Carl von Linné
Carl von Linné
Carl von Linné
Carl von Linné
Carl von Linné
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Pink Troubadour

Carl von Linné

ENG
👥 Players —
⏱️ Playing time —
🧠 Complexity —
🎂 Age —
🏷️ Category Strategy, Solitaires 🏭 Publisher Pink Troubadour
🐸 Details from BoardGameGeek
🐸 BGG Rating: —

Consiglio BGG sul numero di giocatori

Players: —

Categorie

Meccaniche

Design & Art

Lingua

Lingua:
Inglese
Dipendenza:
—
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Sale price€69,74Regular price €74,99 -7% Save €5,25
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November 6, 2026
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🛡️Recommended sleeves12
Card size43×65 · 70×70 · 70×120 mm
Cards in the box124
You need2 packs of 100
Which cards
20 viaggio4 viaggio iniziali30 libro6 libro iniziali40 lettera4 preparazione20 solitario
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Not suitable for children under 3. Small parts, choking hazard.

Si abbina bene con

La scheda FroGames

Hai cinque lenti sul tavolo. Una va in Giappone a cercare campioni. Un'altra studia le orchidee nel giardino. La terza scrive un capitolo. Quando torneranno, ne avrai bisogno subito. Ma servono mesi.

GestionalePink TroubadourLinneo e il sistema naturale
👥 Giocatori 1 – 4
⏱️ Durata 60–120 min
🎂 Età 12+ anni
🏢 Editore Pink Troubadour
⚖️ Peso Impegnativo (3.8)
🔬 Sistema Lenti e recupero azioni
La formulaLenti come azioni × Esplorazione e pubblicazione × Corsa alla tassonomia✋ Solo qui: Sistema lenti per recupero azioni

DI COSA SI TRATTA

Una gara scientifica nel secolo dei Lumi

Carl von Linné porta al tavolo l'Europa del primo Settecento, quando la tassonomia moderna stava nascendo dalle esplorazioni globali e dalle collezioni private. Progettato da Michal Peichl e illustrato da Stanislava Pajonková e Michal Řezníček, il gioco ti mette nei panni di un naturalista che compete per lasciare il segno nella storia della scienza.

Spedisci esploratori in regioni remote per raccogliere campioni vegetali e animali, coltivi giardini botanici, corrispondi con istituzioni scientifiche e pubblichi trattati che cristallizzano le tue scoperte. Il sistema delle lenti (un meccanismo di action retrieval inedito) scandisce il ritmo: ogni azione impegna una lente, che tornerà disponibile solo dopo un certo numero di turni. Devi sincronizzare spedizioni, studi e pubblicazioni mentre gli altri giocatori ti contendono i campioni più rari e le pubblicazioni più prestigiose.

Cosa dicono all'estero

Carl von Linné non è ancora uscito ufficialmente, ma i primi playtest e preview internazionali parlano di un gestionale sofisticato con una curva di apprendimento ripida e una profondità strategica notevole. Questa scheda verrà aggiornata non appena avremo più recensioni verificate e feedback dalla comunità.

—

"Players take on roles of natural historians inspired by Linnaeus, exploring distant regions and building knowledge through a unique lens system."

I giocatori vestono i panni di naturalisti ispirati a Linneo, esplorando regioni lontane e costruendo conoscenza attraverso un sistema di lenti unico.

—

FroGames
FrogScore · frogames.business

Carl von Linné

Strategia
L'esperienza
MeditativoIntricatoSincronizzato
Per chi è
🎯Esperti
🧠Heavy game
🌱Gateway
🍕Party
🎲Family game
In sintesi
Perché ci piace: è un gestionale profondo che trasforma un tema educativo (la tassonomia settecentesca) in un puzzle di ottimizzazione elegante e adulto. Il sistema delle lenti crea scelte dolorose ogni turno. Difetti ma non deal-breaker: la curva è ripida, la prima partita dura facilmente due ore abbondanti, e con giocatori lenti può allungarsi parecchio. Non è un gioco da proporre a un tavolo casual.
🧘
Modalità solitario · Ufficiale ★★★★☆

Il gioco include una modalità solitario ufficiale con un avversario bot che compete per campioni e pubblicazioni. L'esperienza è completa: gestisci le stesse decisioni del multiplayer e il bot tiene alta la pressione. Rispetto al 2-4 giocatori perdi ovviamente l'interazione sociale e la lettura degli avversari, ma il puzzle strategico rimane intatto.

FroGames FrogScore · valutazione editoriale FroGames · basata su regolamento, recensioni internazionali e sessioni di gioco

Gli strumenti del naturalista

Cosa hai davanti ogni turno

🔬

Le cinque lenti

Ogni lente è un'azione. La usi, la giri, e torna disponibile dopo N turni. Devi pianificare adesso quello che farai tra tre round, altrimenti resti bloccato.

