Golden Cup is a sports-themed, pool-building game.

Title: Golden Cup

Year Published: 2024

Designer: Gabriele Bubola, Simone Luciani

Publisher: Cranio Creations

Players: 1-6

Game Time: ~60 minutes

Set-up Time: ~5 minutes

Ages: 10+

Theme: A fantasy sports tournament

Mechanisms: hand management, Pool-Building.

How to win: Gain enough fame over 6 games to make it to the finale. Win that to win the Golden Cup.

Game Description

The fever for the Fantasphere is now rampant. From all over the kingdom, creatures of all sorts have come with the dream of becoming a champion of this new sport.

How to play Golden Cup

Learn how to play Golden Cup. This is a quick and concise rule overview to use as a rules refresher or as an alternative to a review.

Main mechanisms

There is hand management managing your team and recruiting new champions. There is also pool-building as you build the bag you will use to play matches against your opponents.

Theme

The theme of a fantasy sports tournament really appeals to me. I would like to know more about the world and the characters in it, and especially the sport itself.

Setup & Rulebook

The setup is fairly simple, just get the bits out on the table and you’re almost good to go.

The rulebook is OK, but I feel it could be in a better order with rules as rules not tucked away in boxes as examples.

Components & Artwork

Everything is fine. I wouldn’t mind getting those little plastic coin boxes for the tokens should I see this as a game I want to play a lot.

The art is fun. The champions all look really good.

Ease of Teaching

The game is easy to teach. However, the big second phase of recruiting and upgrading your team is done simultaneously. New players may need help here so make sure they sit next to an experienced player.

Also make sure if you have a bot player in your game, make sure they aren’t playing against them in the first couple of games.

Cards in hand are also private so that could be an issue too.

Similar Games

I like Challengers! as a tournament game and wanted more games like it. I got that here. I also feel that Golden Cup is less complicated and easier to teach than Challengers! and the game you play within the game is more simple.

Golden Cup Review

Positives

A tournament game! My favourite!

Simple gameplay is needed when players split out into groups and play outside of the immediate view of the game teacher.

It looks nice and the art for the champions is fun.

I love a sports game, but…

Negatives

…the sports theme might put people off even if it is just a tile drawing game.

There are a lot of cards and while you only need to teach 3-4 icons, a bit of memory is required.

Golden Cup Round-Up

A really good accessible tournament-style game.

I give it 6/10