Plan B Games PBGEG001 Coimbra, Mixed Colours

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While there are many ways to victory, the best of players will always look to optimize their opportunities with every roll of the dice. Coimbra brings a unique dice mechanism wherein the dice players draft will be utilized multiple times every round in various aspects of decision making.

Try to ensure you can afford a Voyage by the time Phase F comes around. If you draft grey or orange dice, you’ll earn a free boost of shields or coins, remember! No it does not. Let's get this out of the way now - Coimbra's theme is as weak as a Paul Daniels punchline. Thankfully, Coimbra shines in the gameplay department and I got so in to drafting the best dice for my plans that I forgot why I was moving a meeple around a map at all! Let’s explain the aim of the game next, so you have context for what’s you’ve laid out on the table… So, How Do You Win Coimbra? Coimbra is a game of choice, specialise or spread yourself out, number or colour, and so on. It plays out in only four rounds, although can be prone to analysis paralysis, particularly when the next group of cards are set-up at the start of a round. Yes, the theme is thinner than Harry Hill’s hairline but the art and vibrancy of the graphic design are wonderful. Coimbra is only four rounds long, each divided into a sequence of actions indicated on the player board. Having that as a reference immediately sets out the pace and gives players a clear structure, making the game fairly straightforward, despite its first appearances.

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Coimbra is a brand new game from Eggerspiele in which two to four players don the relatively familiar doublet’s of near-renaissance era explorers, based in the famous Portuguese city that shares it name with the game. Coimbra is a fairly classic euro style game that was actually designed by a group of relative veterans, each of whom has a number of other, similar games under their belt. Most famously perhaps, a subset of this team was responsible for creating The Voyages of Marco Polo, which is a thematic trading and exploring game that shares more than just a few features with Coimbra. The forums at BoardGameGeek often have good discussions about gameplay.We have selected some of the best links below. (Links will open in a new window or tab) Solo ideas and discussions On some of the Character Cards, there are diploma symbols in five different colours. You’ll score points for each unique diploma you have (12VP if you have all five). Last of all, players will add up their remaining coins, shields and any crowns. Then they’ll divide that number by two and earn that many points. The player with the most points is the champion of Coimbra! Top Tips to Triumph at Coimbra Note that in Phase E, some cards trigger at this point. For example, some E cards reward you with a return of two coins for every orange dice you drafted this round. Or, in Phase E another card allows the owner an exchange rate of giving up two shields for one VP. As the head of one of Coimbra’s richest houses, you seek to earn prestige during this prosperous era. In an effort to reserve the best reputation, you must clinch favors from the city’s most influential citizens - scholars, clerics, council members, and merchants - with a bit of coin or a little extra protective detail.

Coming from the designers of Grand Austria Hotel and Lorenzo Il Magnifico, Coimbra had me unreasonably excited. It's fair to say I didn't have a lot of gameplay information, other than I knew it involved dice drafting and these little plastic holders for your dice, dice homes as I like to call them. There are four boxes in a column down the left hand side of the Coimbra board for placing dice you have drafted in them. The top one lets you take a favour tile for free and the person with the lowest die chooses first. The other three resolve from the highest dice to lowest and let you buy a card for the value of the pips in the currency displayed on the card. Combined with always changing synergies between available tiles and cards - no game of Coimbra will ever be the same!

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No it does not. Let’s get this out of the way now – Coimbra’s theme is as weak as a Paul Daniels punchline. Thankfully, Coimbra shines in the gameplay department and I got so in to drafting the best dice for my plans that I forgot why I was moving a meeple around a map at all!

Every turn in Coimbra brings a sense of achievement. While placing dice, taking cards, going on voyages and moving pilgrims around the map, players start to build an engine that ensures that next round they can do or spend more. The benefits of investing in an area of the game are immediate, and actions spent never feel wasted. Even if you don't get to do exactly what you planned because someone took the die or card you wanted, your action will prove useful. Then, not even a full turn in, something almost magical happens. Everything starts arranging itself into a logical robust structure laid out so well that the initial apprehension disappears completely. While not every aspect becomes immediately clear – you’ll still find yourself looking up a symbol or two in the rulebook on occasion – the rest of the game becomes almost intuitive. If playing a three or two-player game, place specified Die Tokens in the Upper, Central and Lower City. This is for player count scaling purposes. If you’re playing with four players, ignore this. In the 15th and 16th century, Portugal is thriving under its leading role during the Age of Discovery. Nestled in the heart of Portugal, the city of Coimbra serves as a cultural center of the country. As the head of one of Coimbra’s oldest houses, you seek to earn prestige by deepening relationships with nearby monasteries or funding expeditions of the era. To reach this goal, you must vie for the favors of the city’s most influential citizens, even if you must offer a bit of coin or some protective detail. Coimbra introduces an innovative new dice mechanism in which the dice players draft each round are used in multiple different ways and have an impact on many aspects of their decision making. While there are many paths to victory, players should always seek to optimize their opportunities with every roll of the dice. Combined with ever-changing synergies of the citizens, expeditions, and monasteries, no two games of Coimbra will ever be the same!In the 15th and 16th century, Portugal is thriving under its leading role during the Age of Discovery. Nestled in the heart of Portugal, the city of Coimbra serves as a cultural center of the country. As the head of one of Coimbra's oldest houses, you seek to earn prestige by deepening relationships with nearby monasteries or funding expeditions of the era. To reach this goal, you must vie for the favors of the city's most influential citizens, even if you must offer a bit of coin or some protective detail. Shuffle and draw six Voyage Cards and place these face-up on the six spaces at the bottom of the board. Then place 14 Monastery tiles to their corresponding I, II and III spots on the Pilgrim Map. (Also distinguishable by colour.) Return the remaining Voyage Cards and Monasteries to the box. Also, if your die holder is sitting fifth in queue of dice, there’s a strong chance you won’t even get a card. In which case, you’ll only get two coins and two shields. Gamblers, beware… Coimbra takes place over four rounds. 2-4 players compete to earn points by buying Character Cards and funding Voyage Cards. Also available is exploration via the Pilgrim Map, which offers further bonuses. There are rewards to claim during (and at the end of) each round, too. As a result, players gain regular boosts. End game scoring can be big – don’t worry, we’ll explain how that works, later. Favour Tiles are free. They offer a range of perks. One, for example, pays out an immediate seven shields or seven coins. Another is worth two VP and three free movement for your Pilgrim.