Princes of Florence is a board game for 3 to 5 players, each trying to maximize the reputation of their court by hiring artists to publish works and by developing theirs yards.

Each player starts with a cash reserve of 3500 Florin. You also choose 3 out of 4 artists to start with, so your first action is to click on the person you do NOT want.
After this initial setup, the game runs for 7 turns, each consisting of two phases. Phase A is a competetive auction, in which each player purchases one item. In Phase B, each player carries out two actions on his own.

The starting player chooses one of seven items by clicking on it, and automatically bids the minimum 200 Florin. Each following player may bid exactly 100 Florin more by clicking on the money pile, or step out of bidding for this item by clicking on the arrow. The item which is currently being auctioned will be underlined. During every auction, each player may only purchase one item, and each item may be purchased by only one player. After the first item has been taken, the next player in the game sequence who has not purchased anything yet chooses the next item to bid on. This continues until all players have purchased something. The seven items are:

Woods [ Wald ]: See landscape section below.

Lake [ See ]: See landscape section below.

Park [ Park ]: See landscape section below.

Jugglers [ Gaukler ] improve all your artists' works by 2.

Architects [ Baumeister ] ease the construction of buildings (see section 4.3). Engaging a second and third architect gains you 3 prestige points each. No player can have more than 3 architects. During the whole game, there are only 6 architects available for auction.

Prestige cards [ Prestigekarte ] can give you 3 to 8 extra prestige points, if you fulfill their specific requirements at the end of the game. Selecting prestige cards follows the same mechanism as selecting bonus cards (see section 4.4).

Enticement cards [ Abwerbekarte ] deserve a special section.

There are 21 unique artists. 9 of them want woods, 7 like lakes and 5 prefer parks for recreation; so if you have the appropriate landscape in your yard when they publish, this will raise their work's value by 3.

In contrast to jugglers, purchasing multiple landscapes of the same type will not raise a work's value further, but instead give you 3 prestige points each. Every type of landscape can only be bought 6 times in total.

If you purchase a landscape, you have to place it in your yard immediately, using the construction interface as seen to the left. Click the upper double arrow to produce a mirror image of the landscape, turn it using the inner arrows, and move it using the triangles. When you have positioned it properly, click the check mark.

Each enticement card allows you to engage one artist who has already published a work at your opponent's court. When you purchase this card, you get a selection of the available artists. You can either click on one of them to engage him now, or click on the X and save the card up for later. During your turn in phase B, you can bring the enticement window up again by clicking on the rightmost icon above the yard map. Enticing in phase B does not count as an action of its own. There are only 5 enticement cards available for auction.

Enticement cards cannot directly be used to publish a work, but for every other purpose they count as person cards (i.e.artists). When you entice someone, his former boss will get your (now used up) enticement card instead and thus suffer no disadvantage from it whatsoever. You cannot entice your own artists.

In Phase B, each player can perform two actions only. They may buy
1 freedom [ Reise,Meinung,Religion ] (300 Florin)
1 person card [ Person ] (300 Florin)
1-2 bonus cards [ Bonuskarte ] (300 Florin)
1-2 buildings [ Gebäude ] (700/300/0 Florin)
or publish 1-2 works [ Werk ]
or skip their turn [the arrow]
Just click on what you want to do.

Buying a person card (=engaging an artist) costs 300 Florin. Every artist can perform one work that provides prestige - or money - for your court. Each artist prefers a specific building, landscape and freedom; and if you can provide some of them, their work will be more valuable.

When you buy a person card, you usually get a selection of 5 cards - shown in grey. Like you did at the start of the game, click on the 4 artists you do NOT want to keep. There are only 21 unique person cards in the game, so in later turns you may have less than 5 to choose from or even not be able to buy any.

You may only hire one artist per turn.

It costs 300 Florin to acquire a freedom. 7 artists each love the freedom of travel [ Reise ], opinion [ Meinung ] and religion [ Religion ]; so just like landscapes, appropriate freedoms raise the value of works by 3. You can only purchase one freedom per turn, and you can buy each freedom once only. Freedoms are limited: There is always one freedom of each type less than there are players in the game.

The standard price of a building is 700 Florin. When you click on Gebäude, this selection will pop up. Click on the desired building and place it like a landscape. Unlike landscapes, buildings may not touch each other except at the corners. Each building gives you 3 prestige points.

