The Old King is dead...

The Old King is dead, the throne is up for the taking.
In ‘The Old King’s Crown’ 👑 you slip into the role of an Heir of the King, who is vying to take the now vacant throne with scheming, assassination and outmaneuvering rival Heirs. Only the most cunning and resourceful Heir can come out on top!

To understand what the game is about, I think it’s easiest to mention Libertalia or Vaalbara. The concept is similar: you secretly play cards to win conflicts, with lots of bluffing and mind games - However, The Old King’s Crown is also much much more! ☝️
More complex in round structure and cards, asymmetry through different factions and decks, and obtainable abilities.

Let’s see the basics: the board is divided into 3 rows with 2 locations each. In each round you have to play a facedown card to each of the rows, basically trying to have the biggest number. After you reveal every player’s card you check to see who wins, then they get to choose one of the locations there and do its ability. The goal of the game is to gather Prestige and reach a certain threshold.

Of course winning this card conflict isn’t as simple as having the biggest number only. There are plenty of keywords and traits interacting with each other, bringing epic mind games to the table. About to assassinate your opponent? Beware the cards that defend against assassins. Don’t like the smile on your opponent's face? Just swap around their facedown cards or deploy your special decree cards with asymmetric effects.

Before and after these conflicts there are sub-phases where you get to activate some of your abilities and there is also a 4th row for cards where you can get Kingdom cards to grab new skills. These are all strong and interesting, but you can only have 2 of these at a time.

My favorite touch are the Herald pieces. Before playing cards, everyone marks a location where they “intend to win”. If you win there you get a bonus, but you could just use it as a misdirection, baiting high value cards.

The list of why this game works so well goes on, but I’ll have to continue in a later post. For now your main takeaway should be that it is awesome! 😁

@theoldkingscrown is coming to Kickstarter!