Principato: availability of cubes

Question

In Principato two basic resources are gold and food. When 4 people play the game the bank runs out of these cubes pretty quickly. The rule book says nothing about this.

First question: I assume that it is so on purpose to give players more options to play against each other. Is that correct? Or should we have as much food and gold as we want?

One observation I've made is that it becomes very different when 3 players play. Availability of cubes is much better and I expect that with 2 players it's not a problem anymore. It changes the mechanics of the game.

Second question: Shouldn't cubes' availability be limited in some way when only 2 or 3 players play? I haven't found anything on this in the rule book but my feeling is it would make sense.

Answer 1

There is no FAQ from the designer, and he has never answered definitively on BGG, but without any rule in the rulebook to the contrary.

The cubes are lmited.

For example, take:

• Monopoly the houses are limited, but cash has a specific rule that it isn't.

• Puerto Rico the goods and buildings have a limit, but if victory points run out keep track on paper.

• Race for the Galaxy the VP points if you run out, you are told specifically to keep track some other way.

Unless a rule tells you otherwise, I would assume that components are limited by their physical natuire unless otherwise noted.