From the designer of Glen More comes a new title published by Queen Games: Lancaster.
In 1413, the new king of England, Henry V of Lancaster, has ambitious plans: The unification of England and the conquest of the French crown! Each player takes the role of an ambitious aristocratic family. Who will be the best supporter of this young king, and the most powerful Lord of his time?
In Lancaster, the players want to proceed from simply being a Lord to being the most powerful ally of the king. They may achieve this by developing their own knighthood, as well as by clever deployment of individual knights in the counties of England, at their own castle, and to conflicts with France. In parliament, they try to push laws from which they will benefit themselves most. The player with the most power points at the end of the game is the winner.
Every turn, players send their knights to the different locations:
• Counties, where they compete with knights from other players for rewards and the favor of the nobles.
• The castle, to receive income or new knights.
• Into conflict with France, where all players combine their power and try to gain power points.
In the counties, the strength of the knights is important, as you can remove the knight of another player by placing a knight of your own with higher strength in the same location.
- adds meaningful direct interaction via knight kicking mechanics
- cool law-changing phase adds strategic variety and replayability
- can be heavy and occasionally slow to teach
- not played frequently in casual sessions
- factional politics, knightly orders, law changes
- medieval Europe, noble hierarchy
- strategic negotiation with shifting power and laws
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- area control / worker placement — players place knights to gain influence; position on the board yields benefits and victory points
- Knights vs. knights conflict — placed knights can be displaced by stronger knights, creating direct interaction
- Law voting and law changes — each round includes a phase to vote on new laws that shape scoring and endgame conditions
- set collection — collect nobles on your personal board to unlock advantages
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- there is this more injected element of player interaction
- it's a genius twist
- the market is completely driven by the players
- money is such a tight resource in this game
- the rules overhead is very low
- a timeless design
- you can bet your funds on other people being right
- loads of things to weigh up, a complete package of the game
References (from this video)
- high interaction and negotiation around law making and majorities
- deep strategic decision making around investment versus offense
- clear thematic integration with a bridge between euro style and confrontation
- knightly dominance with political and strategic maneuvering
- medieval knight themed conflict with an emphasis on territorial control
- structured conquest with bluff and area control elements
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- area control with casualties and scoring — combat style control via presence and successive rounds with scoring based on majority
- timed action resolution — actions are resolved with a dynamic flow that can be influenced by other players plays after you
- upgradable pieces — knights can be upgraded to increase their strength and influence on outcomes
- voting + laws — noble tokens grant voting power to shape round end game laws
- worker placement — a set of knights is deployed to various map locations to take actions
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- I love the fact that the game itself is so simple but the action selection system is just that compelling
- this is one of the best games of all time I could have argued to have this from higher on the list
- there is an amazing level of interaction here where the more you collect these Noble tokens on the map will not only score your points but give you voting power
- the level of interaction here is very high and the dynamics around kicking off spots are interesting
- on paper I should not like this game because I do not like terribly cutthroat games but this one is logical
- El Grande is the forefather of the area control genre and still the best among its peers