Oriflamme was not a game I’d heard of or cared about so I wasn’t bothered when people suggested it.

So, was I glad I played? or should I have faked Internet issues and logged out of Board Game Arena?

The King is dead! Long live the King! As heads of influential families, the players strive to come to power with cunning and malice, power and strength, virtue and infamy. Their goal: the king’s throne!

Oriflamme Game Play

The game comes with a bunch of decks of cards, all the same art but with a different colour to denote that each deck is a different Family. Each player shuffles their deck and removes 3 random cards face down. So each player will have a very similar yet different 7 card hand. Players also get 1 Influence point.

The game is played over 6 rounds, each of 2 phases.

1 – Placement Phase: The start player places a card from their hand face down. In turn order, players place a card face down either side of the row of cards on the table called the ‘Influence Queue’.

After a player has placed a card, they may reveal a card, flip it face up and fully resolve its effects. More on the card effects in a bit.

2 – Resolution Phase: After each player has placed, the cards in the Influence Queue are activated in the direction (left to right or right to left) determined at the start of the game.

If a card is face up it activates and resolves its ability and while face up and in play, will resolve its ability every resolution phase.

The Roles

ARCHER : Eliminate the first or last card from the queue
ROYAL DECREE : Move a card to wherever you want in the queue, Discard Royal Decree
SOLDIER : Eliminate an adjacent card
LORD : Earn 1 influence, plus 1 per adjacent card that is in your family
SHAPESHIFTER : Copy the ability of an adjacent revealed card
AMBUSH : If revealed by an opponent’s card, discard that card and you gain 4 Influence
CONSPIRACY : Gain double the accumulated Influence on Conspiracy, then discard Conspiracy
SPY : Steal 1 Influence from a player who has a card adjacent to your Spy
HEIR : If there is no other card face up with the same name, gain 2 Influence
ASSASSINATION : Eliminate any card in the queue, discard Assassination

When moving down the row, if a card is face down it can be kept face down and an influence point is added to it.

Or, If it is face down it can be flipped face up and activated, with the player gaining all of the influece points on it so far.

Once all cards have been activated the start player marker passes left and players continue placing then resolving cards in the row.

After 6 rounds, the player with the most Influence points wins!

Theme

Well, OK sure you play different roles that do thematic things. But the fact there is a row doesn’t really make thematic sense.

Components & Artwork

The real game components look OK and I don’t mind the artwork. Again, for games like ithis I would much prefer something cute and cartoony but it works.

Ease of Teaching & Accessibility

Very simple in the basics… I mean, anyone could play but it would be awkward to show players how to play well until after they have made mistakes.

It’s always the problem with secret card games, at least a game doesn’t last long.

Oriflamme Summary

So I don’t know what this kind of game is called, but this is the best one of it I’ve played. This is where everyone has the same or similar cards and needs to use them to their best.

The one that immediately springs to mind is Om Nom Nom but I feel I’ve played a load of these and they just haven’t stuck with me. Mission: Red Planet is one but it has a different feel so didn’t immediately spring to mind.

Oriflamme has some good stuff though. Playing those cards to try and get the most influence is a basic concept. There are only 10 cards and all players have a combination of 7 of them so there isn’t much to learn.

You want to get Conspiracy out early, let it build and build then activate to double the influence… BUT, the longer it’s in play the more chance it has to get assassinated. Of course, there is the Ambush card which casts doubt on every card you play and keep face down.

The cards work together well this way but of course there are anly 10 so… how many times can you play it?

I do think it could stop being fun fast, but there is a standalone exapnsion called Ablaze which has 11 new cards that are more complex to play and rely on comboing more so… that sounds good.

Jesta ThaRogue