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Patrician takes place in the Middle Ages when wealthy families were inspired to build magnificent towers in order to show off how prosperous they were. As the old saying goes, the taller the tower, the more influential the family.
Players are master builders trying to profit from these vanity-driven families. You build these towers floor by floor, ready to take credit for making them look good. From Mayfair’s description of the game: “You must shrewdly accept the building orders of the patrician families to position yourself in the right place at the right time. Play your cards right, and your name will be famous among the rich and powerful!”
Patrician comes with 149 wooden tower pieces, 55 building cards, 20 prestige tokens, and a double-sided playing board.
The board represents a number of cities, each of which will have 2 towers when the games ends. Players have a hand of 3 cards, each indicating one city. Playing a card allows that player to add a tower piece to the city indicated by the card. Each city will have a specific number of tower pieces. When the specified number of pieces are played to the city, the city is complete. The player with the most pieces in each of the two towers will score points when the city is completed. The player replaces the played card by taking the card from the city where he played a tower piece. As long as the city in uncompleted, a new card is added to the city to replace the one taken by the player.
In addition to indicating a city, cards have one of 4 secondary functions. They can have one or two Portraits from an influential family. They can add a second tower piece to the same city. they can allow the player to move the top piece from one tower in any other city where the player has at least one tower piece, to the top of the other tower in that same city. Finally, a card may allow the player to take a replacement card from any of the cities, not just the one where the player has added a tower piece. All cards played are kept by the player. At the end of the game, additional points are awarded for every complete set of 3 portraits from the influential families.
The game ends when all cities are completed, which will also be when all cards have been played.
The goal of the game is to be the most successful builder, indicated by having the most points.
This page includes videos and mentions from the whole Patrician family. Drill into a specific game below.
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Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- It's a Wonderful game I absolutely adore it.
- It's a phenomenal game it's absolutely brilliant and I love it I truly love it.
- I've spent more money on it than I should have.
- Be kind to yourself and to those around you.
References (from this video)
- Elegant design with essentially no chunky rules
- Classic feel that still holds up
- Economy and area majority with set collection
- City districts with towers and area control
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Area Majority — control districts for points; towers impact scoring.
- set collection / tower stacking — collecting tower-related resources and placing them in stacks.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- It's not a party game it's a card game but you use it at parties.
- I would use this every time over Code Names.
- This is a blast, a super fun game.
References (from this video)
- Quick to play and easy to learn after understanding a couple of rules.
- Visually appealing.
- Plays very easily and quickly.
- Interesting area control based on tower height and area presence.
- Two cards can be a little hard to understand initially.
- Building towers of houses in different areas.
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Area Control — Players build towers of houses, and whoever has the most in an area controls it for scoring.
- Card Drafting — Players play cards to determine where they place pieces.
- Limited Hand — Players have only three cards in hand, and every card is played, making hand management and timing critical.
- Set Collection — Collecting people on cards provides an additional scoring element.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- It's hard to find that sweet spot. Yes, that balance.
- It's just, you know, it can you can stretch it with a lot of different mechanics if you want to make a big 4X game. But, if that's not your goal, then it gets muddy.
- The thing about pitching online is the most important thing if you're going to do it online... would be a 3 minute or less overview video.
- It is love it or hate it. There's just as many people that would be jumping up to get it off the shelf...
- So, yeah, it's like you said, it can be a little hard to learn, but if these if asymmetric area control fighting games are what you like, then then you won't be that guy. You'll be wanting to buy it.