Lorenzo il Magnifico: Houses of Renaissance

Excellent addition to an already great game. We purposely left this out until we had 'exhausted' the original game, (though we would happy play base only for a shorter game or for noobs). The added and minor complexity load is worth the variability and replayability. There is a slight point creep but the game still keeps most of its tightness. There is great balance in the additional elements and well worth owning. Not an essential expansion, just if you want more to keep the game fresh. For us the base game is a worthy 10 rating and would keep the same rating with Renaissance! Plays will be recorded with the base game, (as usual for expansions).

An absolutely essential expansion, takes a very good game and makes it great. I know a few people who dismissed the game until they replayed it with the expansion and then bought/re-bought it afterwards.

The expansion adds: 1) a new tower column with a large stack of new cards and the twist is that they are all 4 of the original types of cards mixed together, but of course they're all new (so lots of variety) and there are some real interesting ones in the deck, 2) some new faith punishments, 3) about double the number of leader cards, and 4) a handful of starting player powers- this is the most significant of all, as you start with a powerful family ability, some of these (as well as some of the new tower cards) allow for much, much more opportunity to play leader cards, which were extremely difficult to get played in the original version. This allows for a lot more variety, flexibility and fun.

Sold! The worst expansion for the worst game I've played!