INTRODUCTION

“Ragusa: a maritime republic and Mediterranean port that sees thousands of ships pass through its walled harbour. Here, in the midst of the 15th Century, Ragusa is at its peak – it is the sole rival to Venice as a trading gateway between the Eastern and Western civilizations, a neutral zone where merchants from all corners of the globe come to show their wares.

But Ragusa is nothing – and was nothing – without you: the builders. By strategically building lumber mills, vineyards, towers, and warehouses around and within the city, you built – and must continue to build – the foundations of wealth and commerce that will be this city’s legacy…”

Let us be honest, board games themed around the premise of merchants trading in the Mediterranean are a dime a dozen. As I find myself caught in a downwards spiral of despair manifesting itself as diminishing shelf space, the competition for a board game to enter these prestigious halls of worship known as the Kallax is fierce to say the least. Enter Ragusa, the second design by author Fabio Lopiano who burst onto the scene in 2017 with Calimala. Described by publisher Braincrack Games as a worker placement game “with one or two tricks up its sleeve”, I was intrigued to see whether Ragusa would be able to surpass my lofty expectations.

Full disclosure: a review copy of Ragusa was kindly provided by publisher Braincrack Games.

COMPONENTS

In terms of component quality there is certainly plenty to like about Ragusa. The main board is double-sided, where one depicts the city of Ragusa in its entirety with the characteristic orange roof tops and narrow streets within the city walls. The other side features larger icons denoting each of the available actions’ players can perform when placing a house in one of the city districts. Although a matter of taste, personally I found myself playing the game exclusively with the side featuring clearer iconography as it makes the board less busy especially during the later stages of the game. That being said, I appreciate how publisher Braincrack Games presents a more visually striking alternative to play Ragusa should you be so inclined. I also really, really love the wooden tower pieces which slot perfectly onto the houses, making for a very aesthetically impressive game that features predominately bold, bright colours for the player pieces and boards. The game even includes cardboard tuck boxes for each player to store their components which is a nice touch.

THE SOLO EXPERIENCE

As advertised, Ragusa does indeed present a novel take on the tried-and-true formula that is worker placement. The main board is divided into two sections: the countryside which provides an influx of resources needed to expand your presence on the board in the form of adding new houses to a region. Alternatively, you have the option to convert goods like grapes or olives which are gathered from your houses in the rural areas of the board into commodities which in turn fuel more powerful actions like trading with merchants from outside the region or awarding victory points. The other main area of interest is the actual city of Ragusa, which is divided into several districts each providing an associated action like the ability to gain additional bonus cards for potential end-of-game scoring opportunities or contribute to the development of the city’s infrastructure by adding towers and walls around the city.

The thing though that separates Ragusa from the rest of the pack, at least in my eyes, is the way these actions create synergies. The main board is divided into hexes, each providing a total of six locations for players to add their houses. What is interesting is the fact that every single location is adjacent to three hexes and each provides a benefit of some sort. Therefore, by placing a house on the board you are activating all three interlocking hexes that surrounds your player pawn and this is the point where Ragusa goes from being a fairly bog-standard Euro game design into something far more fascinating. Adding to this notion of synergies between action spaces is the fact that several locations within the city allows for multiple activations for every single house already present. For example, say you have invested heavily into the district that converts grapes into wine and another player or in this case the neutral solo adversary adds one of their houses then congratulations you get to enjoy the fruits of your labour even though it is in fact another player’s turn. This notion of positive interaction, where your actions benefit your opponents as opposed to penalising them is something that I personally enjoy in board games and Ragusa has perfected this design philosophy to a tee.

When playing the game solo, you will be competing against The Patrician; an aristocrat with an appetite for influence and wealth who will stop at nothing to achieve their goals. This level of power and political sway is represented by allowing the solo opponent to use two player boards and corresponding sets of houses, effectively simulating a three-player game. During setup of a solo play of Ragusa the main board will be seeded with a total of 18 black houses distributed at certain key locations of the city. These houses represent action locations where the blue and orange bot respectively will add one of their houses at some point during the game, think of them as building sites reserved exclusively for the benefit of The Patrician whilst also hindering your own strategies for influence and trade opportunities within the city walls of Ragusa. However, the astute solo player will take this serving that given a cursory glance might seem like a bag of lemons and turn it into the sweetest of lemonades by taking advantage of the influential reach of the solitaire adversary.

Because the solo mode in Ragusa is designed in such a way that the actions of the opponent is public information you have the figurative tools at your disposal to formulate your strategy, capitalizing on the board presence of The Patrician by adding one of your own houses to a crowded city district early in the game thus earning several activations further down the line. Or perhaps you decide to not compete with the aristocrat and instead focus your efforts on other less-populated areas of Ragusa, leaving his two lackeys to squabble over the leftovers. And with a few exceptions, primarily those concerning tiebreakers when adding towers and constructing the wall, the solo mode in Ragusa is incredibly streamlined and requires truly little upkeep on behalf of the human player.

The downside though is the fact that much like the solo mode in Tang Garden, Ragusa is less of a dynamic solitaire game experience and more one akin an intellectual puzzle to ponder over. Given enough plays, eventually you will reach a tipping-point where the “solution” to the puzzle presents itself. Depending on your personal preferences this might be a blessing or a curse, personally I do not mind this particular school of solo game design but it is nevertheless worth mentioning.

FINAL THOUGHTS

With its notion of benefitting from other player’s actions and the way synergies are created as a result, Ragusa does present a novel take on the tried-and-true formula of worker placement whilst also serving as a testament that there is still room for new and interesting game designs to emerge. Despite this, I do find myself hesitating whether or not Ragusa is it the sort of solo experience I am going to come back to for years to come as I fear that the novelty of the design will eventually start to wear off at least for the solo player. As a wise person once said, time will tell.