Just got it recently. The (slightly) hidden power of taking a cube after playing an action is that you can also take a cube to weaken an opponent's position, either by stripping them from a province they are just leading in, or by increasing your number of followers in a their faction to start putting doubt in their mind that their favored faction is guaranteed. It's a very subtle game where every decision matters, but is still pretty quick to play and learn.
This game is brilliant! The push and pull mechanism alongside with the limited actions make it very unique. In certain moments, the game plays you instead of you playing it.
Inis has the same Pass mechanic. A Season only ends when everyone passes consecutively. You might have an awesome card to play, but pass to see what others will pay first, or to coax out a card that might throw a wrench in your plans. As long as everyone else doesn't pass after you, you can then choose to play a card once it comes back to you.
Just bought this. Sounds brilliant. Thanks for sharing your favourite mechanics on it. I love how tight it is. Such a small footprint yet packs a punch with loads of strategic thinking.
Bought this after seeing the playthrough over at Watch It Played! Shared it with my family and it didn't land too well, but I love it! Just gotta find the right group. I agree about the push-pull mechanic!
Successful/unsuccessful dominance checks in Pax Pamir are somewhat similar to the alternate win condition here. You want to play very differently depending on which condition will be used, while also trying to bring a favorable condition into effect.
Jamey, thanks for this video. It is also worth mentioning that this game also comes with “Cunning” cards, each of which is unique and three of which can be dealt randomly to each player in place of their three support cards. The Cunning cards allow for some randomness if players want that.
Removing followers from the board reminds me of the special interest/dividend cubes from Irish Gauge. You can take one of the dividend cubes and place it on a town to convert it into a city, which will payout if the same color dividend cube is drawn from the bag. But the fact that you've removed that cube from the pool of potential dividend cubes reduces the chances of that color dividend cube being pulled from the bag.
Dune has a core win condition of controlling a certain number of strongholds, but certain factions have special win conditions that come into play at the end of the game. Spacing Guild wins if the game goes to the end with no one achieving a strongholds victory. Bene Gesserit can steal the victory if they've correctly predicted the winner and the round. Fremen have a special condition based on board state that's kind of complicated, but makes sense thematically.
Just stumbled upon this searching for "the king is dead" because the game was suggested to me. Would love to try it out! Concerning an alternate win condition we have created our own game Hidden Leaders where 1 faction wins when there is a tie (end game victory though, not round). Thx
This lets me think of Inis To win you need to achieve 2 of the 3 winning conditions. Every round the same cards are dealt and played to get the following achieved to win - be present 6 territory’s - rule in a territory with 6 - be in territory’s eith combined 6 buildings Als here you can pas and when everybody has passed the round end prematurely or when all cards are played
It sounds a bit like the 2 player variant of Condottiere. In that if you pass you’ve lost the battle, but you have limited cards that need to last. It’s best three out of five. You have a deck of 23 cards and a hand of 8. So you if you’re not careful you could win 2 of the first 3 battles, then have no cards for the rest of the game, forcing you to pass in the next two and lose the game.
Just got it recently. The (slightly) hidden power of taking a cube after playing an action is that you can also take a cube to weaken an opponent's position, either by stripping them from a province they are just leading in, or by increasing your number of followers in a their faction to start putting doubt in their mind that their favored faction is guaranteed. It's a very subtle game where every decision matters, but is still pretty quick to play and learn.
This game is brilliant! The push and pull mechanism alongside with the limited actions make it very unique. In certain moments, the game plays you instead of you playing it.
Inis has the same Pass mechanic. A Season only ends when everyone passes consecutively. You might have an awesome card to play, but pass to see what others will pay first, or to coax out a card that might throw a wrench in your plans. As long as everyone else doesn't pass after you, you can then choose to play a card once it comes back to you.
Hey Denis! Also... Keyflower. Nerve-wracking sometimes, passing just to test everyone else.
Just bought this. Sounds brilliant. Thanks for sharing your favourite mechanics on it. I love how tight it is. Such a small footprint yet packs a punch with loads of strategic thinking.
Bought this after seeing the playthrough over at Watch It Played! Shared it with my family and it didn't land too well, but I love it! Just gotta find the right group. I agree about the push-pull mechanic!
Ricky royal has a brilliant solo variant he devised on his channel
Successful/unsuccessful dominance checks in Pax Pamir are somewhat similar to the alternate win condition here. You want to play very differently depending on which condition will be used, while also trying to bring a favorable condition into effect.
Jamey, thanks for this video. It is also worth mentioning that this game also comes with “Cunning” cards, each of which is unique and three of which can be dealt randomly to each player in place of their three support cards. The Cunning cards allow for some randomness if players want that.
Removing followers from the board reminds me of the special interest/dividend cubes from Irish Gauge. You can take one of the dividend cubes and place it on a town to convert it into a city, which will payout if the same color dividend cube is drawn from the bag. But the fact that you've removed that cube from the pool of potential dividend cubes reduces the chances of that color dividend cube being pulled from the bag.
Dune has a core win condition of controlling a certain number of strongholds, but certain factions have special win conditions that come into play at the end of the game. Spacing Guild wins if the game goes to the end with no one achieving a strongholds victory. Bene Gesserit can steal the victory if they've correctly predicted the winner and the round. Fremen have a special condition based on board state that's kind of complicated, but makes sense thematically.
One of my very favorite games.
Yeah, I was also thinking of Pax Pamir and Dune
Just stumbled upon this searching for "the king is dead" because the game was suggested to me. Would love to try it out!
Concerning an alternate win condition we have created our own game Hidden Leaders where 1 faction wins when there is a tie (end game victory though, not round).
Thx
doesn't the cardplay kind of remind you of Hanamikoji?
Yes, a bit! :)
This lets me think of Inis
To win you need to achieve 2 of the 3 winning conditions.
Every round the same cards are dealt and played to get the following achieved to win
- be present 6 territory’s
- rule in a territory with 6
- be in territory’s eith combined 6 buildings
Als here you can pas and when everybody has passed the round end prematurely or when all cards are played
You only need 2 of the 3 winning conditions if someone else has 1winning condition aswell and neither of you is the Heir, otherwise 1 is enough
It sounds a bit like the 2 player variant of Condottiere.
In that if you pass you’ve lost the battle, but you have limited cards that need to last.
It’s best three out of five. You have a deck of 23 cards and a hand of 8. So you if you’re not careful you could win 2 of the first 3 battles, then have no cards for the rest of the game, forcing you to pass in the next two and lose the game.
I need to try that!
This game has the exciting mechanism of “passing”. Woohoo! Tell us more, Jamie! Haha
check out condottiere if you havent... boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/112/condottiere, shut up and sit down also has a nice review on it.