If you acquire an architect, the cost of buildings drops to 300. If you have at least two architects, you may construct buildings close to each other. The third architect lets you build for free.

Similar to freedoms and landscapes, an appropriate building will raise the value of artists' works by 4. As you can see in the selection, they have different sizes: Two small buildings appeal to one artist only, five medium ones help two artists each, and three big ones enhance the work of three artists.

Each type of building is available only three times in the game, and no player may construct the same building twice.

A bonus card costs 300 Florin. It adds to the value of only one work, then it is used up. When buying one, you can choose between 5 cards. Click on the 4 cards you do NOT want, those will be placed back under the pile in the clicked order. There are 20 unique bonus cards in the game.

To publish a work, you click on Werk and then on the artist. This costs nothing, in fact it can give you cash and prestige.

The value of a work is calculated as:
+4 points for the right building
+3 points for the right landscape
+3 points for the right freedom
+2 points for every juggler
+1 point for every person card (already played or still in your hand, enticement cards count as well)
+X points for any bonus cards you add

To add bonus cards to a work, click on the middle icon above the yard map and select the ones you want to add - their indicators will turn blue - before clicking on Werk.

To be able to publish a work, it must reach a certain minimum value each turn:

For every point of value, you get 100 Florin. Immediately after publishing, you can reject all or part of that money and gain prestige instead: every 200 Florin will buy you one prestige point. Click on the right side of the double arrow to gain more prestige, on the left side to gain more money, and on the checkmark when you have decided.

After every turn, the players who published the most valuable work during that turn will get an extra 3 prestige points.

The game ends after seven turns. Whoever has gained the most prestige points, wins the game. In case of a tie, the player with more cash wins.

Publishing works is the standard way to regain cash. If you desperately need money, you can click on the coin bag in the top right corner to convert prestige back into cash, but you will get 100 Florin per prestige point only. If you do not have enough money to pay for the item you purchased in the auction phase, this will be done automatically.

You cannot refuse to buy something in the auction phase, unless you have neither cash nor prestige.

Other buildings may not touch the edges of the Palazzo unless you have two architects, but in every other respect the Palazzo does not count as a building.

You can undo the construction of buildings by clicking on the X in the positioning interface. You can choose not to publish a work by clicking on an artist you do not own. You can safely click on the X in the enticement window to save it up for later. You cannot undo anything else. Especially, if you click on the X while positioning a landscape, you simply throw it away.

On the left side you see a list of all artists in the game. A person gets a grey background whenever you have to choose between him and other artists. A person with a bright red / blue / orange / cyan / violet background has already been played by the appropriate player and is available for enticement (but remember you cannot entice your own artists). A person with a dark red / blue / orange / cyan / violet background belongs to you and is still waiting to be played.

In the middle of the screen, you see your own statistics. The top row indicates which of the three freedoms you own. The next row tells you (from left to right) how many jugglers, architects, bonus cards, prestige cards and enticement cards you have. Enticement cards has two numbers: number of available enticements on the left of the slash, and number of enticements that were played against you on the right.
Click on the bonus and prestige card icon to see the ones you own in detail, click on the enticement icon to close those windows again. If you do the latter during your own turn in phase B, and own at least one usable enticement card, the enticement window will pop up. You can safely click on the X here to save it up for later.

Below that, you see a map of your yard. The Palazzo is always there.

In the top right corner, you see your cash reserve, your collected prestige so far, and the current turn number (with current minimum work value in brackets).

Below that on the right, you see the status of all players. Basically this a miniature version of the statistics in the middle of the screen. The mini-statistics offer some additional information:
The green indicator tells you whose turn it is. During auction, a red indicator means the player has stepped out of bidding for that certein item, and a yellow one means he is still in.
The newly introduced "P:4" tells you how many person cards (played and unplayed, but not including enticement cards) everyone has.
The large number shows that player's prestige points so far. The Palazzo shows that player's color.

If you click on someone's mini-statistics, you will see the whole game from his perspective (the name under the yard map will change accordingly), except that you cannot see which persons, bonus and prestige cards he owns and how much cash he has left.
When you lose connection and rejoin, the game may give you the wrong perspective, so click on your own stats to correct that.