🗺️

Mappa delle spedizioni

Tabellone mondo con regioni da esplorare. Ogni regione offre campioni diversi: piante, animali, minerali. Ti servono per completare collezioni e pubblicare.

🌿

Giardino botanico

Uno spazio personale dove coltivi piante rare. Più specie diverse hai, più punti genera il giardino a fine partita. Ma richiede turni dedicati alla cura.

📚

Trattati scientifici

Carte pubblicazione con requisiti (X campioni di Y tipo). Chi pubblica per primo prende il bonus maggiore. Chi arriva dopo rosicchia punti.

📕 Regolamento ufficiale (PDF) Carl von Linné - Official English Rulebook · su BoardGameGeek ↗
Ask Froggy about the rules
Froggy has read the rulebook: rules, turns, setup. Ask, then dig deeper.
Already answered by Froggy (25)
How do you win Carl von Linné?
The player with the most points after five rounds wins. Points come from many sources: published books, milestones, garden beds, studied specimens, exotics, sent letters and university tracks, plus leftovers converted at the end of the game. From the rules you can see that there's no single path, but an interweaving of systems to make work together. (End of game and final score)
What happens in case of a tie?
If two or more players end with the same points, the player with the most coins remaining wins. Be careful though: at the end of the game coins are converted to containers or tools at 3 each, so from the rules you can deduce that the tiebreaker concerns coins left over after conversion. (End of game and final score)
What does a turn look like?
Each turn has three steps: first you perform an action by placing a lens on a free tool on your board, then you can publish a book card, finally you check if you've completed a milestone. Then you pass to the next player. There's also a reminder printed on the lenses of the board. (Action phase: turn structure)
How long does a turn take?
The rulebook doesn't give times, but from the rules you can see that a turn is quick: a single action, executed from one to three times depending on the tool, plus any book publication and milestone check. Free actions can extend it a bit, because you perform them as many times as you want if you can pay for them. (Action phase: turn structure)
How many turns and rounds are there in a game?
The game lasts exactly five rounds, guaranteed by the pile of turn order tiles that decreases by one each income phase. In each round everyone takes three actions, one per tool, alternating with the others. So in total you make fifteen actions: few, and from the rules you can see that each one carries a lot of weight. (Rounds, turns and work board with lenses)
How do lenses and tools work, the heart of the game?
Each lens indicates an action, each tool how many times you perform it. Eyeglasses perform it once and give 3 taxonomy steps, the magnifying glass twice plus a container or tool, the microscope three times plus the choice of position in the next turn. Each tool is used once per round. (Rounds, turns and work board with lenses)
Why does a lens get stuck in the cache?
At each income phase the lens used on the microscope ends up in the cache and can't be used in the next round, while the one that was there becomes available again. The power of the triple is thus paid for with a round of downtime for that action. In the first round the wild lens is in the cache. (Income phase)
What does the wild lens do?
It counts as any basic action, but to use it you pay 1 coin. You perform it the number of times the tool does without mixing actions: on the microscope you explore three times, you don't explore and navigate. It copies only basic actions, it's never discarded in income and in the first round it's locked in the cache. (Wild lens and enhanced lenses)
What are the basic actions?
There are five: Explore with the explorer in Scandinavia, Research by moving the researcher in the library, Correspond by writing and sending letters, Cultivate in the shared botanical garden and Navigate with ships on journey cards. Each one feeds the others: specimens, knowledge, letters and journeys are then used to publish books. (Action phase: turn structure)
What do you do when exploring?
You optionally move the explorer to an adjacent location, paying any difficult terrain, then you investigate. In a location with a specimen you take the reward or pay containers for the specimen tile; in sketch locations you take a sketch plus the reward. At your first visit to a location with a specimen you mark it and cash in a one-time bonus. (Explore action)
What is the library with the researcher for?
Collected specimens end up in your library, maximum four. By researching you move the researcher one space: you take the edge globe and study the corners of adjacent specimens, gaining bonuses or knowledge for your notebook. A fully studied specimen exits, frees up space and is worth points at the end of the game. (Research action and knowledge)
How do you publish a book?
After the action you can publish a book card by paying the required knowledge and sketches; sketches of the right color also give their reward. You cash in points and prizes immediately, and you can pay an extra resource for the appendix. The book pairs with a journey card: completed journey plus book gives income each round. (Step 2: publish a book)
What is the most convoluted rule?
From the rules you can see that letter columns are the one that confuses the most. By sending a letter you take its reward plus those already in the column of the same color, up to three. With two letters in the same column you resolve them one at a time, and at the end of the game the columns disappear: only sets of different colors count. (Correspond action)
How much does luck matter?
From the rules you can see that luck exists but is contained: random offers of cards, specimens, lenses and sketches, draws from decks, variable setup. But almost every offer renews by paying 1 coin, as many times as you want, and there are no dice. Chance changes opportunities, choices remain yours. (Free actions)
How much interaction is there between players?
From the rules you can see that it's mostly indirect. You compete for common offers, milestones that reward at most three players, the last space of university tracks that only fits one, spaces of locations on the map and beds of the shared botanical garden, where whoever has the most blooms takes more points. There are no direct attacks. (Grow action and botanical garden)
How does the botanical garden work?
It's shared: you plant flower tiles in beds and take the reward of the space, or pay 2 tools to care for your flower, flipping it to have more blooms and cashing in pond and sketch of the row. When a bed is full, everyone present takes a prize and points go in bloom order. (Grow action and botanical garden)
What happens in case of a tie in a garden bed?
If more players have the same blooms in a completed bed, the points of that position are divided equally among them, rounding down. In the rulebook example two players tied with one bloom each take one point each. Incomplete beds at the end of the game still give points as if they were complete. (Grow action and botanical garden)
What changes in 2 players?
A preparation card is drawn and, with the pieces of an unused color, some spaces of locations on the map and some squares of the garden are occupied, so the board stays tight. Also in milestones the first to complete them takes 6 points and the second 3. The same cards are also used in 3 players. (2 or 3 player games)
Is there a solo mode?
Yes: you play against an automatic scientist who instead of lenses draws 20 solo cards, boosted by green lenses. Has simplified rules on specimens, knowledge, sketches and coins, doesn't receive income but takes 5 points for each exotic. There are four difficulty levels, from Student to Genius, and you always play first. (Solo: setup and concepts)
Is there asymmetry between players?
In the base game no, the character doesn't count. In the advanced game the boards flip over and Linné, Baret, Merian and Buffon have different abilities, starting with 3 coins. There's also the variant with initial tiles, only for the base game, which gives different starting resources to each player. (Advanced game: character abilities)
What do the four advanced characters do?
Linné marks obtained specimens and cashes in rewards by connecting them. Baret has an extra ship that goes around the world and gives 7 points at the end. Merian removes webs from the illustration when the lens multiplier matches the tool. Buffon completes volumes of the Histoire Naturelle by combining adjacent rewards. (Advanced game: character abilities)
Is it replayable?
From the rules you can see yes: milestones and track score tiles are drawn randomly from seven, the helm starts randomly oriented, garden rewards, ponds, enhanced lenses on offer and initial cards change. Each enhanced lens has a unique ability, and there are also four advanced characters and solo mode. (General setup)
What's in the box?
Plenty: board, character and player boards, 45 specimens plus exotics and initial ones, 36 sketches, journey, book and letter cards, basic and enhanced lenses, coins, containers, tools, flower tiles, ships, explorers and researchers. There are also components for solo and advanced characters, plus spare pieces. (Components)
How much table space do you need?
The rulebook doesn't give measurements, but from the rules you can see that you need quite a bit. Besides the board with decks and offers on the sides, everyone has a player and character board, book cards in a column on the left, journey cards and published books on the right, letters and specimens above the board. A generous table is better. (Player setup)
Is there anything to prepare when opening the box?
Yes: before playing you must apply the stickers at the indicated points on the player boards, then the boards fold and press to secure them. Useful bonus: the yellow boxes in the manual and the final appendices are just historical background, so to learn the rules you can skip them without losing anything. (Introduction, resources and board assembly)
Froggy answers by reading the publisher's official rulebook, in the edition we have today. It can make mistakes: when in doubt, the manual in the box always wins. Spotted an error? Hit 👎 and tell us.

