La Strada

by MayFair Games

Product Features

• For 2-4 players
• Takes about 30 minutes to play
• Strategy board game
• Tons of replay value
• Euro-style game

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 2.2 x 9.9 x 9.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0006HCVYA
• Item model number: MFG3304
• Manufacturer recommended age: 10 - 14 years
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #91,309 in Toys & Games (See Top 100 in Toys & Games)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

As the proud owner of a northern Italian trading company, you must dispatch carts and wagons to find new customers for your goods. But times are hard and competition is fierce. Establish new markets by creating unique routes that bypass your competitors. Naturally, the larger towns are more lucrative, but profits will be greatest where you can keep the market to yourself. Competition will only hurt sales, so even a small village can be a valuable destination. A monopoly, however modest, is still sweet. Find the best way to reach your goals and bar your opponents from success by building a trade network across the variable board. Your opponents will quickly claim their routes, so plan your strategy with care. Creating the best network and taking the greatest share of the gold is the road to victory in La Strada. This family strategy board game is for 2-4 players, ages 10 and up. It takes about 30 minutes to play.

Product Description

As the proud owner of a northern Italian trading company, you must dispatch carts and wagons to find new customers for your goods. But times are hard and competition is fierce. Establish new markets by creating unique routes that bypass your competitors. Naturally, the larger towns are more lucrative, but profits will be greatest where you can keep the market to yourself. Competition will only hurt sales, so even a small village can be a valuable destination. A monopoly, however modest, is still sweet. Find the best way to reach your goals and bar your opponents from success by building a trade network across the variable board. Your opponents will quickly claim their routes, so plan your strategy with care! Creating the best network and taking the greatest share of the gold is the road to victory in La Strada! This family strategy board game is for 2-4 players, ages 10 and up. It takes about 30 minutes to play. Measures 2.25"L x 9.875"W x 2.25"H.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Only works with three or four players, September 15, 2007

By 

Amanda Hamm "author of Dear Jane Letters (and... (NC) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: La Strada (Toy)

I like this game. It is fairly quick and easy to learn. It doesn't take long to set up either. The gist of it is that there are different sized towns scattered across the landscape and you get points for attaching them to your road network. More points for the larger towns. The cost for laying your roads differs based on the terrain type so you want to get the cheaper paths before anyone else. With three or four players, it works as a short filler game.

I strongly recommend buying something else though if you want a two-player game. According to the rules, the second player to choose a starting place goes first so that player can put the starting place in front of the other player's and immediately block it with a road. This gives that player a significant advantage and whoever chooses the first starting place will almost always lose.

4 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Italian Trading Game in Yonks!, October 5, 2005

By 

Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: La Strada (Toy)

Did you ever wish that you lived and worked in old Italy? Here's a role playing board game that will have you crying out, Mamma Mia, that's a spicy meatball!

Mayfair Games are always reliable, and many of us who used to swear by CLUE now have thrown the old Parkers Brothers standby right out the window and now we pledge allegiance to Mayfair's ALIBI game, which is roughly the same idea but fiendishly clever and much more thrilling. It's like CLUE with CSI thrown in. Another worthy game is called ELIXIR, which helps you bide your time waiting for the next HARRY POTTER movie to come out; it's fun, frivolous, involves fairies and makes players do stunts, like Madonna's TRUTH OR DARE, while under the spell of magical herbs, sort of the way the lovers in Shakespeare's MIDSUMMERS' NIGHT DREAM all have to change partners due to Titania and Oberon's wishes. Anyhow my lips were already therefore moist when I heard about LA STRADA, the Italian village industry game from Mayfair, in which you decide how to proceed with building your own business in the land of pasta and vino. It's before the days of motorcars, so you do your peddling out of a horse-drawn buggy, reminding us of Hakim Ali, the Arab peddler who loves the ladies in Rodgers & Hammerstein's classic OKLAHOMA! You are the master of fleets of wagons, and the fate of a vast Italian commercial empire rests on your shoulders. Have you got the 'cogliones' (Italian for, well, you can just imagine) to carry it off?

I have seen grown men cry after bringing their wagon to the fair and coming up empty. And yes, children cheer when they manage to do well on LA STRADA. Don't confuse this game with the popular "road movie" starring Giuletta Masina, the wife of Fellini. Just enjoy it, the way you once enjoyed playing Clue or Uno.