Dress like the Queen

👗 Rococo: Deluxe Edition was on my wishlist for the longest time. 😍 I finally got it as a birthday present recently! 🎁 Of course fun gameplay and an interesting decision space are what make games for me, but I guess I am also a sucker for beautiful and quality components! Unboxing and playing these luxurious boxes from Eagle Gryphon is a real treat, like going to your favorite restaurant. 😁

The game brings players back to the Rococo era during the reign of Louis XV. You are the owner of a tailoring business and manage its employees. You are making and renting out extravagant garments to prestigious guests who are attending lavish balls, and you also help fund the decoration of halls, trying to raise your reputation. ⚜️

Deck building is a main aspect of the game. Your pool of employees are cards - you can hire new ones or get rid of some. However you don’t draw and shuffle these. Every round you will pick 3 cards, then those cards will go to the discard so you only get them back later.

You take turns playing one of these cards and doing one of six actions, and get the bonus of your card afterwards. Beware though, apprentice and journeyman employees cannot do every action! ☝️ You are mainly trying get resources to craft garments with. 🧐 Garments can either be sold or rented out - renting out is the main goal of the game, as you will do an area majority scoring at the end of the game for each of the 5 halls. Of course there are other avenues to gather points, like funding decorations.

Getting resources and converting them into dresses might sound bland, but it’s much more nuanced. 🙃 With an action you can get resource tiles - the more of them there, the more it will cost, so timing and what’s on offer are important. You also have to choose if you want to discard your chosen tile for thread/laces it provides, or keep it for its silk bales. And even then, tiles show different kinds and amounts of silk.

Managing your deck and choosing which cards to play and when to do actions is a really fun puzzle to solve, and it keeps us engaged throughout the game! Rococo met my high expectations for sure! We will return with more thoughts on the game. 😉