1-page guide

to
Playing Pax Renaissance
(1st edition)

(actually 3 pages
but with a
Very Useful Table)

JW June 2022
Setup
Take a banker card and all the cubes in that colour plus 3 florins if you're first player, +1 for each player
after that. You start with no cards in hand, your maximum hand size is two cards.
Set up the map as in the book. Make sure that the only cards showing a cross and a crescent are Papal
States and Mamluk, and that each card has only one token on its CAPITAL letter city. Put your
concession cube in its marked place on the map between cards, matching your colour. Make sure only
Trebizon and Tana (both top right) are the only Emporia with no disks on.
Set up the east and west trade decks as in the book, 14 cards at the bottom with two comets shuffled in
plus 8 on the top. Deal 6 faceup cards in a row from each deck and flip the farthest one facedown. This is
the Trade market and the facedown cards represent the east and west trade fairs

Actions: You can take 2 actions per turn, the first three can be taken twice, the others only once per turn
Buy a card - put one florin on each card to the left of the one you want, and put it in your hand. If a spot
is empty, put the florin on the other market which has a card in that spot. If you buy a comet, you can
choose one Victory Condition card and activate it. Move all cards left and refill spots from the Trade
Decks. If one trade deck is empty, use the other to fill spots. If both trade decks are empty, the player with
the most Patron prestige points wins immediately.
Play a card from your hand to either your east or west tableau, arranged to the right and left of your
banker card. If the card has a BOMB icon on it, it has a one-time special effect when it's played (see
below). The top left of the card shows 1 or 2 tokens (knights, rooks, bishops) in red, white or black, and
the bottom of the card shows a location on the map, you can put the rooks and knights in any city on that
map card. You can replace tokens already there, place them on the corresponding Empire card, or discard
if it's not in play. A Rook with a skull & crossbones on it is a Pirate; this goes into a sea border (blue) of
the map card, if there is already a cube there, you can remove it for free. Bishops never go on the map,
they started on the Tableau card that played them and can move around (see below). Top right of the card
may show one of 6 Prestige points, these are handy for claiming Victory Conditions.
Discard a card from your hand or tableau for 2 florins.
Run a trade fair. Pick the east or west market and discard the facedown card. Keep the florins in the
empty space. Take one florin yourself for starting the route. Start at the white/west or black/east circle on
the map (the one with no disk on it) and trace the trade route to the end of the arrow. Any player with a
cube on the route gains 1 florin, in the order the route reaches them. Pirates encountered on the route steal
1 florin. The trade route ends when you run out of florins. For every card the route enters where a florin is
paid, pick one city with no token and add the token marked on the map, your choice.
Activate your west tableau or east tableau. Pick your east or west cards and activate up to one
operation box on each card, in any order. You don't need to activate all cards.
Declare victory. Pick one activated Victory Card. If you meet the conditions written on it, you win.
Globalization: have 2 more cubes than others (plus more Discovery prestige)
Imperial: have 2 more empires (not Republics) than others (3 more if only 2 players)
Holy: have the most prestige points in the Dominant Religion (more Bishops of its colour than the others
combined, plus more of its own pieces in its theocracies than others combined)
Renaissance: have more Republics than others (plus at least 2 more Law prestige points)

Key concept: Map cards. Knights and Rooks are placed on these cards, and cubes and Pirates are placed
in the borders between. Cards are adjacent orthogonally and diagonally. You can add tokens matching
those marked in empty spaces by playing cards for those locations with tokens in the top left, running
trade fairs and when you are taxed. The side of the card indicates it the empire is theocratic or medieval.
You can only flip a Map card to the other side when there is a successful Civil or Religious War, keep its
tokens as they were.
Key concept: Empire cards. These represent the leaders of each map card, and they sit in your Tableau
with the other cards, except they go landscape instead of portrait. They start unclaimed, and can be added
to your Tableau and removed from it. They start on the King side and can be flipped to the Republic side
if you run successful a Civil War or Religious War against your own Empire card. If one empire
Campaigns successfully against another, the winner becomes a Suzerain and the loser goes underneath the
winner as its Vassal. Vassals are lost if you lose the Empire card later on.
Key concept: Regime Change. lots of Tableau operations and One-time effects result in this, it's
essential to victory and means you are taking over the Empire card for the matching map location, letting
you grab Empire cards and flip them to Republics.
Every time you do a Regime Change:
 If the Empire card was already in your Tableau, flip it to the other side, unless you were Campaigning
(see below). If it was a Vassal and becomes a Republic, move it to the edge of your Tableau so it's not
a Vassal any more.
 If the Empire card was not already in your Tableau, put the card in your Tableau on its King side.
 In either case, discard any Queens or Vassals, but keep any tokens on the card.
 Place one additional concession cube in the border of the matching map card, you can remove
someone else's cube from there by playing 1 Florin.
 If there are repressed tokens on the Empire card, you can make them active by moving them onto the
map card.

