Towers and Cards

Lorenzo il Magnifico's four towers and Development cards: floor values and bonuses, the 3-coin occupied-tower fee, the colour rule, card costs, Territories and Military requirements, Buildings, Characters, Ventures and the 6-card limit.

The towers

Four towers stand on the board, one per card colour, each with 4 floors. Every floor holds one Development card and one action space. At the start of each round a fresh card is dealt to every floor (Round setup).

Floor	Minimum value	Bonus on placing
1st (bottom)	1	—
2nd	3	—
3rd	5	1 / 1 / 1 / 1
4th (top)	7	2 / 2 / 2 / 2

The bonus depends on the tower: wood in the Territory tower, stone in the Character tower, Military Points in the Building tower, coins in the Venture tower. No die shows 7, so the top floor always needs a servant or a card bonus. You may place on any floor in any order.

Placing in a tower

1. Choose a floor whose value your Family Member meets (after servants and bonuses).
2. If the tower already holds a Family Member — anyone’s, even your own — pay 3 coins first.
3. Take the floor bonus at once, if any. You may use it to pay for the card.
4. Pay the card’s cost; for a Territory, check your Military Points.
5. Put the card in its place on your Personal Board and resolve its immediate effect.

Occupied towers

• The 3 coins go to the supply. Coins from the floor bonus of that very space cannot pay them.
• A tower counts as occupied only when a Family Member stands in it. Cards taken earlier by card effects do not make it occupied.
• One colour per tower: you may never have two of your coloured Family Members in the same tower. Uncoloured Family Members are neutral, so you may add yours to a tower where you already have a coloured one — that is how one player takes two cards from one tower in a round.

Taking a card without a Family Member

Some immediate effects let you take another card at a stated value without placing a pawn (). Everything works as a normal placement: you may add servants and bonuses, you pay the card’s cost, you pay 3 coins if a Family Member is already in that tower, and you get the third- and fourth-floor bonus. Because no pawn is placed, the colour rule does not apply.

The cards

There are 4 types of Development card, 96 in all: 8 of each colour for each of the 3 periods. Each card shows its cost (top left), its immediate effect (middle, next to the lightning bolt) and its permanent effect (bottom).

Type	Cost	Goes on your board	Permanent effect works
Territory (green)	None, but needs Military Points	Lower row, left to right	With a Harvest
Building (yellow)	Resources: wood, stone, servants, coins	Upper row, left to right	With a Production
Character (blue)	Coins only	A line at the lower right	When you do the action it names
Venture (purple)	Resources or Military Points	A line at the upper right	At the final scoring

You must pay the full cost; if you cannot, you cannot take the card. You may never have more than 6 cards of one type.

Territories

Territories cost nothing, but they need military strength. Your lower row has 6 spaces; the first two are always free, the others show the Military Points you must have (not spend) when you place a card there:

Territory space	1	2	3	4	5	6
needed	0	0	3	7	12	18

Once the card is down the requirement no longer matters, even if your Military Points drop.

Buildings

Buildings always cost resources. Their permanent effects run with a Production: they give goods, or turn one resource into another or into points.

Example	Production effect
	Pay 1 for 3 , or 2 for 5 FAQ FAQ
	Pay 1 for 3 , or 2 for 5 FAQ
	1 Council Privilege and 2

Characters

Characters cost only coins. Their immediate effects often give a free action — take another card, Harvest or Produce at a set value — played by the normal rules. Their permanent effects add to an action value () or cut a cost () whenever you do that action, even through a card effect.

Example	Effect
	Taking a Character: +2 to the value and 1 coin off the cost
	Every Harvest: +2 to the value
	Gain 4 Faith now; you never again get third- or fourth-floor bonuses

Ventures

Ventures cost resources, Military Points, or a choice of either. A Military cost shows two numbers: you must have the larger and spend the smaller. Their points come only at the final scoring.

Reading the symbols

Symbol	Meaning
	Take that many resources or points.
	Do that action at the value shown, without placing a Family Member.
	Pay what is on the left to get what is on the right, once per activation; with two arrows, choose one.
	Get the coins or points on the left for each card (or Military Point) of the kind on the right.
	Pay less of the resources shown when you take that type of card.
	Add the dots to your action value for that action.

[HoR] Special Development cards add new symbols (Houses of Renaissance).