Concordia
120 questions players ask about Concordia, answered in plain words and graded by where the answer comes from. See also the full rulebook.
Updated 2026-10-30.
120 questions players ask about Concordia, answered in plain words and graded by where the answer comes from. See also the full rulebook.
Updated 2026-10-30.
The designer described this rule directly and repeated it in 2016.
There is no choice: each province gets a marker for the best good any of its cities produces. Cloth beats wine, wine beats tools, then food, then bricks. It is the most valuable good that counts, not how many cities make it. So a province can start without a food marker, and that is fine.
Several players agree and none disputed it; it matches the Prefect cash-bonus rule.
Every marker's coin side is worth 2 sestertii except the cloth marker, which is worth 1. The value is printed, not random. The cash bonus from a Prefect adds up the coins on all flipped markers.
The rulebook says unneeded cards are removed by player count; the numeral rule comes from several agreeing players.
Each purchasable card's back shows a Roman numeral, the smallest player count it is meant for. Remove every card with a numeral higher than the number of players, shuffle each numeral's stack separately, and stack them so the I cards are on top, then II, and so on. For 2 players that leaves only I and II. Using level III cards at two players is an unofficial variant.
Reported by posters from the game box; not in the condensed rulebook text we have.
Money rises with seat order to compensate later players: the first player gets 5 sestertii, the next 6, and so on, so in a 5-player game the last seat gets 9. The last player also receives the Præfectus Magnus.
The designer confirmed this in 2013, and it matches the Prefect text in the rulebook.
No. You may pick any active province, whether or not anyone has built in it. You take the bonus good (doubled with the Præfectus Magnus), and every house there, whoever owns it, produces once. If nobody has a house, you just get the bonus good.
The rulebook defines the goods option as choosing a province whose marker still shows goods.
No. Only an active province, whose marker still shows the goods symbol, can be chosen for production. Once a Prefect flips it, it stays unavailable until someone takes the cash bonus, which flips every marker back to goods.
The designer confirmed in 2023 that taking zero coins is legal.
Yes. The cash option has no minimum, so you simply collect nothing; the markers are flipped back to goods anyway. The designer confirmed this is a legal play, for example to reset the markers.
The rulebook says houses produce when the Prefect action is carried out.
No. Houses in a province produce only at the moment a Prefect is played (or copied) for that province, one unit per house. Flipping the marker just records that the province was used.
The rulebook says the holder must use it when able and cannot forgo it to keep it.
You must use it whenever you play a Prefect (or copy one with the Diplomat) to produce goods: you take double bonus goods and then pass the tile on. You cannot decline to keep it. Holding it does not force you to play Prefect, though, and taking the cash bonus does not use it.
The rulebook says the cash bonus is never doubled and does not activate the Præfectus Magnus.
No. Taking the cash bonus neither doubles the coins nor activates the tile, so you keep it. It only doubles the bonus good when a province produces.
The rulebook says production inside the cities is not affected.
Only the bonus good the Prefect player takes from the supply (2 instead of 1). Production in the cities is not doubled, and other players with houses in the province still produce their normal single units.
The rulebook says the holder uses it with a Prefect played or used via the Diplomat.
If you are the one holding the tile, yes: a Diplomat copy counts as playing the Prefect, so you must double the bonus good and pass the tile on. If someone else holds it, copying their Prefect does nothing to the tile.
The rulebook gives the direction and says the holder must use it; the full-storehouse case is the shared reading of several players.
It goes to the player on your right, so anticlockwise, the opposite of turn order. It passes after any goods-producing Prefect, even if your storehouse could not take the extra goods.
A reminder of how many cards of each god are in the deck at each player count. It has no effect on play and the tile scores nothing at game end; its only rules role is the tiebreaker.
The designer confirmed movement is optional and noted the rulebook should say so.
No. Movement is optional: use as many steps as you like (the number of colonists you have on the board), or none. You can build next to any of your colonists whether or not you moved them this turn, but movement must be finished before you build.
The designer said this alternating movement is allowed in 2020.
Yes. You may allocate your steps freely and interleave them, for example moving colonist A one step, B one step, then A again. The only limit is that no colonist may finish its move on a line another colonist occupies.
The designer answered this in 2013, and it matches the Architect text.
No. A colonist standing in a city (such as a freshly placed one) is not adjacent to any city. It has to be on a line between two cities, and then you can build in both of them. A new colonist must therefore spend a movement step first.
The rulebook states both the passing and the no-ending-on-occupied rules.
Yes, you may pass through an occupied line, but each such step counts against your movement. A colonist may not end its movement on an occupied line. Moving through a city between two lines costs only the step onto the next line.
