Small Councils & Big Ambitions - 2GP Review of "Court of Kings" by Pawnjoker Games

Two-Gun Pixie Presents:

LEGENDARY GAMING

019 – Small Councils

& Big Ambition

Hear ye, hear ye, nerds and nerdettes of the realm. Lay heads low and let your soul cry out to the heavens. Our beloved king, the just and rightful ruler of all these lands has died. Hearken, loyal subjects, as the kingdom weeps for our most noble lord has expired without an heir.

Court of Kings

The game I received for review purposes was a prototype

Designer: Nicholas Markgraf

Publisher: Pawnjoker Games Year Published: 2016

Manufacturer Suggested Player Age: 13+ Number of Players: 3 - 6 Average Play Time: 15 – 30 Minutes Game Type: Medieval, Negotiation, Political

Game Mechanics: Co-Operative Play, Secret Role, Simulation, Voting

Synopsis

The King of the realm has died with no heir. Until a time when a new King is crowned you, the players who are the King’s Council must deal with the problems of the land. Each character a player runs will have their own agendas so beware.

The Box

What a great little box. It almost fits in my hand. Well, I have big hands but still… Small box games make for great travel games so that is always good.

The art is a little dark but I understand the final version is going to be a bit lighter. Honestly, I like it a bit dark. It sets the mood for the story behind the game. The dark shadows clutching to the edges of the council room bring out the somber atmosphere.

The Components

Court of Kings comes with

6 Agenda Cards, 1 rule book/ledger journal, 1 City Track Board, 3 Player Options Boards, 5 Wooden Cube Trackers, and 20 Advocacy Cards.

Keeping in mind that this is a prototype I was happy with the overall production quality of the cards, Option Boards, and City Track Board.

The art is eye-catching. The cards are illustrated beautifully with stunning depictions of each member of the council. Men and women are both represented by the artwork.

Set-Up

The first thing you will want to do is make sure the Agenda Cards (which are your roles/characters) are separated from the Advocacy Deck. One player shuffles the Agenda Deck and draws one card for each player handing it to them facedown; only the individual player will look at their agenda keeping it a secret from all the other players.

The Advocacy Cards are also shuffled and placed in the play area.

Next the City Track Board and wooden tracking cubes are set-up in the center of the play area for all players to see it. Place out the 3 Player Options Boards around the table so players may reference it if and when needed.

Finally, if you have 4 or more players you will want to draw the top card from the Advocacy deck for all to see. This card will alter how the game is played such as; not speaking while discussing the daily ledger, getting two votes instead of one, moving cubes on the City Track Board, etc.

Aaaannnddd.... now you and your friends are ready to play.

Game Play

Simply enough this is a debate game. One player reads a page from the Ledger. These are little stories concerning a need for a decision, such as what to do when someone is accused of stealing but there are no witnesses.

Players want to make decisions that will move the cubes on the City Tracker to places that match the need on their Agenda Cards. Players can discuss and debate on the ledger but the majority wins the vote.

The Player Option Boards list 12 different options the players may choose in order to resolve the issue brought forward by the Ledger. Honestly, I really feel that these dozen options really do seem to consider just about any result you may lobby for.

Each possible outcome listed on the Option Board shows what changes to the City Track it will cause. These changes cause the wooden cubes to move position on their individual track paths. When a player's agenda matches the placement of the cubes on the City Track that player has one.

If, after the Crown path on the City Track

Board reaches the 5th spot on the track the game ends with no winner... …Unless someone has secretly been playing the Duke Agenda Card. If so, that player wins.

It's not as straight forward as it seems as there are Machiavellian levels of debating and deal-making.

Voting in favor of someone else may just be helping your own agenda and thereby secretly stabbing them in the back.

Final Thoughts

The rules were a bit tougher to get through than I think they should have been for this game. Let me re-phrase that... reading through the rule book was tough. No, not because the ruled are bad. Actually they all flow rather organically. The problem was the way the rules were written and presented made things tough to understand. The font was Waaaayyyyyy to small and the typeface was difficult to read. NOW WAIT A MOMENT, NERDS! Please don't hold that against the game. I have personally spoken to the game designer who promised me the problems with the rule book are being corrected (possibly Present Tense by the time of this posting.) YAY!

Over all I have to say that other than the setting and skin of the game this plays like most other debate style games we have played. With that being said, myself and the Twenty-Sided Warriors all really loved this game. The combination of Hidden Role meets debate game may not be overly used right now but what a great combination of game mechanics.

Those of us, such as my self and Zach, that embraced getting into the character behind our Agenda Cards did seem to have a little more fun. Others, like Rob really got into it like a game of deduction and concentrated not only on his own decision but those of everyone else's like a chess master studying the board. Once you read the rules the game really plays very naturally and actually quite fast. Trying to figure out what agendas each player is trying to manipulate and then deciding whether or not you should make a vote to block an other's agenda or to improve your own is a razor-thin choice that can win the game for you or lose it.

This game delivers a good 15 minutes of fun.

Re-playability is only slightly problematic. The Ledger does contain 14 issues to be brought to the council which isn’t a shabby count by any means but it is limiting. These themselves do have a certain level of re-playability IF you play through them multiple times using different roles/Agenda Cards each time.

I hope this game gets to not only be a success but that it also introduces an expansion at some point with an extra Ledger and more Agenda and Advocacy Cards.

A Great Debate Game!

CHECK OUT THE TWO-GUN PIXIE

"OUT-OF-THE-BOX FIRST PLAYTHRU"

OF COURT OF KINGS HERE...

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