Condottiere is a card-driven area control game set in Renaissance Italy. Players are condottieri (mercenary leaders) competing to control regions on a map. Each round focuses on one region, with players playing mercenary cards and special cards to win battles. The first player to control a set number of adjacent or total regions wins.
Components
1 game board (map of Italy with regions)
110 cards (mercenary cards valued 1-10, special cards)
Control markers (colored tokens for each player)
1 Condottiere figure (determines battle location)
1 Favour of the Pope token
Setup
Place the board in the center of the table.
Shuffle all cards and deal 10 to each player.
Place the Condottiere figure on any region.
Each player takes control markers of their color.
The starting player is chosen randomly.
Turn Structure
Battle Round
The Condottiere holder chooses a region for battle (places the figure there).
Starting with the Condottiere holder, players take turns clockwise. Each turn, a player either plays one card or passes.
Once a player passes, they cannot play more cards that round.
The round ends when all players have passed.
The player with the highest total mercenary strength wins the region and places their control marker.
The winner takes the Condottiere figure and chooses the next battle location.
All played cards are discarded. Remaining hand cards are kept.
If the draw pile has enough cards, each player draws back up to a hand of cards. If not, reshuffle the discard pile.
Actions
Mercenary Cards (Values 1-10)
Play face up in front of you. Their values sum to determine your battle strength.
Special Cards
Heroine (10): Cannot be affected by other special cards. Always worth exactly 10.
Drummer: Doubles the value of all your mercenary cards (not Heroines).
Bishop: Prevents the battle from being resolved. The region remains unconquered; no one wins. A new battle begins elsewhere.
Scarecrow: Allows you to retrieve all your played mercenary cards back to hand (not special cards). Then you must pass.
Winter: Reduces ALL players’ mercenary cards to a value of 1 each. Heroines are unaffected.
Spring: Cancels the effect of a previously played Winter card.
Surrender: Forces the battle to end immediately. Resolve as if all players had passed.
Courtesan: When played, the player with the Favour of the Pope token gains its bonus. The Courtesan then goes to a different player.
Scoring / Victory Conditions
Victory depends on the number of players:
2 players: Control 5 adjacent regions
3 players: Control 4 adjacent regions or any 6 regions
4 players: Control 3 adjacent regions or any 5 regions
5 players: Control 3 adjacent regions or any 4 regions
6 players: Control 3 adjacent regions or any 4 regions
Special Rules & Edge Cases
A region already controlled by a player can be attacked again; the attacker must win the battle to take it.
If two or more players tie for highest strength, no one wins the region.
If only one player remains in a battle (all others passed), that player wins regardless of strength.
The Bishop card prevents resolution but the played cards are still discarded.
Players may play zero cards and simply pass.
Hand management is critical: you keep unplayed cards between rounds.