The rulebook limits each player to one house per city and none in Roma.
You may build in every city adjacent to any of your colonists, as long as you can pay each time. But you can never have more than one of your own houses in a city, and none in Roma.
This is the Architect's cost table in the rulebook.
Pay goods and coins to the bank. Goods: 1 food in a brick city; elsewhere 1 brick plus the city's good. Coins: 1 (brick), 2 (food), 3 (tools), 4 (wine), 5 (cloth), multiplied by the number of houses the city will contain after your build. Goods cost does not change.
The rulebook gives the Colonist and Tribune placement rules.
As many as you can pay for (1 food and 1 tool each), placed in Roma or in any city where you own a house. They go onto the city itself, not onto a line. The Tribune, by contrast, allows only one new colonist, placed in Roma.
The rulebook and the card text agree, and early printings had an older figure.
5 plus 1 for each of your colonists on the board. Some early copies of the rulebook said 2 per colonist; the card text is correct.
The rulebook describes the storehouse spaces and the 6-colonist limit.
They come from your storehouse, where each colonist occupies a space until it is placed. Each player has 6 colonists in total, starting with 2 on the board and 4 in the storehouse, and placing one frees a storage space.
This is the Tribune text in the rulebook.
You take all your played cards back into your hand, the Tribune included, and receive 1 sestertius for every card beyond the third (so taking back 9 cards pays 6). You may also buy one new colonist for 1 food and 1 tool, placed in Roma. Your first Tribune also triggers the optional intermediate scoring.
Players agree; the rule has no requirement on cards in the discard pile.
Yes. With no played cards you take back nothing and get no money, but you can still buy the one colonist. Because you can always recover your whole hand with the Tribune, you can never run out of playable cards.
The rulebook excludes players who just used a Diplomat or Tribune.
Only the top card of another player's discard pile, and only cards that player really played. You cannot copy a Tribune (the player took their cards back, so it is not there) or a Diplomat. The action is carried out exactly as if you had played the card.
The rulebook says the action is executed exactly as if you had played the card.
Yes. The Diplomat executes the card exactly as if you had played it yourself, so you pick your own option, whatever its owner chose.
Posters agree and it follows from copying the card's action.
You do. A copied Specialist pays you for your own matching houses, not the owner's. A copied Senator lets you buy from the display under your own turn; cards you buy go to your hand. The original player's cards are unaffected.
The rulebook says all of the player's houses of that type produce.
Only the player who played it: one unit per house of the matching type that they own. Other players receive nothing. It does not need an active province, does not flip any marker, and can be played even with no matching houses.
The rulebook states the two-type limit and that unit counts are limited only by space.
You get 3 sestertii (5 if the Mercator is a purchased copy), then trade two different types of goods with the bank at the storehouse prices. You may sell two, buy two, or sell one and buy the other, and trade any number of units, limited by storehouse space and money. Trading one type or none is fine.
The rulebook describes trading as the Mercator action and bans trading between players; players confirm.
No. Goods are bought and sold with the bank only through the Mercator action (played or copied with a Diplomat), and players can never trade goods with each other. Goods and coins are otherwise unlimited.
The rulebook gives both price formulas.
The Senator buys up to two cards for the goods in the card's red field plus the goods shown under its slot on the board (a question mark means any one good). The Consul buys one card and pays only the red-field goods, ignoring the board slot. You may play either without buying anything.
The rulebook says cards shift left and the row is refilled after the purchases.
After your whole action. Both purchases are made at the prices of the display as it stood, so a card revealed by your first purchase cannot be bought with the second. A Senator or Consul can buy another Consul or Senator from the display.
Tools. Some English copies print the word food in the cost field but the tools symbol next to it; the symbol is correct.
The rulebook says you may not discard goods and may not leave space empty.
You must take received goods while you have a free storehouse space, and you may not leave a space empty to dodge them. You can never discard goods you already hold to make room for new ones. If more goods arrive than fit, you pick which ones to keep.
Posters agree, citing the German rules wording.
There is no order: they arrive together, so you can take any combination that fits your storehouse. The German original makes this clearer with its wording about happening at once.
The rulebook states goods and coins are unlimited.
Goods and coins are considered unlimited. Use any substitute you have.
Several players agree and it follows from the end-game rule.
No. Each player has 15 houses, and building the 15th triggers the end of the game.
The rulebook says each card assigned to a god multiplies that god's score.
Yes. Each card of a god scores the full amount for that god, so two Jupiter cards score Jupiter twice. A god you hold no card for scores nothing. The maximum shown for a god applies per card, not to your total.
The rulebook gives maximums per card.
