Royal Palace

Place servants in the rooms of a palace, take majority bonuses and recruit nobles for points.

Designer: Xavier Georges
Published by: Filosofia Éditions
Editions by: Rio Grande Games, Hans im Glück

Royal Palace is mainly about majorities. You have servants to place around nine parts of a palace, and on your turn you carry out actions based on how many servants you have in each location. Three servants in the mint, for example, give you three pieces of gold. The player with the most servants in a room generally gets a bonus action, so a single extra servant can tip a room. Some places let you add servants or move them from room to room. You use gold and royal seals to recruit the nobles waiting in the castle park, and they become your main source of points at the end. A 2008 game for two to four, best with three, about an hour.

Nine palace rooms, each with its own actionMajority gives a bonus actionRecruit noblemen for victory points

Who it's for

You like majority games with a tight set of choices and you want one that plays in about an hour.

Not for you if…

You want a big theme or free-form negotiation. This is a neat, mechanical puzzle.

Vibe's take

Clever and compact: each placement does double duty, because your servants both fuel the action in a room and fight for the majority bonus there.