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In June 1520, at Balinghem, there met the young and glorious Kings of England and of France in a grand and splendid celebration of their mutual friendship and admiration. There were great feasts and opulent amusements, conspicuous expressions of deepest and sincerest piety, and fierce tournaments. Each King outshone the other in turn, so that the world might be astounded at the wealth and power of each kingdom. So many tents and raiments were made of precious cloth of gold, that the field is so named.
This game was created to commemorate the five hundredth anniversary of the world’s most famous three-week party, in which King Henry VIII of England, and Francis I of France, spent ridiculous amounts of money and resources to peacock at each other. Through smiles made of gritted teeth, the game’s two players will express friendship: each action they take will give their opponent a tile that they might use to score. Scoring usually entails removing the tile from the game, so each player must take care to maximize their scoring opportunities while either denying them to their rival, or forcing their rival to score before they’re ready. Once the game is underway, players are generally given only two options, and both of those options are usually painful - even and sometimes especially when they score you points.
A sort of subversion of the point salad paradigm, The Field of the Cloth of Gold harkens back to the feel of the classic German games of the 1990s: simple, elegant, austere, and politely vicious.
The second edition of the game, dubbed the "503rd anniversary edition", includes a new jewel tile type.
—description from the publisher
- ludicrous regal spending during a royal party
- 1520s England and France
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- I am definitely interested in learning more about this.
- I like Roland Wright style games.
References (from this video)
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- the algorithm for youtube is a black box
- you miss all the shots you don't take
- this is my full-time job
References (from this video)
- Clever and thorny mechanisms that make players think.
- Gift-giving mechanic framed as aggression is interesting.
- Thematic integration of the historical event.
- Dry humor in the rulebook and design.
- The tempo of scoring can be tricky to manage.
- The game can become degenerate if players don't manage their gold effectively.
- The second edition has jewel tokens that score differently, which might balance the game better than gold.
- Diplomacy and gift-giving as a form of competition and aggression
- 1520 historical summit between kings of France and England
- The rulebook is written in a faux old English style.
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- action selection — Players choose actions represented by different colored tiles, each with unique scoring or gameplay effects.
- Hand Management — Players manage a hand of tiles and decide when to reveal and play them for specific scoring opportunities.
- player interaction — The game involves direct interaction through forced gift-giving and blocking actions.
- Set Collection — Players collect sets of colored tiles (red, white, blue, gold, purple) to score points.
- Tableau Building — Some tiles, like gold, remain in a player's tableau, accumulating points over time.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Happy Valentine's Day now now Valentine's Day traditionally is you and your significant other or maybe your significant otter significant opponent.
- Gift giving as a form of aggression.
- We're securing our manhood.
- I mean the board games are just the conduit to get together and BS and hang out with your peeps.
- The description of Kiri ey: The Duel: 'Two Samurai face each other on the Cliff's Edge, Cloudy skies darken the night, The moon breaks through as they strike.'
- This is a game that you don't just play one of, you'll sit down... we're playing it again.
- It's a pocket game in all senses.
- It's a tense game.
- Tell your friends you love them today.
- Love yourself cuz it's tough right now in general.
References (from this video)
- Two-player only game with strategic blocking and incremental gains
- Endgame scoring adds tension with cloth of gold tokens
- Thematic setting of lavish royal party is engaging
- royal court competition and gift exchange
- lavish field of gold tents in France where the kings of England and France hosted a grand party 501 years ago
- instructional playthrough with live commentary
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Banquets and Feasts — Gift colored tiles to the opponent via specific action spots, with scoring determined by the tiles transferred.
- Cloth of Gold action — Reveal all gold tiles in hand to your court, compare with opponent, gain points for having the majority, and keep the tiles.
- Court and tile revelation — Tiles gifted to an opponent go into that opponent's court and may be revealed under certain actions.
- Darkness drawing — Draw tiles from the darkness based on your victory point track; drawn tiles go into your hand and later into play.
- Dragon token — A dragon token can be placed on an action spot, preventing that action from being performed.
- End conditions — The game ends when the last darkness tile is taken or a player reaches 30 points.
- Endgame scoring for cloth of gold — At game end, each cloth of gold tile in front of you scores 1–3 points depending on your final scoring row.
- Move and gift — On your turn, place an action pawn on an empty spot and gift the tile underneath to your opponent.
- Set collection and collections scoring — Some actions score points for sets of four different colored tiles in your court.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- The setting for this game is one of the most lavish and splendid parties to ever have been held that happened 501 years ago in france
- on your turn you're going to move one of your pawns onto a location and then you are going to gift the tile underneath that location to your opponent
- the game ends once all of these tiles are gone or once any player reaches 30 points
- this is a two player only game