The Crown is back, in all its glory!

With so many cool games out on display at UK Games Expo, 👑 The Old King’s Crown still managed to stand out as one of the most exciting games - and we were lucky enough to receive an early production copy. We’ve played and covered this game back when its Kickstarter was running, and we were super sad when we had to send away the prototype copy. So holding it in our hands again is a special kind of joy. 🥰

This is a game of secret cardplay 🃏 full of intrigue, misdirection and cunning ploys. 😉 The old King is dead and his throne is up for grabs, so players - as heirs - are doing all they can to gather as much influence as they can, while denying their rivals any opportunities.

Gameplay itself is pretty nuanced, but the core of it can be explained fairly easily: 🧐 Each round, players play a card secretly to each of the 3 rows of the board, fighting over control of locations. Whoever wins gets to activate 1 of 2 locations in the row, using its ability and gaining influence - get the most influence after several rounds and you become the successor to the throne! 🏆 Winning these card-contests is where it gets tricky. 👉 Whoever has the highest value wins, but there are effects to eliminate other cards or bring in additional ones that switch up things and keep you on your toes all the time. 😁

Hand management is further complicated by the fact that you can also send a card to Council and one to Journey each round, which are both very useful actions, and only specific cards can do it (and your hand size is fairly limited too).

Just to give you a taste, you also play as one of four asymmetric factions, where your faction ability, tactics tiles and unlockable cards influence your playstyle, as do the Kingdom cards you can collect during the game. Oh and it’s not just all incredibly exciting, but the game also has some of the most mesmerizing illustrations we have ever seen. Simply amazing! 😍