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Game Info
Year
2015
Collection
Mechanic profile
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Description
In Barony, players are ambitious barons trying to extend their dominion over the land! Who will succeed and become the new king?
At the beginning of the game, players create the board at random with nine tiles per player; each tile comprises three hexagons, with each hexagon being one of five landscape types: forest, plains, field, mountain, lake. Players then each place three cities on the game board, with a knight in each city. They then take turns in clockwise order, with each player taking exactly one action from the six possible actions:
Recruitment: Add two knights to a city, or three knights if the city is adjacent to a lake.
Movement: Move one or two of your knights one space each. A knight can't enter a lake (blub), a mountain with an opposing pawn, or any space with an opponent's city or stronghold or two knights of the same opposing color. If you move a second knight into a space with an opposing pawn or village, remove those tokens and take one resource from the village owner.
Construction: Remove one or more of your knights from the game board and replace each with a village or stronghold, gaining one resource token matching the landscape under the structure.
New City: Replace one of your villages with a city and earn 10 victory points (VPs).
Expedition: Remove two knights from your reserve, placing one back in the box out of play and the other on any empty space on the edge of the game board.
Noble Title: Discard at least 15 resource points, then upgrade your title: baron to viscount, then count, marquis, and finally duke.
Once any player has gained the title of duke, finish the round, then tally the VPs, with players scoring for resources still in their possession, their rank in the game, and the number of cities they built. Whoever has the most VPs wins.
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All mentions
Browse transcript mentions, sentiments, pros/cons, mechanics, topics, quotes, and references.
Total mentions: 4
This page: 4
Sentiment:
pos 4 ·
mix 0 ·
neu 0 ·
neg 0
Showing 1–4 of 4
Video RJEcIJkq6Xc
Top List at 0:00 sentiment: positive
video_pk 67854 · mention_pk 164127
Click to watch at 0:00 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- Doesn't have all the area control tropes.
- Not overly incentivized to be aggressive and attack other players.
- Best use of terrain in a war style game.
- Everything has its strengths and weaknesses and strategic positioning is paramount.
- Struck the balance of how many units you have just perfectly.
- Beautifully minimalist and the actions are easy to understand.
- Evokes the feeling of being like a general.
- Everything has an opportunity cost.
- Streamlined combat system with no fiddliness or dice rolling.
- More of a game of positioning and savviness.
- Has the look and style of game the host likes.
- Mount Rushmore level of area control, Dudes on a Map game.
- Traditional Euro rich timeless feel.
- Scale's great because more players, the bigger the map.
- Punchy, takes around an hour to play.
- Strategically rich, has depth, has layers.
- Management of everything is down to the player.
Cons
- Meadows are fruitful but vulnerable to attack.
Thematic elements
Comparison games
- El Grande
- Wenstein
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Area Control — Doesn't have all the area control tropes that you'll normally find in this style of game. You're not trying to control regions.
- Blockades — Mountains can hold one unit at a time meaning that you can build nice blockades that stop people going through and build like nice defense walls. Watchtowers will act as blockades as well to stop people from traveling through those zones.
- Building Villages — Trying to set up villages and harvest the resources from those particular plots on the map.
- castle building — Convert troops into castles.
- Combat — The combat system is so streamlined. If there's ever two troops against one then the two will win. There's no fiddliness. There's no dice rolling. There's no little graphs and charts.
- Dudes on a map — An older game that is a dudes on a map game.
- Rank Progression — You're trying to climb through the ranks and reach top rank before the other players do.
- Resource management — You are trying to set up villages and harvest the resources from those particular plots on the map. What you're trying to do and how you're trying to win this game is you're trying to get as many resources as you can and then you can convert 15 of those resources or 15 points worth of resources into your next noble rank.
- terrain — Several different types of terrain, ranging from how you can move through them, but also ranging on how many resources they will give you if you build a village on them.
- unit movement — Trying to traverse the map with your knights.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- Baron is an older game. It's a a dudes on a map game, which you can probably tell from the the look and the aesthetic.
- But this game probably has the best use of terrain in a in a war style game that I've ever seen because everything has its strength and weaknesses and strategic positioning is paramount in this game.
- So, this game is so beautifully minimalist and the actions you can choose are are so easy to understand.
- This game really evokes the feeling of being like a general to me.
- Everything has an opportunity cost, which is what I love about it.
- The combat system is so streamlined as all it all you do is if there's ever two opponents or sorry two two troops against one then the two will win. Simple as that.
- For me, this is kind of on the Mount Rushmore level of area control, Dudes on a Map game.
- It has that real traditional Euro rich timeless feel to it, which are the games that I want in my collection.
- So I could not recommend this one enough. If your tastes align with mine, I think you are going to get a lot out of Baron.
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video 73gQ0ydNTsM
Chairman of the Board Top List at 3:26 sentiment: positive
video_pk 9377 · mention_pk 91821
Click to watch at 3:26 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- super smooth drafting
- beautiful visual appeal
- strong optimization puzzle
Cons
- can be punishing if you misplace tokens
- may skew toward perfectionism for solo players
Thematic elements
- spatial drafting and optimization
- A playful habitat-building setting with animal needs
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Drafting and placement of wooden tokens — Draft three tokens per round to fulfill animal needs on your environment board.
- Placement synergy — Placements can synergize to satisfy multiple animal needs at once.
- worker placement — Placements can synergize to satisfy multiple animal needs at once.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- a lovely mediumweight Euro by board and dice
- the dice has dual use
- I love the way that everything is driven here through dice
- spatial puzzle
- an instant classic
- a great example of its genre
- I instantly fell in love with it
- Kitzia at his best
- Punchy, colorful and very engaging
- top tier kitzia for me
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video i7UVXtHkVxY
Chairman of the Board Discussion at 5:48 sentiment: positive
video_pk 2802 · mention_pk 124713
Click to watch at 5:48 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- polished feel with refined design
- great balance between short-term and long-term decisions
Cons
- not highly interactive; some players may desire more direct interaction
Thematic elements
- puzzly tiling and pattern construction
- patterns and tiles on a board
- polished and refined
Comparison games
- Cascadia
- Calico
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Pattern completion and scoring — removing cubes to generate points as patterns are completed
- pattern drafting — draft wooden tokens to build interlocking patterns
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- it's really tight this Bard is and the opportunity cost of doing one thing
- there are so many different ways you can score in this game
- it's punchy
- the game end really does rush up on you
- polished, refined, gorgeous to look at
- you can just take the pieces off the board and go again
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video UdopoAswDKo
Tabletop Turtle Review sentiment: positive
video_pk 2358 · mention_pk 140708
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- Challenging puzzle gameplay
- Easy to learn
- Rewards multiple plays
- Adaptable difficulty
- Engaging decision-making
Cons
- Some luck element
- Can be frustrating
- Limited player interaction
Thematic elements
- Animal and Landscape Pattern Building
- Forest/Nature
- Abstract puzzle-solving
Comparison games
- Cascadia
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Contract Completion — Players must complete animal card objectives multiple times
- contracts — Players must complete animal card objectives multiple times
- Pattern Building — Create patterns to match animal card requirements
- tile drafting — Players draft three tokens each turn to place on their board
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- You can make it as stressful as you want to make it
- The game is challenging you
- Making your own luck
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Transcript Navigation
Showing 1–4 of 4