige and 2+ more concessions (pawns).
• Imperial Victory (Holy Roman Emperor): Controlling 2+ (3+ in 2p) more Kingdoms.
• Holy Victory (Religious Domination): Your religion is dominant, and you have the most prestige in that religion.

Game Flow

Players take turns in clockwise order. A turn consists of 2 actions (can be the same or different).

The 8 Possible Actions

1. Buy Card (Market): Place florin on a card to the left of the desired card in the Market (East or West) to take it into your hand.
2. Sell Card (Hand/Tableau): Remove a card from your tableau or hand and gain florins.
3. Play Card (Tableau): Place a card from your hand into your Tableau (West or East side). Many cards trigger one-shot effects when played (e.g., placing pieces, Inquisitors, or Pirates).
4. East/West Operations (Tableau): Activate all symbols on the cards of one side of your tableau (either all West cards or all East cards). Each card can only be activated once per turn.
5. East/West Trade Fair: Gold is distributed along the selected East/West route. Bankers controlling the route by holding concessions there earn Florin. Discard the left most card in the respective market after passing the turn. Can't do 2 trade fairs on the same trade route per turn.
6. Declare Victory: Declare an activated victory if conditions are fulfilled.

Operations & Symbols

When choosing the Operations action, you execute the symbols on your cards:

• Campaign (Military Op)
  • Create a Battle from this King's Empire to an adjacent Empire. (Campaign Ops are only found on Kings).
  • All Knights (of any colour) on this King's Location are the attackers.
  • All Knights and Rooks (of any colour) on the adjacent Empire's cities are defenders.
  • If the attackers are Victorious, the defending Empire suffers a Regime Change and is claimed as a Vassal
• Tax (Political Op)
  • Target a Concession (a target player's Pawn, which can be your own) to tax.
  • The Concession owner either pays 1 Florin to China or Represses the targeted Concession.
  • The Concession owner places a Levy (Knight or Rook) on an empty City.
  • This Op can only be chosen if the Location is not Saturated (there is an empty city) and has a Concession to target.
• Repress (Political Op)
  • Move a Token of the illustrated type to its Empire Square.
  • Gain 1 Florin
• Siege (Military Op)
  • Kill a Knight Rook or Pirate in the Location.
• Corsair (Military Op)
  • Move a Pirate of the matching religious symbol to an adjacent Sea Border.
  • Cannot move to a Border containing a Pirate of the same colour.
  • Kill any Concession (Pawn) or Pirate in the destination Border.
• Vote (Political Op)
  • Cause a Regime Change of an Empire Square in a Tableau of the matching Location (not in a Throne or a Vassal).
  • Must have more Concessions (Pawns) on the Empire's Borders.
  • Pay 1 Florin per Repressed Token on the Empire.
  • Gain a Concession
  • You may Emancipate Repressed Tokens (return them to the map).
  • Gain the Empire Square if it isn't in your Tableau. Flip the Empire Square if it is in your Tableau.
  • If the Empire is Theocratic you may change it to Medieval.
• Behead (Political Op)
  • Kill a tableau card located in the Location.
  • If a Empire Square was beheaded, this card is also killed.
• Commerce (Economic Op)
  • Gain a florin from the indicated market (East or West).
• Inquisitor (Religious Op)
  • Move a Bishop to an adjacent card in a Tableau, or to a card with the same Location as its current position.
  • If the destination card has a Bishop, both Bishops are killed.
  • If the destination card has any Repressed Tokens you may kill one.
  • A Bishop silences the card it is on: Non-Religious Ops cannot be used; Abilities cannot be used (unless they're immune to silencing); Prestige is still counted.

One-Shots

Represented by a Bomb icon on the card and are executed when the card is played.

• Trade Shift
  • Move the busted disk on a trade route.
  • Bomb colour designates the trade route.
• Coronation
  • Marry a Queen to a King.
  • Causes as Regime Change
• Conspiracy (Civil War)
  • Creates a Battle
  • Attackers are: Agents on the card (not Bishops), Repressed Ruling Class (Knights and Rooks), and Bordering Pirates (of any colour).
  • Defenders are: Tokens in Cities (Knights and Rooks)
  • If Victorious, causes a Regime Change
• Peasant Revolt (Civil War)
  • Creates a Battle
  • Attackers are: Agents on the card (not Bishops), Bordering Concessions (player's Pawns), Repressed Pawns, and Bordering Pirates (any colour).
  • Defenders are: Tokens in Cities (Knights and Rooks)
  • If Victorious, causes a Regime Change
• Religious War
  • Creates a Battle
  • Bomb colour designates the Believers' religion. Other religions are Heretics. Target Location must contain at least one Heretic.
  • Attackers are: Agents on the card (not Bishops or Pawns), Believer Ruling Class (Knights and Rooks) in the Location, adjacent Believer Knights, Believer Bordering Pirates.
  • Defenders are: Heretic Ruling Class (Knights and Rooks), Heretic Bordering Pirates.
  • Repressed Tokens do not fight.
  • Causes a Regime Change.
  • Causes a Theocracy Change to the Victorious religion.
• Apostasy
  • If a player has cards with both Prestige items of the indicated Religions, Discard all those cards.

Battle

• Each attacking token kills a defending token, and dies itself.
• The attacking player chooses which tokens die.
• The battle is Victorious if at least one attacking token is left.

Key Concepts for Decisions

• Prestige: There are four types (Law, Discovery, Religious, Patron). Prestige is essential for meeting victory conditions.
• Empire Cards: An empire has two sides: the Kingdom side allows you to campaign, while the Republics side is a modernized state potentially providing Law prestige and Vote/Commerce operations.
• Theocracy: If an empire is theocratic, it can be Catholic, Islamic, or Reformed. This dictates which units (Knights/Rooks) are active and contributes to the military strength of a religion. Most of the time, however, an empire is medieval (not theocratic).
• Bishops: Unlike other tokens, bishops are not on the map but on tableaus or empire cards. They contribute to the theocratic strength of their religion and silence cards they land on.

End of Game (Empty Market)

If none of the four victory conditions is met before the market runs out, the player with the most Patron prestige wins Patron Victory. Tie-breaker is the number of florins, and if still tied, players share the victory.