A 6x6 grid of character cards are dealt onto the table. One is Varys, one of the two key puppet master characters in George R. R. Martin's epic series. The other 35 characters are unevenly divided into six different houses from the tale. The rules are simple. On your turn, you move the Varys card orthagonally as far you like, stopping on top of a different character. You claim that character card, removing it from the grid and putting it in front of you. You also claim any other characters from the same house that Varys passed over in reaching that new destination.
If you claim the final character of a house, you get a bonus: you choose from one of 6 smaller "unaffiliated" character cards. Each of these has game text, and you use it immediately before discarding it. (There are more than the 6 characters you need for a game, so replays afford different strategic options.)
Players take turns around the table, moving Varys, skipping over any empty holes left by prior moves, and claiming house characters. So long as you have the most characters from a house, that house is under your control and is worth 1 point. When Varys is out of legal moves (with no House characters orthagonally in line with him), the game ends, and the player with the most points wins.
It's a super breezy game that's easy to learn and fast to play. It was taught to me in about two minutes at this past GenCon, and we went on to play it several times each night of the con, as part of unwinding for the night. For what it aspires to, in the amount of time it takes, it's a super tight and fun little bit of design. Also worth noting, the illustration style is pretty great. These character likenesses are based on the book descriptions, not the HBO series, so they may not be quite what you're used to. But as many good caricature pieces do, they pack a great deal of personality into stripped down line work.
My one reservation about the game struck me on the last night we played at the con. It occurred to me that in every four player game we'd played, the player who went first won. Each player didn't get enough turns, with that many opponents, to make up for the strategic advantage of making the first move. At least, I think. I really thought about, trying to remember for sure if what I remembered was true. It had been for the two or three games we played that night, but I really couldn't say for sure on the nights prior.
If true, that's obviously a big black mark against this game -- basically telling you either not to take it seriously at all, or to never play with 4 players if you want it to be fair. Between this, and the fact that no one in my local circle of friends owns a copy, I haven't played it since GenCon. The game did stick with me though, and the game is cheap enough that buying a copy to test the hypothesis isn't unreasonable.
Provisionally, I'd give Hand of the King a B+, ignoring my reservations about the imbalance. My group is always moving onto new games, so I don't know if we'll ever move to this one (or stay there long). But perhaps if we do, I'll have an update down the road.
No comments:
Post a Comment