Montmartre

As Parisian artists seeking inspiration in Montmartre, players must paint and sell their works – sometimes to the bustling Sunday Market, but preferably to prestigious collectors. Ambrose Vollard, the art dealer, determines which collectors are currently buying, and players must strategically sell their paintings at the opportune time to earn the most points.

Montmartre, a card game by Florian Sirieix, accommodates 2-5 players ages 8+. It plays in approximately 15-20 minutes.

How to Play

Sort the collector cards by color and stack them with the highest value cards on the bottom and in descending order with the lowest value cards on top. Set out five newspaper contracts, with the Ambrose Vollard standee nearby.

Then, shuffle and deal four cards to each player and divide the remaining cards into three equal draw piles at the center of the play area.

Finally, choose a start player and give them the first player token.

On Your Turn

On your turn, you may choose between two primary actions that have smaller (sometimes optional) accompanying actions.

Paint, (Optional Sell to Market), Draw

In your personal play area, known as the workshop, you can play one card of any value; or two cards if the sum is equal to or less than five. Place these cards in columns with other cards of the same color.

If your workshop is running out of space for paintings, you can sell one or more paintings of the same style (color) to the Sunday market to earn one Franc for each painting sold there.

Draw cards from the same pile to replenish your hand to four cards.

Sell to a Collector, (Optional Claim a Contract)

If you meet two conditions, you may sell to one of the collectors:

Ambrose Vollard must not be in front of the collector to whom you wish to sell your painting.

and

To sell to that collector, you must have either more paintings in that color than any other player or a higher total value for that color than those of the other players.

Move Ambrose Vollard in front of the collector who wishes to buy your painting.

Discard the painting of the highest value and color of the collector you are selling to. (The others remain in your workshop.)

Take the top card from this collector’s stack and place it face down in your play area.

Then, if you meet the conditions of a newspaper contract you may choose to claim one. You may only claim one contract during the game.

Game End

The game end is triggered when two of the four collector stacks are empty, or a player has at least 15 Francs. Play continues to ensure each player has had the same number of turns before totaling the values on collector cards and Francs to determine the winner.

Impressions

Montmartre is an elegant card game that feels familiar and comfortable for avid board gamers but is also simple enough to introduce to new players. The set collection and hand management mechanisms are enhanced with some added (light) area control and a bit of push-your-luck with determining when to snag a newspaper contract. We found the back and forth of these mechanisms, particularly the area control, to provide very interesting game play decisions.

Trying to hold out for selling to the higher-value collectors also provided a nice tension in the game, but accumulating more than six paintings in the workshop and being forced to sell at the Sunday market for mere Francs can derail the dream for high-value cards and happy patrons.

The battle for the best newspaper contracts adds yet another fun element of tension between players, and sometimes it’s just not possible to sell paintings to the number of collectors required to earn those with high values.

Monitoring the workshops of other players and blocking their sales by adding paintings to your personal workshop might feel slightly “take-that” to some players. With such quick turns and a short overall game, it didn’t bother the adults or 8-year-old child playing. We actually found this to be one of the most strategic and rewarding aspects of our Montmartre plays.

The art of Montmartre is very clever, with low value cards represented as very quick sketches, progressing to the painting in its final form at the highest value card. The cards and Francs were of good quality, and the cards are Tarot size.

Two and Three Players

We learned this game with the two-player variant before introducing it to our daughter and playing with three players. We really disliked the two-player variant and cannot recommend it.

Once we began playing at three, the fun strategy and area control revealed themselves and we enjoyed the game so much more. While our 8-year-old understood the game and played it well, it isn’t one she is interested in revisiting.

Although our daughter wasn’t interested in game play, I think for those looking to add a quick and approachable card game to their collection Montmartre is a solid option for 3-5 players.

Find Montmartre on Amazon, buy it from Lucky Duck Games (in the US), or ask for it at your local game store.

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The Family Gamers received a copy of Montmartre from Lucky Duck Games on behalf of Blam! for this review.

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