Leonardo da Vinci is a worker placement game set in Renaissance Florence. Players are inventors competing to complete inventions requested by the Lord of the City. They gather components from shops, conduct research in laboratories, and race to finish inventions first for higher rewards. The player who collects the most Florins after 9 turns (7 normal turns + 2 “pure research” turns) wins.
Components
1 game board (city with areas: Council, Workshop, Academy, 5 shops)
Masters and apprentices (per player colour)
Laboratories (small 5-space and large 8-space, per player)
Place the board centrally. Each player receives starting pieces based on player count.
Place invention cards face-up on the board (number varies by player count).
Build the invention deck in tiers (Bronze on top down to Gold).
Place Leonardo and Lord of the City figures.
Starting player chosen; receives Leonardo.
Turn Structure
Each turn has 4 phases:
A. Laboratory Phase
Starting with the Leonardo holder, each player declares if they are beginning work on any new inventions.
Place exact required components under a laboratory card and set a work counter to track research progress.
Players may also cancel ongoing work (recovering components but losing research progress).
B. Assignment Phase
Starting with Leonardo holder, clockwise, each player assigns workers:
Play one or more apprentices to a single city area, OR
Play your master, OR
Pass (permanently for this phase).
Workers go to city areas (Council, Workshop, Academy, 5 shops) or to your own laboratories.
C. Employment Phase
Resolve each city area in order (A through H).
Ranking within each area: most apprentices first. Master = 2 apprentices. Ties broken by proximity to the arrow.
Each area provides benefits at increasing costs (free, 1, 3, 6 Florins).
D. Research Phase
Laboratories that have completed an invention (enough research weeks and correct components) reveal their work and collect Florins.
First to complete = higher payout (black amount). Later completions = lower payout (grey amount).
Actions
City Area Benefits
Council: Choose 1 benefit: move an apprentice to another area, take all Florins in the Council, examine top 3 invention cards, or pay 1 Florin for any component.
Workshop: Acquire/upgrade laboratories or place mechanical men.
Each worker (apprentice/master/mechanical man) in a lab adds 1 research week.
Inventions require specific numbers of research weeks and components.
Components are placed secretly under the lab at the start of work.
Scoring / Victory Conditions
Florins earned from completing inventions (amount depends on whether you are first or later).
Bonus Florins at game end for variety of invention types (collecting all 5 types earns 10 bonus Florins).
The player with the most Florins after 9 turns wins.
Special Rules & Edge Cases
Leonardo: The player holding Leonardo goes first in phases A and B. Leonardo is reassigned each turn via the Council.
Mechanical men: Placed in laboratories; provide 1 research week but occupy a space.
Each invention can only be completed once per player.
You can start working on an invention before it is officially requested (if you know what’s coming from the Council peek), but cannot complete it until it is face-up on the board.
Cancelling work: Recover components but lose all research weeks accumulated.