Seattle-based Passport Games has announced an agreement with Italiy’s Stratelibri Games to distribute worldwide, the English language edition of Venetia, a classic Euro-style economic board game that traces the rise of the trade-based Venetian Republic.  Passport plans to release the English edition of Venetia in the U.S. in the fourth quarter of 2013.  In this new game, designed by Marco Maggi and Francesco Nepitello, who also created the popular War of the Rings and Age of Conan board games, 2-4 players (ages 12 and up) compete to become the most prosperous and influential noble family in the history of the Serenissima Republic (see "Stratelibri's Venetia" for an initial description of the game).
 
Each player in Venezia controls a patrician household vying for power with other powerful families.  To gain clout and fortune (Victory Points) players must extend their influence outside of the city by sending representatives to trading destinations throughout the Mediterranean.  Players also participate in power struggles within the city as they compete to become the next Venetian ruler or "Doge," as well as to acquire more ducats as they attempt to build up their family’s cash reserves.
 
Venetia is played across three epochs, and the game traces the rise of the Venetian economic powerhouse from its modest beginnings in the 9th Century to the apogee of its powers in the 18th.  Players not only have to deal with each other, but they also have to counter threats to Venice’s hegemony over the Mediterranean from Genoa, the Turks, and the Spanish.