Learn Maestro

Welcome to Maestro

Italy, early 1500s. Two rival workshops — Leonardo da Vinci’s and Michelangelo’s — compete for fame. Each Workshop is one player or a team of two. You create Artworks, carry them to the Galleries of northern Italy, sway the Collectors who set the fashion and win the favour of patrons.

The Workshop with the most victory points after 4 rounds wins. Points come from:

• Galleries — every round, each Gallery pays the Workshop whose Artwork is its Centerpiece.
• Your Workshop and your patrons — at the end: da Vinci’s Inventions or Michelangelo’s cleared Sistine Chapel, plus your Patroness cards.

1–4 players (solo against the Machina), about 90–140 minutes. Ready to set up? Open the setup checklist — it adapts to your player count.

The boards

• The map — regions in four colours. Gallery tokens mark where art is shown; Florence is where new Artwork arrives. Gray regions can be crossed but never stopped in.
• Four Actions — Move, Create, Influence and Study. Each Workshop plays its cards on its own side.
• Collector Lodge — four coloured areas; the colour with the most Collectors scores best.
• Study track — rewards: Resources, card upgrades and Workshop upgrades.
• Sideboard — the four Characters and the Tools tile that shows whose turn it is.

Each Workshop also has its own board: da Vinci’s grid for Inventions, Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel. More on the Workshops.

A turn

The Tools tile points at the active Character. On your turn, in either order:

1. Main Action — play a card to Move, Create, Influence or Study. Its Effort gives Action Points; its Publicity fights for that Action’s patron card. You may add a Publicity token.
2. Workshop Action — da Vinci places all his Resources on his board and may build an Invention; Michelangelo pays to resolve a Sistine Chapel tile.

Then turn the Tools tile to the next Character. Whatever you gain goes to your other Character — your teammate, or your other half if you play alone.

In rounds 1 and 2 the first four turns are Gossip turns: a card face down, for Publicity only. The full turn.

The Exhibition

After 12 turns comes the Exhibition:

1. Rank the colours by Collectors in the Lodge.
2. Score each Gallery for its Centerpiece owner: Popular 14 / 8 / 4 VP, Secondary 7 / 4 / 2 VP, by the colour’s rank. A Workshop present without majority gains a Resource.
3. Major Publicity — at each Action, the Workshop with more Publicity takes the Benefactor or Patroness card; the other gets a Publicity token.

Then Cleanup: scored Galleries lose an Artwork, Popular Galleries turn Secondary and three new ones appear. Details.

Winning

After round 4’s Exhibition, add:

• Michelangelo: 2 VP per removed Sistine Chapel tile and per empty row;
• da Vinci: the VP beside each Invention he built;
• each Patroness card’s condition.

Most VP wins. Ties: most Popular Gallery tiles, then farther on the Study track.

You know enough to play. Keep Teach the Game open while you explain it, and the FAQ for questions.