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The King may be in trouble. The court that surrounds him contains subjects who seek power. Each player represents a family that will vie for control over subjects. Featuring seven victory conditions the path to victory may shift as you gain more information about each subject’s motives and those of the other families. Your allegiances will twist and change based on your interests. The subjects are but pawns.
The game is played over two phases:
INTRIGUE PHASE
Players will gather information, exert influence, and gather resources. Each member of the court has a role, each player may look at 1 role, place an influence token on a court member and select a Leverage card to add to their hand.
REBELLION PHASE
After each player has taken five turns during the Intrigue phase they will keep 5 cards in their hand and set 4 cards aside in their reserve. In order of the Leverage item number, cards will be played to bribe, conspire, stab, poison, and to shift alliances.
SCORING PHASE
One of the unique aspects of this game is the 7 different victory condition. Players may change what condition they are attempting to achieve as the game evolves. After all Leverage cards, the winning player will be determined based on the resulting court conditions (which of the following living court members they control).
The Usurper will win if two other court members are disgruntled and the Usurper has not been bribed.
The King will win if the King is alive and the Usurper has not won.
The Heir will win if the King is dead, the Usurper has not won and the Heir is not disgruntled.
The Bastard will win if the King is dead, the Usurper and the Heir have not won and the Bastard is not disgruntled.
If none of the above conditions have been met, the player that controls the most undisgruntled court members will win.
If none of the above conditions have been met, the player that controls the Anarchist will win
If none of the above conditions have been met, no player wins (Anarchy).
—description from the publisher
- interesting concept
- multiple victory conditions
- shifting allegiances
- potential for disappointment if expectations don't match reality
- power struggle
- court intrigue
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Multiple victory conditions — Features seven different victory conditions.
- Variable player powers — Players represent families vying for control over different subjects of the land.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- The court that surrounds him and contains subjects who seek power and so each player represents a family that will vie for control over the different subjects of the land.
- Seven different victory conditions so the path to victory may shift as you play and you gain more information about each subject's motives during the game.
- Usurp the King does sound interesting enough that I'm really looking forward to giving this one a try.
- Players are aspiring vinyl collectors, you know vinyl those big flat black LPS that my daughter wouldn't recognize if I waved one in front of her face.
- Players then will acquire morsels of information and that information will lead them to different vinyl bins where they will select albums to add and expand their collection.
- Inventory is limited and the other customers may be targeting the very same vinyl gems as you.
- There's there's there's something about this game that scene very very familiar.
- Players take turns being the focus of an intervention by drawing a problem card with a nonsensical problem like uncontrollable interpretive dance or neurotic inability to turn right.
- Friends will give obscure clues and hints at what the problem is without giving it away completely and the sooner the intervened it can guess what their problem is well if the more points they'll score.
- It's also one of those games that I don't know how often I will find the need to play it after playing it once but sounds interesting enough.
- Players take on the role of foxes trying to steal as many chickens as they can from the henhouse and then cook them up into delicious fried chicken dinners.
- Each character's Fox that they play has a unique ability that can be used once throughout the game giving them a little bit of player asymmetry.
- Rolling poorly too many times he might scare the chickens out of your bag which would end the game and no chicken dinner for you sorry.
- I love a good word game.
- In this game all players create words simultaneously from their letter pieces that they're going to have on the table out in front of them.
- There's a thrilling little challenge of word discovery that starts to happen.
- You score more points the fewer pieces that you lose.
References (from this video)
- Checkers
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- THAT'S OUTRAGEOUS. YOU'RE GOING TO WIN ON A GAME THAT you didn't know existed.
- Castle Men, but no Castle Me.
- That's what I WAS TALKING ABOUT.
- Yeah, I've heard that somewhere. That's recent, right?
- It's a free and freeze game, I think.
- What is sand in German?
- Flügelschlag.
- I know what game you're talking about.