In Princes of Florence each player assumes the role as the head of an Aristocratic Italian family. The aim is simple, to earn the most wealth and fame of all the families in the region. To do this each player must woo artisans and professionals to their cause. If they can keep them in the leisure that they are accustomed then they will create great works. Selling these will generate the wealth and fame that the families desire.
The game begins with each player receiving a play board to place various tiles on and it also offers information to keep the game moving. Each player receives 4 profession cards of which they must keep 3. Each of these professions can create a work for their master but the quality of the work will depend on how well their master looks after them. Each profession in the game prefers a type of building, a type of natural terrain (lake, park etc) and a type of freedom (religion, travel or opinion). Each profession card outlines the list of needs and the value that each is worth. It is these needs that the players will struggle to acquire as the game progresses.
The beauty of Princes is that many of the professions will have overlapping needs in the 3 areas outlined above. So good resource management and a little luck can see the acquisition of certain needs pay off for more than 1 profession card.
So how does it play? In the first phase the players can try to acquire landscapes, builders (makes building cheaper in phase 2), jesters (bonus value for completed works) and bonus cards (offer bonus victory points at games end if the conditions are met). The trick is that once a player selects 1 of these an open auction begins to see who acquires it. Clever strategy may suggest that the active player pick a need that they don't want. If others buy them they will be locked out of future auctions, then they can select something they do want and have less competition. Of course money is always tight so overbidding is not recommended. After all players have purchased 1 need, phase 2 begins. Here the players can start to build those buildings, buy those freedoms and sell works. This is straight purchasing (no auction) but each player can only choose 2 actions and the price is not cheap. Put simply the players will need to sell work sooner rather than later. Selling a work earns money as well as victory points and the highest victory points will win the day at the end of round 7.

Princes of Florence is a classic game as it offers many choices but never enough resources or time to do everything. The game looks great and the play is well balanced to offer different strategies an equal chance of success. Because of the many options, players can become bogged down as to the best choice. This can add to the length of the game and for this reason I recommend that you become comfortable with a few entry level games like Carcassonne before taking on this challenge. Otherwise highly recommended for the deep thinker and I've still left a few twists and turns for you to discover!