Prestige cards can give you 3-8 extra prestige points if you fulfill some card-specific requirements at the end of the game; otherwise they are worthless. Some prestige cards require you to have a certain set of items, in which case the reward will be a fixed amount. Others require you to have the most of something: you gain the listed number of prestige points [ PP ] if you have more of a specific item than any other player, and gain the number of points in brackets if you share the first place. You need to have at least one item of the specified type even if nobody else has any. There are 14 different prestige cards:

Für die meisten Gaukler erhalten Sie 6 (3) PP : You need the most jugglers.

Für die meisten Baumeister erhalten Sie 6 (3) PP : You need the most architects.

Für die meisten Gebäude erhalten Sie 6 (3) PP : You need the most buildings.

Für zwei große Gebäude erhalten Sie 5 PP : You need two big buildings.

Für die wenigsten leeren Felder erhalten Sie 8 (4) PP : You need the least empty squares in your yard.

Für die meisten Landschaften erhalten Sie 7 (4) PP : You need the most landscapes.

Für die meisten Wälder erhalten Sie 7 (4) PP : You need the most woods.

Für die meisten Seen erhalten Sie 6 (3) PP : You need the most lakes.

Für die meisten Parks erhalten Sie 5 (3) PP : You need the most parks.

Für alle drei Landschaftsarten (Wald, See, Park) erhalten Sie 8 PP : You need all three types of landscape.

Für alle drei Freiheiten erhalten Sie 8 PP : You need all three freedoms.

Für mindestens 1 Baumeister + 1 Gaukler + 2 Landschaften erhalten Sie 7 PP : You need at least 1 architect, 1 juggler and 2 landscapes.

Für mindestens 4 Gebäude + 2 Freiheiten + 4 Werke erhalten Sie 6 PP : You need at least 4 buildings, 2 freedoms and publish 4 works.

Für die meisten Werke erhalten Sie 7 (4) PP : You need to have published the most works.

Bonus cards add to the value [ WZ ] of one work only, then they are used up. They will grant you 1 or 2 points per specified item (sometimes: type of item) that you have in your court when publishing the work. There are 20 different bonus cards:

Jedes Gebäude in Ihrem Fürstentum erhöht die WZ um 1 : for every building

Jedes große Gebäude in Ihrem Fürstentum erhöht die WZ um 2 : for every big building

Jedes mittlere Gebäude und jeder Wald in Ihrem Fürstentum erhöht die WZ um 1 : for every medium building and every woods

Jedes kleine Gebäude und jede Landschaft in Ihrem Fürstentum erhöht die WZ um 1 : for every small building and every landscape

Jede Gebäudegröße (groß, mittel, klein) in Ihrem Fürstentum erhöht die WZ um 2 : for each building size (not for every building)

Jede Landschaft in Ihrem Fürstentum erhöht die WZ um 1 : for every landscape

Jeder Wald in Ihrem Fürstentum erhöht die WZ um 2 : for every woods

Jeder See in Ihrem Fürstentum erhöht die WZ um 2 : for every lake

Jeder Park in Ihrem Fürstentum erhöht die WZ um 2 : for every park

Jeder Gaukler in Ihrem Fürstentum erhöht die WZ um 2 : for every juggler

Jede Freiheit in Ihrem Fürstentum erhöht die WZ um 2 : for every freedom

Jeder Gaukler und jede Freiheit in Ihrem Fürstentum erhöht die WZ um 1 : for every juggler and every freedom

Jeder Baumeister in Ihrem Fürstentum erhöht die WZ um 2 : for every architect

Jeder Baumeister und jeder See in Ihrem Fürstentum erhöht die WZ um 1 : for every architect and every lake

Jede Prestigekarte, die Sie besitzen, erhöht die WZ um 2 : for every prestige card

Jede Prestigekarte, die Sie besitzen und jede Freiheit in Ihrem Fürstentum erhöht die WZ um 1 : for every prestige card and every freedom

Jede Landschaftsart (Wald, See, Park) in Ihrem Fürstentum erhöht die WZ um 2 : for each landscape type (not for every landscape)

Jede der folgenden Kategorien - Wald, See, Park, Gaukler, Baumeister, Prestigekarte, Freiheit - in Ihrem Fürstentum erhöht die WZ um 1 : for each type of: woods, lake, park, juggler, architect, prestige card, freedom

Jede Personen- und Abwerbekarte in Ihrer Hand erhöht die WZ um 1 : for every person and enticement card you have not played yet (excluding the one this bonus card adds to)

Jede eigene Personen- und Abwerbekarte auf dem Tisch erhöht die WZ um 1 : for every work you have published (including the one this bonus card adds to)