PLAYED FOR YOU

COUP

Countess to Counter, Duke for Taxes

Italy in the era of the city states: Each player takes on the role of head of a family in such a city state which it ruled by a weak and corrupt court. Every player tries to take control of the city by bluffing, scheming and bribing in order to seize power and to defeat and unseat the other families.

There are five roles in the game - Duke for income, Assassin for attacking, Captain for taking coins, Ambassador for new cards and Countess for blocking the assassin; for each role there are three cards in the game and each player is dealt two cards which they lay out face down. Cards laid out before players represent influence on this role when they are face down; when you lose influence you must turn over one card of your choice.

In a round you chose one action; if it is not challenged or deflected it succeeds automatically. You name the role and by doing so you state that you own the face down card corresponding to the chosen action and you can bluff or tell the truth. When you acquire a third role card due to an action you must discard any of the three. If you start your turn with 10 coins you must choose the Coup action, it is automatically successful. The player attacked with Coup loses influence. If you lose influence due to being defeated in a challenge you must turn up one role card of your choice; when both are revealed you quit the game. The last one in play wins.

Negotiations are allowed, agreements are not binding.

The 15 cards of this game offer a surprisingly attractive mix of bluff, strategy and negotiation; the forced Coup actions prevent too frequent evasive actions like income and Foreign Aid.

Players: 3-6

Age: 10+

Time: 45+

Designer: Rikki Tahta

Art: Andrew Higgins, Trista Lam

Price: Currently sold out

Publisher: La Mame Games 2012

Web: www.lamamegames.com

Genre: Bluffing game with cards

Users: With friends

Version: en

Rules: de en fr

In-game text: no

Comments:

Sophisticated mix of mechanisms

Memory for cards can help

False doubts cost you dearly

Compares to:

Liar’s Dice and other games with believe-or-doubt mechanism

Other editions:

Currently none

Chance (pink): 1

Tactic (turquoise): 2

Strategy (blue): 0

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 0

Communication (red): 3

Interaction (brown): 3

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0