A game in five moments

What happens at the table

Not the rules. The experience.

01

The table is an 18th-century study

Set up the board, choose your naturalists, define the regions to explore. There’s something solemn in the air — the illustrations speak of an era when cataloging a species was a heroic act. Everyone already has their own collection strategy in mind. The race to discovery is on.

🔬 0–10 minutes
02

The lens system comes into play

You're trying to optimize your actions — but the lens mechanism forces you to choose: field or study? You can do both, but not everything at once, and not everything right now. Already in the second round, you feel that every decision has a cost. This is where Carl Linné shows its teeth.

⚙️ Depth emerges
03

Someone publishes the first book

An opponent found the right balance before you. Their treatise is already in the academies. Points move, reputation solidifies. You feel you need to change your pace — but the field still calls you, and there's that unfinished expedition you can't ignore.

📜 High tension
04

The botanical garden flourishes

You invested in what seemed like a risk — and now your garden is producing more than you expected. A chain of actions is triggered, your network of scientific correspondents yields unexpected fruits. Someone around the table looks up and realizes the situation has changed.

🌿 The key moment
05

The final treatise determines everything

The final count is closer than it seems. That publication you postponed makes all the difference. The winner has their name in the history of taxonomy — but everyone is already talking about what they would have done differently in the third round. Everything is slowly packed away.