Each card. The maximum equals the number of provinces on the map, so with several Saturnus cards you score that count multiplied by your card count.
The designer said in 2015 that Minerva is a personal matter.
No. Minerva scores only your own houses, never those of other players in the same city. Each Minerva card covers a different city type, so you do not multiply by Minerva cards owned.
The designer confirmed this reasoning in 2014.
Just count them. Add the goods' normal prices to your sestertii and score 1 VP per full 10. Nothing is actually sold, so no one needs substitute coins.
The rulebook describes the sequence.
It happens the first time each player plays a Tribune, scoring all cards as at game end. Goods are only valued for Vesta, not sold. After everyone has scored, the best score gets 2 sestertii and second 1, and all markers return to zero. It does not end the game and is optional.
The rulebook gives both triggers.
The game ends when a player buys the last card from the display (which happens only once the deck is empty, since the display refills) or builds their 15th house. That player takes the Concordia card, worth 7 VP. Merely emptying the draw deck does not end it.
The rulebook says all other players take one last turn, and the designer mentioned the turn-order compensation in 2025.
Yes. Every other player takes exactly one more turn, in order, even those who just played. The player who ended it does not. Turn counts can be unequal, which is why later seats get extra starting money and the Præfectus Magnus.
The designer said in 2025 that the Præfectus Magnus decides all ties.
The tied player who holds the Præfectus Magnus wins. If none of the tied players holds it, the tied player who would receive it next wins. The designer confirms the same applies to ties for second, third and any other position.
Players agree on the top card and say the rest is a house choice.
The top card of each discard pile is always visible, since the Diplomat needs it. The rules do not say your hand is open, so hands are normally closed; looking through a discard pile or opening hands is a table agreement. Money is open.
The designer explained in 2015 that salt can be changed for cloth at game end.
Each leftover salt is worth 7 sestertii for Vesta, because it can be exchanged for cloth at the end. Salt has no value of its own and can never be bought or sold for sestertii directly.
The designer approved the salt-to-wine example in 2016 and 2015, and several players agree.
Yes. Salt can be swapped for any good at any time (it is a wild good), then that good can be sold normally with a Mercator. The swap is not one of your two traded types, since salt itself is never bought or sold.
The designer ruled in 2017 that salt is never a bonus good, including for Gavdos.
No. Salt is never a bonus good, and salt cities have no bonus marker. A province's bonus is set by its other cities. Gavdos (on Creta) also cannot choose salt.
Players agree; no official ruling is cited.
A salt city itself produces nothing. Only a Villa (a house) built in a salt city produces salt, when a Prefect activates its province, and every player's Villa there produces. A salt city does not give a Mason an extra brick.
Several players agree on the rulebook example reading.
A salt city is wild: you choose which city type it counts as for one of your Minerva cards, normally the one that scores most. It counts for only one Minerva card, not all of them.
Not for Mercurius: the Salsa rules say salt cities do not count, because salt is not one of the goods types. For Venus scoring there is no ruling; the Salsa rules predate Venus, and one player reads salt cities as counting like any other city.
5 VP for each cloth city and each salt city you hold, since salt counts as cloth for the Weaver. A salt city can count for only one of your Minerva cards, so it cannot score for both Weaver and another Minerva.
The designer says salt appears on base maps and the rules list the replacements; the exact letter mapping rests on one player's post.
One city of each letter is swapped for the salt city with the same letter: A replaces a food city, B a tool city, C a wine city and D a brick city. The instructions are printed on the back of the forum board, not in the rulebook. Salt does appear in base-game maps.
The designer confirmed this in 2022.
Do the normal setup, then replace each salt city with a regular city token: A for tools, B for wine, C for cloth and D for brick. The Salsa rules have a section on the game without salt.
The designer confirmed this reading in 2024 and said examples are part of the rules.
Yes. Take the tile first, then use it before or between your Tribune actions, for example buy food with Quintus and then place a colonist. The designer says the examples in the rules are part of the rules.
The designer answered this in 2015 ("everything is correct").
Yes. The Diplomat acts as an exact copy, so forum cards tied to that card, such as an extra Architect step, work too.
The designer confirmed both points in 2015 and 2016.
No. Tiberius lets you take the bonus good without flipping the marker, and does not count as a Prefect play: the Præfectus Magnus doesn't apply, other houses don't produce, and Prefect-dependent forum cards don't activate. You can use it during a Tribune action.
The designer confirmed this in 2020.
Yes. Both wine and cloth symbols on the display become any good of your choice. Excluding wine would weaken the card too much.
The designer answered yes in 2022.
Yes. Partial use is allowed even though the tile reads 2 for 2.
