Become vassals of Frederick II

In Stupor Mundi players will slip into the roles of vassals of Frederick II in the 13th century, improving the kingdom by building castles, summoning allies from the Mediterranean, and promoting specialists. 

Just like most euro games, your ultimate goal is to have the most victory points by the end. The way you gather them is quite interesting: 🧐 Most of your points will come from Allies you summon, who generate points after every round if you meet their conditions. There are 2 types of Allies: Loyalists, who score based on Frederick II's assets, and Independents, who want you to have more assets than Frederick.

👑 Frederick II plays a central role: Players can trigger Edicts📜 that add or remove structures or resources from his supply, adding a layer of indirect player interaction. You’ll need to keep an eye on others' ally tiles and try to block their scoring. 😈

To be able to summon more Allies you need to unlock slots by building Towers 🏰 - and Towers need to be connected to Walls, which unlock storage for resources. Constructing Keeps unlock powerful abilities! ☝️These structures are the second biggest source for victory points!

The clever action selection system is worth highlighting: you play cards to slots on your player board, either faceup for the card’s ability or facedown for the slot's action. Slots are limited, so each card you play restricts your future options for that round. Plus, there's a deck-building aspect since you can acquire new cards.

Another interesting mechanic is a rondel where you can optionally move your ship ⛵ every round. The rondel serves a singular purpose: whenever you get to pick a card, a tile or do a market action, you can only choose from things where your ship is, which is a fun constraint.

The way you gather points won’t deviate much from game to game, so Stupor Mundi is an optimization puzzle - with lots of interaction due to edicts and drafting. A big part of replayability comes from the specialist tracks, where you can position your meeples for ongoing bonuses, and mix & match them to synergistically boost actions.

If this wakes your interest, Stupor Mundi by Quined Games is currently on Gamefound 😉