Renegade Game Studio RGS02033 Paladins of the West Kingdom, Mixed Colours

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Debt is the game’s most entertaining gameplay element, earned by either recruiting townsfolk without paying their silver price or running afoul of the inquisition. There are six types of workers - labourers who can perform only generic actions; fighters, clerics, merchants and scouts who perform the actions you’d think they’d be appropriate for; and criminals who can do anything but earn you a suspicion card whenever you collect one. Those cards award zero to three coins from a collective tax pool, which is great for accelerating your plans. The actions are split into two rows of three.To carry out each action requires a certain score in one of the three attributes.There also might be a resource cost to pay.When you carry out an action you will get rewarded with an increase in a different attribute.The top and bottom actions in a column are linked. For example, the top may require influence of a certain level and reward you with strength; whilst the bottom action requires a number of strength, and rewards you with influence.

Instead, Paladins of the West Kingdom requires a focus. I tend to find that for most of the game I am focused on one column of actions alongside gathering resources. It is also important to make sure to develop. This reduces the cost of your actions from three workers down to one. This, in turn, means you can do more actions each turn. I am not saying you can only focus on two main actions throughout the whole of the game. You can focus on a broader range, but I have found this is the best way to score points. Points Scoring If I had a complaint about Paladins, it’s that after maybe 10 plays or so, you may find it getting a bit same-y in terms of the actions you’re doing. If that’s the case for you, I can highly recommend including the City of Crowns expansion, as this adds in a new attribute and more actions for you to get your teeth into. The expansion itself has a 4.17 weight ranking on Board Game Geek, as opposed to the 3.71 of the base game, but it’s still a really good expansion.Of course, it might not. Maybe you just want to disrupt whatever your opponents are getting up to. Maybe it’s your opponent that’s chosen Gerin. Knowing that your opponent is gearing up to do some Conspiring, maybe you want to remove as many workers that would be useful to them from the Tavern card lineup as you can. There’s a lot to think about and, as I stated in my very brief overview earlier, more so than performing any actual actions, the selection of these two cards at the beginning of each round is where the true heart of Paladins lies. Four more meeples are received based on drafting cards - there’s always one more card than the number of players so everyone gets at least some choice. Players then take turns assigning workers to take action on spaces on their board until they run out of resources or decide to pass, with the chance to save up to three workers for the next round. There’s a dizzying amount of options including gathering basic resources like silver and provisions, and more involved developments that require more resources and higher values as you focus on them. The game takes place over the course of seven turns and you’ll earn additional victory points for performing the same actions five to seven times. Architects of the West Kingdom and Paladins of the West Kingdom are the first two entries in a trilogy of board games - which was completed with the release of Viscounts of the West Kingdom last year - set during the era of the Carolingian Empire, a power that ruled central and western Europe during the Middle Ages. Though they are both in the same series of games, comparing Paladins of the West Kingdom to its predecessor is difficult, as they are very different games. This one is a much more complex affair, and so it really depends on what mood you are in. Personally, if I were to compare, I much prefer this one, as I like a crunchy game with an interesting puzzle. I prefer the attribute system to the virtue system in Architects, and I love the interaction between the actions. That being said, I think for a lot of people, I would recommend Architects as the better starting point. Prices delivered by BoardGamePrices

Absolve uses the player’s Influence to move their pots from one area, earning Faith in the process, to another which earns them an instant bonus. The more pots you move, the more victory points you’ll earn. Additionally, the player gets to remove a Suspicion card. This segues nicely into the last aspects of the game that we haven’t talked about… Paying the Tax ManFor instance, paying four silver and two workers of any color allows you to use Develop to remove the leftmost workshop from your player board and place it onto one of the action spaces on your player board that are surrounded by dotted lines. This makes those actions cheaper in the future. Additionally, as the workshop is removed, a bonus worker is earned. In fact, all of the spaces that were covered by wooden pieces during setup will reveal some kind of bonus once the space is revealed. If you’ve ever played a game like Terra Mystica or Clans of Caledonia, this mechanic should feel familiar. Architects of the West Kingdom has one to five players becoming renowned royal architects who must gain the admiration of the king by helming the construction of various buildings throughout the city. By gathering the required amount of resources, hiring skilled apprentices and ensuring that their workforce is staying on target, players will be able to gradually create a series of impressive constructions. However, players will also need to make sure that their moral judgements do not hamper their potential for victory points. As noble men and women, players must gather workers from the city to defend against enemies, build fortifications and spread faith throughout the land. Fortunately you are not alone.