Houses of Renaissance

The Houses of Renaissance expansion for Lorenzo il Magnifico: a fifth player, the Special Tower and Adaptation tile, Special Development cards, Special Tokens, the Family tile auction, 20 new Leaders and 3 new Excommunication tiles.

Short tag: [HoR]

What it adds

Component	Use
	A fifth player: Personal Board, Personal Bonus Tile, 4 pink Family Members, 4 discs, 3 cubes.
	The Special Tower — a fifth tower for Special Development cards.
	2 Adaptation tiles — one for 2–4 players, one for 5.
	48 Special Development cards (97–144), all four types.
	30 Special Tokens — a new kind of resource.
	10 Family tiles and 5 Auction tiles.
	20 new Leader cards.
	A new Council tile with a sixth privilege.
	3 Special Faith tiles (for the Della Rovere family).
	The brown Family Member worth 3 (for the Colonna family).

Setup changes

Set up the base game with these changes:

1. Put the Special Tower next to the board and lay the new Council tile over the Council Privilege row: a Special Token becomes a sixth privilege choice.
2. Sort the Special Development cards by period and draw 8 of each at random. Stack them like the base decks (III at the bottom, I on top) beside the Special Tower. The rest go back in the box.
3. Shuffle the 3 new Excommunication tiles into the base tiles of their periods before drawing.
4. Put the Special Tokens face down next to the supply.
5. Take the 2–3–4 Adaptation tile, or the 5 one with five players. Turn up a leftover Special Development card and lay the Adaptation tile over the action spaces of the tower of its colour.
6. Players take their pieces but no wood, stone or servants.
7. Coins by turn order: 0 / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4.

Then choose Personal Bonus Tiles, hold the Family tile auction, and only then draft Leaders.

The Family tile auction

Draw as many Family tiles and Auction tiles as there are players and lay one Family tile on each Auction tile at random. Each Auction tile has 6 offering lines; the higher the line, the fewer starting resources it gives.

• In turn order, place any one of your Family Members on a free line.
• On an empty Auction tile, any line is allowed. On a tile someone already bid on, you must go higher — and that player at once moves to another line, on the same or another tile, by the same rule. One bid can push several players around.
• The top line wins its Family tile for sure.
• When every player stands alone on an Auction tile, each takes that Family tile and the resources of their line.

Family tiles

Family	Ability
	Da Montefeltro — wood and stone you spend on Buildings go onto this tile. When you get a Council Privilege you may take everything on the tile instead.
	Aragonesi — each Territory you take triggers a Harvest at that card’s activation value minus 1; servants and Characters cannot raise it.
	Malatesta — Ventures with a Military cost only need the Military Points; you do not spend them.
	Este — on your turn, swap 1 Military Point for 2 coins as often as you like.
	Medici — each Character you take also gives a Special Token; you may hold 8 Characters, scoring 28 for 7 and 36 for 8.
	Sforza — before the auction, 2 Leaders are laid face up by this tile. Its winner takes both, plays one free of requirements and keeps the other.
	Gonzaga — at the end of each Actions phase, pay 7 servants to take a card left on the four base towers, free of cost and of Military requirements.
	Orsini — each full set of one card of every type rewards you: 1st set draw 2 leftover Leaders; 2nd play a Leader free of requirements; 3rd 10 points; 4th 15 points.
	Colonna — you start with the brown Family Member worth 3, a fifth pawn that is neither coloured nor uncoloured for the placement rules.
	Della Rovere — the 3 Special Faith tiles go on their Faith steps; reach one to take it and its bonus. Each excommunication costs you 5 points.

The Special Tower

The Special Tower has 4 action spaces and follows every base rule. Each round, deal 4 Special Development cards onto it, bottom first; at the end of the round discard what is left. Its third and fourth floors give 1 or 2 Special Tokens instead of goods.

While a card sits in the Special Tower it has no colour: effects tied to a colour do not reach it, effects for any card do. Once the card is in front of you it has its colour again.

The Adaptation tile

The Adaptation tile covers the action spaces of one base tower and changes their minimum values: higher than usual with 2–4 players, lower with 5. At each End of the Round move it to the next tower to the right, wrapping from the Ventures back to the Territories. It never goes on the Special Tower.

Special Tokens

A Special Token counts as a resource like wood or coins.

• Draw it face down. You may look at it; others need not see it.
• On your turn, before or after placing, discard any number of tokens for the bonus printed on them. Spent tokens go face up aside; reshuffle them when the stack runs out.
• When a card costs tokens, or a Leader requires them, the symbol on them does not matter — and a token paid as a cost gives no bonus.
• At the end they are worth nothing: cash them before scoring.

Token	Bonus
	1 and 1
	1 or 1
	Run one of your Buildings at value 3; no Personal Bonus Tile
	1 and 1

Special Development cards

They follow the base rules of their type and add new symbols:

New Leaders

Add them to the base Leaders or choose a set; draft as usual. Some have an action ability: a private action space only their owner may use, by the normal placement rules.

Leader	Requirement	Ability
Alfonso V d’Aragona	6 , 0	Permanent: each Territory you take gives 1 .
Palla Strozzi	4 Territories, 5	1x: Harvest at value 3, one Territory only.
Alfonso I d’Este	10 , at most 1	Permanent: each Character you take gives 2 .
Ladislao VII Jagellone	10 , at most 1 Building	When played: play a Leader ignoring all its requirements.
Ercole I d’Este	4 , at most 1 and 1	Permanent: each Building you take gives 2 .
Massimiliano I d’Asburgo	4 Territories, 4 Buildings	Action (6+): 3 Special Tokens and 5 .
Ferdinando d’Aragona	8 , 8 , at most 1 wood or stone	Permanent: each Venture you take gives 1 and 1 .
Guglielmo de’ Pazzi	4 Characters, 8	Action (4+): 3 and 2 .
Martin Lutero	1 card of each type, 7	Permanent: you cannot be excommunicated.
Piero della Francesca	4 Special Tokens, 10	Action (3+): 3 Special Tokens.
Tomas de Torquemada	3 Buildings, 5	1x: discard a Character for 3 .
Erasmo da Rotterdam	4 Ventures, 3 Characters	Action (5+): 3 , 3 , 3 .
Pietro Bembo	3 Characters, 3	Action (3+): 3 and 3 .
Marsilio Ficino	4 , 5 , at most 1 Venture	1x: draw 2 Special Tokens, keep 1.
Paracelso	3 Territories, 3	Permanent: pay servants instead of wood, stone or coins.
Beatrice d’Este	5 cards with at most 1 Character, at most 1	1x: discard a Special Token for 5 or 5 .
Leon Battista Alberti	3 Ventures, 10	1x: Production at value 3, one Building only.
Giulio II	9 cards of at most 3 types	1x: pay 1 wood, 1 stone, 1 coin for 3 .
Lucia da Narni	6 cards with at most 1 Territory, at most 2 Special Tokens	1x: 1 and 2 .
Bramante	4 Ventures, 4 , 4 , 4	Action (1+): Harvest or Production at the placed Family Member’s value.

New Excommunication tiles

Tile	Penalty
	Period I — each time you gain Special Tokens, gain 1 fewer.
	Period II — you may not take cards from the Special Tower.
	Period III — at the end, lose 5 points for each card beyond the fourth of each type.

Scoring changes

• Special Tokens score nothing: cash them before the final scoring.
• The Medici score 28 or 36 for 7 or 8 Characters; Orsini sets give 10 and 15 points.
• Della Rovere’s player loses 5 points per excommunication.
• Several Special Ventures score per resource, token or Military Point, capped as printed.