Who will secure the favor of the king?

Who will secure the favor of the king?

In πŸ‘‘ Royal Visit you play as 2 neighbouring rival Duchies vying for the favor of the King, who is coming to visit the countryside. You have to get the King to come to your Chateau to show your pesky neighbour that you are better than them! 🀭

The game is played on a simple track - on each end are the two Chateaus 🏰 of the players. The two halves of the track are the two Duchies with a neutral middle space. Your goal is quite simple: move the King’s 🀴 pawn into your Chateau and you win! However that is not as easy to achieve as it sounds. 🧐

There are also 2 Guard pawns πŸ’‚πŸ’‚. The King always has to stand between them or else he cannot be moved. So you will have to pull the Guards to your side as well. That’s not all; there are two more pawns in play: the Jester πŸ€Ήβ€β™€οΈ and the Wizard πŸ§™β€β™‚οΈ. You will need to use their powers too to win.

The Wizard is able to summon a Guard or the King to the spot he is standing on (keep in mind the King still has to be between Guards after this). The Jester gives you the power to move anyone, as long as he is between your Chateau and the King. πŸ€”

The way you move any pawn is by playing cards on your turn. You can play more than one card, but only if it the same character type. So you can wait and gather some cards for bigger unexpected combos. 😯 You will draw up to your hand size of 8 even if you played more than one card.

There is one more thing πŸ‘†: after your turn you get to move the Crown πŸ‘‘ token towards you if you have characters in your Chateau or if the King and his Guards are all in your Duchy. The crown is a second possible win condition. If it moves all the way to your end of the track you win the game, else if the drawpile of cards runs out for the second time, you win if the King is on your side. πŸ†

Royal Visit is a very fun concept with tight gameplay all revolving around clever cardplay and movement of the pawns. We did often feel as if we were in a stalemate in this tug-of-war. Or that if you are losing, it might be hard to get back. We need some more plays to see how skilled you can get. The art is delightful though. πŸ₯°