I reckon I’m being a bit more obscure with this picture reference, will take people seconds to figure it out.
Coup, which I never reviewed before is the base game for the expansion I mentioned. Coup is a winner. it comes in a natty silver box and just like Love Letter it’s following the trend of low card games. There’s around 20 or so cards in Coup. all multiple copies of five possible roles
- Captain – Thieving bastick
- Duke – Money Machine
- Assassin – Death for hire
- Contessa – Blocks Assasins
- Ambassador – Allows you to swap your hand
Each player up to eight (I think) starts with two random cards face down, known to their player. Each turn they SAY they have a particular dude and can take the appropriate action. e.g. on their turn a player claims they have the Duke and takes 3 coins from the bank.
NOW. other players can call them on it with statements like “I’m sorry but I find that hard to believe” or realistically something a little bit more robust. At this point the player has to reveal the role or lose a card. Lost two cards and it’s game over
So Coup is a knockout game, you have to kill off everyone elses two characters while not knowing whom they are. Some characters have reactions to others
So for example someone says they have the captain and their going to use him to steal from a target player. That target player says they have a captain themselves and they’re going to block it. Each of which can be called out by the other player. Since there’s a finite amount of roles and as players die the actual roles they had get revealed it’s possibly to make an educated guess as to what people may or may not have.
This is a SUPERB game, it’s cheap, it’s fast, it’s portable and it’s as good as the players you have. It’s a real mind game of bluff and counter bluff. If you have a gaming group THIS is one of the essential games to have. It’s the perfect warm up warm down game. I have spoken
Huzzah!
Vic
ps. the dude down the right hand side there doesn’t come with the base game.
Victor Gannon Games 