The King Is Dead (Second Edition)

Play a card to place your influence in a selected region, but then remove one influence anywhere on the map and place it in your court
So at the same time you are increasing influence in one area, you are reducing it in another
OR
You place influence while strengthening you court but IN THE WRONG DIRECTION
With two players it’s a real chess-match. With three or four players, your head will spin

This is my favourite half-hour game. Quick to set up, with lovely components; each game is unique and wonderfully strategic without having overwhelming choices to sort through.
A little masterpiece.

Contrary to what you might think watching Paul Grogan do a play through of it (he’s teaching and explaining a lot in his video which made it go on for over an hour), the game plays quite quickly. I prefer it with three players, but it works just fine with two. Having the third player changes means your best laid plans can go up in smoke real quick if somebody does something you didn’t expect. If you have a couple of people you work with that enjoy history and battlefield type games, you can pull this out over lunch and play at the office during a break. My only complaint about the game is that the box didn’t need to be that big. Its not a huge box by any means, but it could have been made flatter for sure based on the components that are inside.

I've always loved Condottiere but it doesn't really play with lower player counts. This one is awesome at all player counts and scratches that itch. Theres a lot of game here despite the small ruleset. This one will surprise you.