Concordia: Venus (Board Game) Trivia Quiz

Answer: Having provinces with multiple houses

In the individual game, Venus cards grant two points for each province in which a player has at least two houses. In the team game, Venus cards grant one point for each province in which the player and their team mate both have a house.

A lot of card scoring methods encourage players to spread out as much as possible. The Venus scoring offers a more compact way to score points.

Answer: Copies the last card the player used

In base "Concordia," the Diplomat lets players copy each others' cards. The Magister lets players copy their own most recent card. Just adding this one extra card offers players more flexibility. The only caveat is that the Magister cannot be used to copy a Senator, so players cannot reliably set up two turns in a row of buying new cards.

Answer: Diplomat

The Venus cards in the shop do not offer unique actions, instead having two existing actions on the same card. The player can choose which of the two actions they want to use when they play the card (and if the card is copied by a Diplomat or Magister, the other action may be selected).

The first Venus card is the Prefect/Architect, the second is the Architect/Mercator, the third is the Prefect/Mercator, and the fourth is another Architect/Mercator. These cards replaced a Prefect, Architect, Mercator, and another Architect from the original game, so the card shop did not grow.

Answer: Their colonists start in a different city

Only the first player of each team places their starting colonists in the capital city. The team mates can place their starting colonists in any city that is not adjacent the capital city. Because the second starting city is a viable candidate for a house, the second played has a chance to build three houses on an opening Architect action. If the second player chooses a city that can only be accessed by one type of route (sea or land), then they use two of the same type of colonist instead of one of each type.

Answer: Money

Each player maintains their own pool of money, but if they fall short on a transaction (buying houses with an Architect action, or resources with a Mercator action), they can ask their partner to help cover the cost, and the partner must oblige if they have the funds. Just because a partner must give a player money does not mean bankrupting one player to finance the other is a good strategy. Both players have to do well to win.

Answer: The Praetor lets you buy only one new card instead of two

In the team game, whenever one player plays a card, they take the action, and then their partner takes the same action. If each player on a team had a Senator, then they could add four cards to their hands before playing their Tribune (without considering the opportunities to use a Diplomat to copy an opponent's Senator).

This would be far too many. Instead, the Praetor lets each member purchase one new card each, and each player on a team has a Praetor, so players can easily still add two cards to their hand before their first Tribune, just like the Senator in the individual game.

Answer: They play a card for only themselves

In the team game, when one player plays a card they take the action, and then their team mate also takes that action. Buying a card while ignoring the additional cost is too strong an action for both players on a team to take in one turn. When a Proconsul is played, the team mate then plays a card from their own hand and take that action for just themselves. Each player still gets one action per turn.

Answer: Makes the player's team mate play a card

Legates in ancient Rome were like lieutenants or sub-commanders. In "Concordia: Venus," the Legatus card is used to delegate responsibility of the turn to the team mate. If a Legatus is played, then the player looks at their team mate's hand of cards, makes a suggestion, and then hands the cards back. Then the team mate plays a card (the team mate does not have to follow the suggestion) and takes its action as if it was their own turn, and then the original player copies the action.

Because players take actions on their team mate's turns, and sometimes play cards when a Legatus or Proconsul is used, it can be tricky remembering whose turn it is. "Concordia: Venus" comes with a player turn token that is passed around the table to help keep track.

Answer: Mars

In base "Concordia," players started with seven cards. In the "Venus" individual game, the Magister brought it up to eight. In the team variant, each player starts with only six cards. One of the two Prefects (a Saturnus card) and the Magister (a Venus card) are removed, and then the first player removes their Diplomat (a Jupiter card), and the second player removes their Architect (also a Jupiter card). To make up for these lost initial cards for scoring purposes, the Legatus has all three gods.

Answer: Wine

The wine board first appeared in the 2017 "Aegyptus / Creta" map pack expansion as a thin folded card stock component. The wine board included in "Venus" is thicker, sturdier material, like the player storehouses.

In base "Concordia," wine is the second most expensive resource, but it is not used for anything unique. Cloth was useful because it was the most expensive resource (good for generating cash), and was used to cover the extra costs of new cards. The wine board swaps out some of the cloth symbols on the card shop with wine symbols, giving players a better reason to consider building in wine cities.