Deal with the Devil

This one is special! I am happy we got a place in the demo session of this new upcoming game from CGE. This is an assymetrical euro game with a hint of social deduction. Sounds impossible? Read on! 👇

Before diving into the details, let's talk about the elephant in the room: the game is exactly for 4 players. 😭 Not more, not less... which means it probably won't land on our shelf, and that makes me really sad. After playing the demo I (Reni) felt the urge to play it again,  to learn more about it and find the right strategies😍 (Kristóf is not sure yet😅)

In the game the players have one of 4 roles: the Devil, the Cultist and two Mortals. At the start of the game each player gets a role assigned alongside with the corresponding sets of resources and soul pieces. The devil starts with only resources, while the mortals start with 3 soul pieces but fewer resources. The cultist is somewhere in between.

The game revolves around building your engine and making deals with each other and inevitably with the Devil too. You use the acquired resources to buy buildings which give you immediate benefits or ongoing bonuses. Every turn you can play event cards with either a "good" or an "evil" side, both benefitting you but with different costs.

👉In each round you get income based on the wheel on the main board.
👉In the trading phase each player puts resources in their chest and specify the cost they are expecting in return. The cost can be either coins or soul pieces. Then each chest gets reassigned to another player using an app, who can then accept it or leave it. This happens twice, before the app assigns your original chest back to you.
👉You simultaneously plan your actions behind your screen (e.g. buying buildings, activating them, playing events, etc.) then everybody executes them.

There is a clever loan/interest mechanism that helps you get the missing funds for your plans but could spell your doom. 😅

While you are trying to figure out the math for your plans, you also have to be aware what the others are doing. Starting from the second round, there is a witch trial phase too, where every player votes on who they think has less than 3 soul pieces. (Remember, the Devil started with 0!) If the majority is right, that player gets a penalty.

At the end of the game you score points if you can guess correctly who the devil is (or in case of the mortals, who the cultist is.) There are also inquisitors that hand out large penalties, that can be warded off if you can show soul pieces.

This game definitely needs more play. 😍 During the demo everybody was busy figuring out his/her next step and didn't have a good feel yet for how to make a decent offer, therefore the trading fell flat sometimes. The social deductions part will be also stronger when all player know the game well. But still, the game felt really fresh, and I loved that it tries to do something different than the standard euro games👌 Also admittedly the demo was a shortened version of the game with certains game elements omitted, so it has huge potential.😍