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About Lorenzo il Magnifico
Lorenzo il Magnifico is a worker-placement game from Flaminia Brasini, Virginio Gigli and Simone Luciani set in Renaissance Florence. Three coloured dice are rolled each round, and each sets the strength of one of your family members for everyone. You use them to take cards from four towers, run harvest and production, and keep the Church happy. It is a tight, card-driven engine builder with little luck once the dice land.
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Is Lorenzo il Magnifico Right for You?
Best for
Lorenzo il Magnifico is for groups who like worker placement with a card-drafting engine and a steady pace. The shared dice mean everyone faces the same values, which keeps it fair, and the four towers give lots of competition over the same cards. Three and four players is best.
Maybe skip it if…
The iconography is dense and the first game is slow while everyone learns what the cards do. Players who dislike being blocked out of a space they needed will find it tense rather than fun.
How to Play Lorenzo il Magnifico
Setup
Give each player four family members, a personal board and starting resources. Deal the period's cards into the four towers and set the three excommunication tiles.
On Your Turn
- Roll the three dice. Their values set the strength of your orange, black and white family members; the neutral one is always zero.
- In turn order, place one family member at a time: on a tower floor to take its card, at the harvest or production spaces, the market or the Council Palace.
- Spend servants to boost a family member's value when it falls short.
How to Win
After three periods of two rounds, score cards, military rank, faith and resources. At each Vatican report, fall short on faith and you take an excommunication penalty.
💡 Strategy Tips
Watch the dice before you draft. A high black die is shared, so the tower floor you want may already be everyone's first choice.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Ignoring faith. Falling short at a Vatican report hands you an excommunication penalty that lasts the rest of the game.
- Taking territories without military. From your third territory onwards you need military points to take more, and many players only notice when blocked.
- Spending all your servants early. They are the only way to raise a low family member, and running out leaves you stuck.
- Forgetting the tower fee. Placing in a tower that already has a family member in it costs three coins, which adds up quickly.
Advanced Strategy
- Characters and buildings compound. Take the permanent effects early; late in the game only points matter.
- Plan harvest and production together with your cards. Both scale with the dice and with your tableau, so build towards one.
- The Council Palace is often underused. Going first next round can decide who gets the best tower card.
- Remember the end-game territory and character scoring tables. Six of a type is worth far more than five.
Variants & House Rules
Lorenzo il Magnifico: Houses of Renaissance
An expansion adding a fifth player, a fifth tower of new cards, new leaders and a house ability for each player. Collected with the base game in the Big Box.
Leader cards
Included in the base box and dealt as a draft. They are the rules most groups leave out of a first game and add from the second.
Video Guides
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Our Verdict
Lorenzo il Magnifico is a well-built worker-placement game with a clever shared-dice twist. Everyone plays with the same numbers, so decisions rather than luck separate players. It is a good step up for groups who have enjoyed lighter placement games.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it take?
Around ninety minutes at three or four once people know it. A first game is closer to two hours.
How does the shared dice rule work?
Three dice are rolled each round. Each player's orange, black and white family members take the value of the matching die, and servants raise them.
Is it good at two?
It works, but some spaces are blocked and the towers are less contested. Three and four show it off better.