Tableau Operations
Commerce: take a florin from a card in the East or West market, as marked.
Siege: remove one token of the indicated type in this card's location.
Repress: remove one specified token from that map card and gain one Florin. If the matching Empire
card is in a Tableau, place the token there, it is not dead but "repressed" and may come into play later (see
below). If the Empire card is not in play yet, just discard the token.
Tax: you don't make any money from this, but it's a way to pressure your opponent or put tokens on the
map cards you already control. The map location noted on the Taxing card must have at least one spot
free for a token and one concession cube on its borders. The taxed player has to pay one Florin to the
bank to keep their concession cube there. If they pay, the cube stays, otherwise the cube is repressed and
goes on the matching Empire card (discard if Empire card not in play yet). In return, they get to add one
token to the map card, matching the type and colour marked on the map card.
Behead: discard any Tableau card sharing the same location as this card. If it's an Empire card, discard
the card doing the Beheading too.
Inquisitor: move a Bishop of the colour indicated to an adjacent Tableau card or to another card of the
same location on another Tableau. You can't move onto a banker card and thus cannot between East and
West Tableaus. If you meet another bishop, both are removed. If you land on an Empire card, you can
remove one repressed token for free. While a Bishop is on a card, all of its Operations are blocked except
Inquisitor.
Corsair: move a pirate rook from a sea border in this location to any sea border on an adjacent card (this
means you can move quite some distance, if you can trace a sea route to the destination). If there is a cube
where you land, remove it for free.
Campaign: this is a straight-up Battle initiated by a King card in your Tableau, between the Knights on
the King's map card and the Knights and Rooks on one adjacent map card. You must commit all your
Knights on the map card matching your King's Empire card and pay 1 Florin for each of them. Each of
your Knight tokens removes one of the opposing tokens. You win if you have at least one token left after
removing all of the enemy. Your Knights stay where they are and don't move onto the targeted map card.
If you win, you take the matching Empire card and put it under your King card as a Vassal and perform a
Regime Change. You don't flip the map card or the Empire card when Campaigning. The basic concepts
of Battle (location, attackers, defenders, results) are modified for Civil and Religious Wars (see below)
Vote: pick an Empire card in the East or West where you have more concession tokens that anyone else;
it must be in a Tableau but not a Vassal. Pay one Florin to the bank for each repressed token on the
Empire card and perform a Regime Change.
One-time Special Effects (optional: you can just play the card for its tokens and ignore the one-time
effect if you wish)
 Trade Shift
Open up the emporium indicated by moving the disk on it to another emporium. This changes the route of
the trade fair. Some of these may only be used if you have a Discovery prestige point.
 Coronation
Play the Queen to your tableau, then pick one of the regions on her card that's not in a Tableau and put the
Empire card for that region on top of it, with its King side up so you can still see the operations icons on
her card. Perform a Regime Change. If you flip or lose the King later on, the Queen is discarded.
Coronation has no effect if the King is already in a Tableau. If no Kings are free for her to marry (or if
you don't want her to marry), put her under your Banker card for her Prestige point at game's end.
 Civil War: Conspiracy (lets you flip a map card to Medieval side)
This works similar to a Campaign Battle, except it's on the map card specified and involves repressed
tokens and Pirates ganging up to take out the 'establishment' Knights and Rooks on the card. The attackers
include the tokens on the card played plus any repressed Knights and Rooks on the matching Empire card
plus any Pirates bordering the target map card. Defenders are any Knights and Rooks on the map card. As
usual, tokens knock each other out one-for-one, and the winner is the side with the last surviving token(s).
If the map card was on its Theocracy side, you can flip it over to Medieval if you like. Perform a Regime
Change.
 Civil War: Peasant Revolt (lets you flip a map card to its Medieval side)
This works similar to a Conspiracy, except it's Serfs and Pirates vs the establishment! The attackers
include any tokens on the card played plus any repressed serfs on the matching Empire card plus any
Pirates and concession cubes of your colour around the target map card. Defenders are any Knights and
Rooks on the map card. As usual, tokens knock each other out one-for-one, and the winner is the side
with the last surviving token(s). If the map card was on its Theocracy side, you can flip it over to
Medieval if you like. Perform a Regime Change.
 Religious War (Jihad, Reformation, Crusade, lets you flip a map card to its Theocracy side)
This works the same as the Civil Wars, except it's the religion on the played card versus the two others
(eg. white vs black and red). The attackers include the tokens on the card played (except Bishops) plus all
Knights, Rooks and Pirates of that colour on the target map card, and all Knights of that colour on all
adjacent cards (this can be a big area!) Defenders are all Knights, Rooks and Pirates of the other two
colours on the specified card; you need at least one defender or there's no war. As usual, tokens knock
each other out one-for-one, and the winner is the colour with the last surviving token(s). If the colour of
the card you played is the winner, flip the map card to its Theocracy side and conduct a Regime Change.
Target Attackers Defenders Result
Campaign Map card adjacent Tokens on card Knights and Rooks Make target empire Vassal
to King's empire + all Knights on King's map on target card to campaigning King (no
card (pay 1 florin each) flipping)
Civil war: Specified map card Tokens on card Knights and Rooks Flip map card back to
conspiracy + repressed Knights and on target card medieval if theocracy
Rooks on Empire Card Regime Change
+ Pirates
Civil war: Specified map card Tokens on card Knights and Rooks Flip map card back to
peasant + repressed serfs on Empire on target card medieval if theocracy
revolt Card Regime Change
+ concession cubes bordering
targeted card
+ Pirates
Religious Specified map card Tokens on card Knights, rooks and Flip map card to theocracy
war Specified colour of + Knights, Rooks and Pirates Pirates of the other side
religion of card colour on target card two colours Regime Change
+Knights of card colour on all on target card
adjacent cards