The designer ruled on the space question in 2016.
No. The goods are sold at once, so no space is needed. It sells only the bonus good from the marker, not goods produced by your houses.
Several players agree, citing the rule that Mercator-linked forum cards apply only with that card.
No. Gaius Marcellus works only with Mercator, and nothing is actually sold at game end.
The designer confirmed the zero-coin build in 2016.
Yes. There is no minimum price, so a build can cost only goods. The discount saves just one coin per city, even if the city holds several houses.
Players agree; none disputed.
Yes, you can hold it until you want to use it. Green tiles are one-time use and are removed from the game after use.
Yes. Players report that the Forum tiles are entirely optional, so you can play Salsa without them.
The designer answered in 2026.
Mostly no. The designer says they are needed in some cases, such as when salt cities create more brick provinces. Otherwise they are spares.
The designer confirmed this in 2021.
Only the player who played the Prefect gets it, and there is just one extra food. Other players with houses in that province receive only their normal production.
The designer answered no in 2017.
No. The Præfectus Magnus doubles only the bonus good on the flipped province marker. The Nile food sits on the province itself, so it is not doubled.
Several players agree, including a translation point from the German rules.
Only when someone plays a Prefect on the province that currently holds it. That player takes the extra food and the marker moves one province downstream; nothing happens at other times.
Probably not. The 5 sestertii bonus is paid when someone produces in a Red Sea province, which players read as a Prefect production, so a Minerva card does not trigger it. The special squares are entered only after an Architect move, so read literally Julius does not give access either; no designer has confirmed this.
The designer answered this in 2017.
No. A second ship can stay on the lines leading to the square. The one-per-square limit doesn't force it anywhere. Blocking the route is possible but costly.
Yes. The Nile sections are sea lines, so sea colonists can use them, including through Thebae and Syene, and several sea colonists may share a sea line.
The designer described this in 2017.
The player who plays the Prefect on Gavdos chooses the bonus good freely and puts a matching marker from the supply on the question-mark square. Only the Prefect player gets that bonus. It is removed when someone takes the cash bonus, so the next producer chooses again, including the same good.
The designer answered this in 2026.
It is then an ordinary single-city province with no free choice. The 2 extra sestertii for collecting the cash bonus still apply. House-ruling the fish rules is fine.
The designer answered yes in 2019.
Yes. Single and double fish markers can be exchanged freely, so you receive change.
Both designers answered this in 2019.
No. Fish can only be spent at the fish market, so visit the market first, then play your card.
Several players agree, and the rulebook says the fish market can be combined with any other board.
Yes to both. It is a module that works with any map and with Salsa, and Balearica plays fine without it.
The designer answered in 2019.
You may skip steps by paying 1 sestertius per skipped step, putting that coin on the skipped step. On each step you enter you may use one or both stands, but must use at least one. You can only use stands on one step per turn.
The designer confirmed the fish payment in 2020.
Yes, you can move on your first visit as long as you can pay the fish. Moving is not mandatory; the counter can stay put.
A single player post says so, no official confirmation.
Yes. In Germania each river section may hold several sea colonists at the same time.
The designer answered in 2014.
There are no official player counts. The designer does not recommend Germania with two players, and says Britannia with five can be fun and competitive.
The designer ruled on the order in 2023.
No, the Tribune takes only one good from a castle, however many colonists you have there. You may place the new colonist first and then take the castle good, but you may not use the castle good to pay for a colonist whose placement is what freed the storehouse space.
When your land colonist stands on a line connected to the castle and a marker is still there, you may remove one connected marker and take one unit of its good, as long as it fits in your storehouse. Only one marker per visit.
The designer confirmed this in 2016.
Yes. The Colonist card always lets you place colonists in your own cities or the starting city, on every map, even though the Gallia and Corsica texts name only one city.
Yes. It is legal, though usually a weak play.
No. It can be crossed, but no colonist may end its movement on that line.
The designer confirmed the zero-coin play in 2023.
Yes, you receive nothing but it is a legal play. On Roma, taking the cash bonus also lets you move one sea colonist.
The designer ruled on this in 2024.
No. Without a bonus good the tile is not used, so you keep it.
The designer ruled in 2024.
The same side as the marker it replaces, so a coin-side marker stays coin-side and cannot be produced again for free.
The designer answered in 2023 and confirmed in 2024.
Three. Going through the gate you choose one of three routes, and each is adjacent to only one building.
The designer confirmed in 2023.
Yes.
The designer answered both in 2023.
Use one of your own houses on the score track, swapping it for the marker used by the fish market when you build your 15th house. Salt cities do count for your chosen specialist when Minerva is scored at Byzantium.
