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In Crimson Company, two opposing players take on the roles of adventurous noblemen in a cut-throat fantasy world. In a battle of wits, they assemble armies of sellswords, from hardened warriors and shady merchants to mythical creatures as old as time.
Your goal in a match of Crimson Company is to conquer two of the three castles in the center. You conquer a castle by amassing more strength than your opponent in the castle's lane by the time that lane is scored. A lane is scored once a player owns at least four cards in it.
Cards represent a large variety of characters, all of which have specific strength values and unique effects. The latter are either one-time instant effects that happen when a card is played, or they are triggered in specific phases of the game. Four randomly drawn cards from the character deck are "on offer". You may bid coins on only one of those at a time. Then your opponent decides to either pay you off, doubling the coins you bid, or pass and let you play the card.
—description from designer
- Non-convoluted rules
- Incredible depth in tactics and strategy
- Fast playtime (approx. 20 minutes)
- Unique cards lead to high replayability
- Good two-player game
- Ending can seem anticlimactic
- Winner can be seen in advance
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Area Control — your goal is to control two castles in the center of the table when they are scored four points.
- bidding — you bid at least one coin on a character in the offer or the opponent can either match you by placing his coin on the card or pass.
- Card deployment — play the cards in front of you which is the deployment phase choose a lane and play the cards they're on your side and do the effect on the card if it has a deployment effect.
- Set Collection — if there is a player who has four or more cards at a castle we score it.
- Variable player powers — all the cards are unique
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- crimson company is a prime example of what I love to see in a game and that is non convoluted rules that are simple enough where I want to pick yet offers an incredible amount of depth in terms of tactics and strategy
- it's a very deep filler light on time and all the cards are unique so replay values super high
- small game that packs a punch