Neither God nor King - Renaissance in Europe

A strategy game for 5 players in Europe in the Age of Renaissance

Mercenaries in the 16th century didn’t believe in a religion common to all of their comrades nor did they follow faithfully one and the same ruler. They didn’t care about confession nor country borders. They only followed the sound of drums and fought for whoever paid the most.

You lead one of five factions that played an important role in Central Europe: England, France, Habsburg Spain, the Papacy and the Italian City States in its vicinity or The German Holy Roman Empire.

To win the game you need to control a certain number of regions and need to maintain or convert a certain number of centers to the confession of your faction. Victory conditions for each faction are different and as some factions aim for a certain confession in the centers, they help their opponents fulfilling their victory conditions. In addition to that the English player may win the game if the continent is overrun by the troops of the Ottoman Empire.

To achieve your goal of the game you send out at the beginning of a turn members of your court to various centers in Europe where they fulfill tasks in your name. Your diplomats, your generals, admirals and spies. These will affect the possibilities of your actions in the regions of Europe. Your merchants will try to ensure your share of the market potential in a region, your bishops will try to convert a Center’s confession.

A turn starts by each player increasing their treasury. For each “Barrel” on the map players increase their income by 1. Players may then recruit new armies, build new fleets and most importantly instruct members of their court. Players buy new “Barrels” that they plan to place on the map.

After increasing their treasury, building new units, players send on journey their “Members”. The starting player first places one of his Members with its identity face down in one of the Centers on the game map. The following player does the same. If he wishes to place his Member in the same Center, he places his Member on top of the player before him. One after another the players place their Members one by one. They build stacks of Members in the Centers of Europe. When all Members are placed, their identity is revealed one by one, from top to bottom, and they execute their possible actions. Members allow players to move units, take a share of a market in a region, lay siege on Centers, fight battles, try to convert the confession of a Center, explore the New World and so on.

If a player fulfilled his victory conditions at the end of a turn he reveals his Victory Card and is declared the winner.