Royals

A noble-house card game of drafting country cards and fighting over court titles in four countries.

Designer: Peter Hawes
Published by: ABACUSSPIELE
Editions by: Arcane Wonders, Broadway Toys LTD, DICE TOWER ESSENTIALS

Be a noble house in seventeenth-century Europe, scrambling for the best court posts. In Royals you collect country cards and use them to claim influential positions in four countries. The higher the title, the more cards it takes, and the more victory points it brings. Posts that are already taken can be contested with intrigue cards, so a comfortable lead is never really safe. The game runs over three periods, with scoring after each one, where whoever has the most influence in each country takes the points. At the end, the individual titles are scored on top. It is a compact area-majority card game with plenty of grabbing and elbowing, and about an hour to enjoy it.

Collect country cards for court positionsIntrigue cards contest taken postsThree scoring periods plus personal titles

Who it's for

You like majority fights on a compact board and want a card game where two to five people squabble over the same positions.

Not for you if…

You want a gentle, solitary build. This one is about taking things away from each other.

Vibe's take

Crisp and combative. You are always weighing a flashy title against enough cards to defend it, and the intrigue cards make every lead a little uncertain.