The designer answered in 2025.
Yes, you collect the bonuses where they end up, though each sea colonist still moves only once and only one can reach Byzantium.
Yes. The designer said taking one more coin is fine.
Yes. Venus decks work with any map and the older printing; only the wooden bits changed supplier. It includes the cards for original-style play but not the tokens, markers or boards.
Use the Venus setup sheet's original-rules option: replace the Venus Double Choice cards with the original-version cards, remove the Magister from each starting hand so you start with 7 cards, and add the Mason to stack I. Cards with no pillar or double ring are for this mode only.
One player reply, no official confirmation.
Yes, but you must still carry out the mandatory parts. Optional parts, such as buying a colonist with the Tribune, can be skipped.
The designer said so in 2021.
No. Forum cards can be used only by their owner. Some become stronger in the team game, which the designer considers intended.
The designer tested and answered each point in 2019.
You may choose salt as the bonus good, which is the one exception to salt never being a bonus good. With the Præfectus Magnus you get two of the same chosen good, not two different goods. Taking a non-cloth good from a cloth province does not change the marker.
No. They are intended for use without Salsa, and can also be mixed in with the Salsa forum tiles. Distribute them before play; green cards are one-time use.
The designer confirmed this in 2021.
Yes. Any map works; choose one by taste. Smaller maps give more interaction and make the game harder.
Yes. The designer says it is fully compatible: you can add Salsa cities, the Salsa forum tiles and the Balearica fish market. With forum tiles, Contrarius takes the first tile left in the row after you take yours.
The designer answered in 2026 that the rules are unclear and both starts are fine.
Either a start including salt or the Solitaria start is fine, and you start with 6 sestertii in both cases.
The designer answered in 2021.
Yes. The designer sees no reason you could not use it, although the Solitaria rules do not include the Magister.
The designer confirmed this in 2021.
Yes. Contrarius works in multiplayer and in a two-player team game, reacting to the cards of the player who controls it.
The designers answered several setup details in 2022.
Contrarius starts with 2 colonists in the capital. Treat it as a normal Architect action: each colonist takes one step to the line between the capital and one of the two most valuable cities. It builds a house in the most valuable city, and only the line next to the target city needs to be empty. Salt cities count as cloth here (use A, B, C order if tied). It starts at 0 VP. The colonist stands on the road next to the city, not in it.
The designer answered this in 2021.
Officially the Solitaria rule applies: owning the Concordia card breaks the tie. Contrarius never holds the Praefectus Magnus, so the designer treats Concordia card ownership as the superior tiebreaker; between the humans, the Præfectus Magnus could decide as usual.
The designer gave this example in 2022.
If that province's marker shows goods, Contrarius produces there and flips the marker (you get goods for your own houses there). If it is already on its coin side nothing happens, unless 3 or more provinces show coins, in which case all markers flip back to goods.
The designer answered these in 2023 and 2024.
It moves on to the next good type in its cycle (cloth, wine, tools, food, brick) and keeps circling until it finds a reachable city. With no free brick city, it goes to a cloth city even when salt cities are free; with no free salt city it builds for its best specialist.
The designer posted this guidance in 2021; it is not in the rulebook.
The designer suggests its first new colonist is always a land colonist: roll the white die to choose the city, and use alphabetical order if unsure.
The designer confirmed this in 2022.
Yes. A face-down specialist still counts for Contrarius, so it can still affect its best-specialist choice. Putting a matching good on the card helps you keep track.
The designer answered these points in 2022 to 2025.
Yes. The partner uses the Tribune card too, without playing one, and performs a Tribune action. Contrarius takes only one forum tile. Partners add their played cards together for the forum thresholds. If Contrarius reacted only to a Proconsul, it takes no forum tile.
The designer answered in 2022.
The tile is never used with Contrarius. When the Prefect shown with Præfectus Magnus is played, both partners use the same card, so both get the doubled bonus.
Yes. The starting player's cards, including cards they buy, never trigger Contrarius. The designer thinks the resulting advantage is minor.
The designer confirmed in 2023.
Yes. The third-player variant is set up like solo mode, so Contrarius gets the first Minerva card.
The designer answered in 2023.
Yes. Contrarius reacts after both actions, so the new house counts and it scores one more point.
The designer answered in 2025.
Only the human player's cards. When needed, use the Contrarius reaction printed on your own cards.
The designer answered in 2025.
No. Contrarius collects every fish you pay at the fish market and scores 1 VP per fish at game end.
A single reply states this; nobody contradicts it.
No. In every way of playing with Contrarius it gets exactly one reaction after the human players have each taken an action.