Enter the olden days of yore and gather the nobles and villagers together for a gathering to remember in this card drafting*, tableau** building game where every move counts.
I first came across this game at the UKGE this year when the publisher was showing the game to a small group of people. After he discussed the core mechanics of the game I was keen to experience the game for myself.
First Impressions
My first impressions of the game was that it was a nice small box game that would be good for travelling with and it had an interesting art style. I really liked the cover of the box with the fun nature it had to offer without it making the game look too childish making it appeal to both people with and without children. I also really liked how the back of the box was laid out as it has all the information you would need to know in a clear format with a brief explaination of how the game plays. The QR code that takes you to a how to play video for the game is just the icing on the cake when it comes to the outer packaging on this one. Inside the box you receive a wealth of tokens and cards that fill the box once punched out. The inside packaging has been thought out well with a card board insert that stores the tokens and cards nicely, the score pad sits above the token spot very well with the rulebook and reference card going on top resulting in the box closing flush.
Game Play Overview
The game is played over nine rounds where you will be trying to gather the finest group of nobles and villagers to score the most amount of points by satisfying their needs. Each round players will take a turn which consists of four phases, Spend a Key, Buy a Card, Apply Card Ability and Move the Messenger.
In the Spend a Key Phase you may choose to spend a key from your supply to do one of two things. The first thing you can do is move the messenger to the row he is currently not stood next to, while the second choice you have is to discard the three cards in his current location and draw three new cards from the deck at that location.
You then move onto the Buy a Card Phase of your turn where you will choose a card from the messengers location and pay the gold in the top left of the card and place it into the grid of cards before you. When placing cards you must place them so they are orthagonally adjacent*** to any existing card currently in play and cannot be placed to make a row or column longer than three cards as after nine rounds have been played you must have a three by three grid of cards. There are some cards in the game that discount the gold cost which will be used when you purchase cards in this phase.
After choosing where you want to place the card you have bought into your grid of cards before you, you will then move onto the Apply Card Ability Phase. These abilities vary from gaining extra coins, to earning keys. to getting discounts on future cards that you purchase. When resolving a cards ability the ability is usually triggered by the cards in your tableau** and will include itself in the resolution if it meets the criteria to trigger the ability.
Finally you will then move onto the Move the Messenger Phase where you will check if the card you just purchased has a messenger icon on it underneath the gold cost and if it does, move the messenger to the other location. Then you will check how many cards are face up at each location and draw new cards from each of the relevant decks till each location has three cards visible. Then play passes on to the next player.
The game ends once all players have collected nine cards forming their three by three grid. You will then move onto scoring where you will score points based on the scrolls at the bottom of each card in your personal grid as well as one point per key in your supply. The player with the most points is crowned the winner.
Pros and Cons
This game has many great things going for it, it is easy to learn and teach and the art is engaging with every character having their own character art. One issue I did have with the game was there are no bags or paper envelopes for the tokens to be stored in so they are just loose in their segment in the box so require sorting out each time you set it up. The components themselves though are really well made with the cards being made of good quality card stock and the card board tokens being nice and thick helping to give them a nice amount of body and weight. The rulebook is very well written with everything clearly laid out so it is easy to follow and addresses a lot of scenarios you could come across. Another thing I liked about this game was the handy reference card that is great for helping you understand what all the abilities on the cards do at a quick glance.
Final Verdict
Overall, I really enjoyed this game. It was easy to pick up and learn, offers great replayability with over 70 character cards to choose from and was so much fun to play, even if I have lost most my games of it. Each game offers a new way to win based on the cards that come out and that is something I really like about the game as you have to constantly adapt. I can see this one being a firm favourite of many gamers and the perfect game to kick off a game night with your local gaming group due to its quick set up and play time. If you enjoy drafting* and tableau** building I think you will love this one and is a must have in your collection.
In conclusion, we would rate this game a 9.6/10
You can see a video of how it plays and grab your own copy at the link below:
* picking a card from a pool of options
** a grid of cards that can be used to trigger abilities based on the placement of other items in the grid.
*** the spaces directly above, below, to the left or to the right of a card that is placed
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