🏆 End of game

How to play

The flow of each round

Four interwoven phases. The lens system creates choices that are never trivial — you learn quickly, you master it over time.

1
You plan your actions

The lens system allows you to select available actions. The more specialized you are in an area, the more powerful the actions in that area become — but at the expense of others.

2
You explore and collect

You move to distant regions to collect specimens. Each collected species opens up new possibilities for study and publication — but the best regions are contested.

3
You study and cultivate

You bring specimens to your botanical garden or laboratory. Studying increases knowledge and unlocks more prestigious publication options.

4
You publish and correspond

Published works and correspondences with scientific institutions convert knowledge into reputation — the final scoring currency.

Why it's different from others

Six mechanics that make a difference

🔭

Unique lens system

Action management isn't simple selection — the lenses determine which actions are available and how powerful they are. An original mechanism that requires vertical planning.

⚖️

Field-study balance

You can't win by just exploring, nor by just publishing. Finding the right balance between fieldwork and academic research is the central challenge of each game.

🌿

Botanical garden as an engine

The garden isn't decorative — it's a growing engine. Investing early in the right specimens creates advantages that amplify throughout the game.

📜

Publications with real weight

Each published book crystallizes points and reputation. Publishing at the wrong time wastes potential — doing it at the right time can turn the score around.

✉️

Network of scientific correspondences

By corresponding with distant institutions, you unlock bonuses and multipliers. Those who build the most efficient network over time gain a silent but decisive advantage.

🗺️

Contested but non-violent regions

Interaction is indirect — you compete for the same rare specimens and regions, without directly attacking each other. A silent tension, all in all more frustrating.

How it ends

One winner, a shared story

Whoever built the most solid scientific reputation wins. But the journey matters as much as the result.

🏆

Victory

  • Whoever accumulates the most scientific reputation by the end of the game
  • Publications, correspondences, and the botanical garden contribute to the final score
  • Specialization is rewarded — but only if well-balanced with diversification
📚

Who doesn't win

  • You are not eliminated — you play until the end and still build something
  • Those who bet everything on the field without publishing lose valuable points in the count
  • Defeat is usually clear in advance — the gap is visible coming

Carl Linné brings a rare aesthetic and theme to the table in the world of strategic games. A eurogame built on a true story, for those who love to think before they move.

Frequently asked questions

Carl Linné FAQ

How complex is it compared to other eurogames?

The complexity is medium-high, with a weight of 3.5/5 on BGG. The lens system is original and requires a few plays to master — but the basic mechanics can be explained in 20-25 minutes. It's not a gateway game, but it's not a heavy game in the strict sense either.

Does it play well solo?

Yes, the solo mode is official and designed by the designer. The lens system offers a satisfying planning puzzle even without human opponents — perhaps this is where the depth of the mechanism is best appreciated.

With how many players is it best?

With 3-4 players, the competition for regions and specimens makes the interaction more tense and significant. With 2 players, the game is more direct and tactical. The solo mode is a complete experience in itself. All configurations work, but with 3-4 players, the design shows its intentions more clearly.

What is meant by "lens system"?

It's the central action selection mechanism. The lenses determine which actions are available on your turn and with what power. Specializing in one area enhances those actions but limits others — creating a constant tension between immediate efficiency and long-term flexibility.

Is it suitable for those unfamiliar with the eurogame genre?

It's not the ideal first approach to the genre. The lens system requires familiarity with action management and multi-turn planning. Those who have played Wingspan or Viticulture will feel comfortable — for those starting from scratch, it's better to begin with something more accessible.

Is it available in Italian?

This is the English edition. The historical and scientific theme requires a basic understanding of English for the cards and texts. The mechanics are visual and logical, but texts and cards are in English.

Carl Linné is a strategic board game for 1–4 players (ages 12+, duration 60–120 min). Designed by Michal Peichl, artwork by Stanislava Pajonková and Michal Řezníček, published by Pink Troubadour. Main mechanic: action management via original lens system. Players embody 18th-century naturalists inspired by the work of Carl Linnaeus: they explore distant regions, collect and study specimens, cultivate botanical gardens, correspond with scientific institutions, and publish influential works to build reputation and knowledge. Competitive eurogame with official solo mode. English edition. Available on frogames.business.

Frequently Asked Questions

The answers you're looking for, no beating around the bush.

📸Do the images match the actual product?

The photos on the website often come from BoardGameGeek and are intended to give you an idea of the game. They may vary slightly from the version you receive. The content declared by the publisher is always binding.

📦Does the content of the box match what is indicated?

We always strive to provide the correct content, but minor variations are possible due to reprints or updates. The information comes directly from the publishers. If you have any questions, please contact us!

⏳How do pre-orders work?

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