Courtier is a game I played a lot when I got into the hobby but I didn’t give it the blogging attention it needed.
Now is the time…
The social elite of Tempest lives in a world of power, intrigue, and alliances that can often shake the very foundations of the city’s society. In Courtier, you move within these circles of social power to further your goals. Work with established courtiers to gain influence and stymie the rise of your rivals as you attempt to earn or cheat your way into their world.
Courtier Game Play
Each player gets 15 influence tokens of their colour.
They also get a secret Petition card with 4 more placed face up next to the board. These are goals to achieve throughout the game.
A card called “The Queen Is Arrested!” is shuffled into the bottom half of the Fashion deck and they’re put next to the board too.
The white-backed Influence deck and the black-backed Power decks are shuffled with the top card of each flipped over next to the deck. This is not the discard pile, this is created separately from a discard pile.
There is a way to get a starting hand of cards and bid on them but for the first game, each player takes 3 Influence cards and 2 Power cards.
In turn order, players take the following three actions: Play a card, Discard cards, and Gain one influence marker from the reserve.
If playing an Influence card it allows you to play Influence cubes of your colour on specific Courtiers. Power cards usually allow you to move and manipulate Influence tokens on the board.
This Influence allows a player controls a courtier when that player has more influence on them than any other player. On a player’s turn, they also control any Courtier that is full of white ‘neutral’ Influence cubes.
Completing a Petition
At this point, once per turn, a player can complete a Petition. They must control each courtier should on the Petition and each of those Courtiers must be filled with Influence, which can include white Neutral Influence markers.
When completing a Petition first clear all the Influence from those Courtiers back to the players then replace the completed Petition card.
Then the player draws and resolved the top Fashion card. These mostly involve putting Neutral Influence cubes are various Courtiers and Coteries.
Players then draw back up to 5 cards, but from either deck. You can also spend an Influence cube to the reserve to draw the top face-up card instead.
The Courtiers are divided into sections called a Coterie, each Coterie comes with a special ability card. As soon as a player controls a Coterie, by having the most total influence markers in that coterie, they take the ability card.
When a Fashion card called “The Queen Is Arrested!” is drawn the game ends.
Players add points from completed petition cards, points on the score track plus 10 points for controlling the Senate Coterie at the end of the game. The player with the highest score is the winner.
Theme
This is set in the Tempest world and is basically a prequel to Love Letter. This game ends with the Queen being arrested which is the reason Princess Annette has locked herself in her room in that game.
So from a backstory perspective, the theme is strong.
In the game itself, you get to use the powers of the people you have the most influence on so that makes sense too. The Coterie abilities are thematic too with the Senate awarding end-game points and the Military allowing you to play 2 Power Cards on a turn.
Setup & Rulebook
The setup is quite simple. It’s a case of shuffling things and that’s all good.
I admit I wasn’t great at actually reading rulebooks in 2012. I would more ‘tactically skim’ than read word for word fully as I do now.
But, looking at a pdf of it now it’s pretty good with an excellent rules reference on the back.
Components & Artwork
The cubes are standard coloured cubes but they need to be easily visible and they do that.
I do like the card art from the Tempest world, it fits the theme.
Ease of Teaching & Accessibility
It’s very easy to teach as there are only a few actions and most of the rules are on the cards you draw. I would say control of both Courtiers and Coteries is a bit fiddly.
That’s where accessibility a problem I think. Those rules plus the Power and Influence cards can be confusing. But, players should just try and fill the Courtiers on goals, so they have something to aim for.
Courtier Summary
Man, I would love a Batman version of this to play before Love Letter: Batman. Not sure how that would work, it could be set in Arkham Asylum and end with ‘Breakout’ instead of the Queen being arrested. That could do it.
But Courtier is very good. You have that simple area control and constant shifting control in Coteries, sometimes several times in a turn.
I do like these simple-to-play games that require a lot of thought, where the brain is being used for strategy, not rules.
However, explaining control is tricky. It can be affected if a Courtier isn’t full or is partially full of neutral Influence, or if there is a tie etc. Also, Coteries can be controlled even if you don’t control a Courtier which people forget.
Then, there is the reason I sold the game… and bought it again, then sold it again… The Game End.
So it ends randomly which means uneven turns most of the time. Most people aren’t bothered but if you have one person who really moans about it it can sour the game after. It became a sticking point at least twice and if brought up during a game, it gives people that didn’t win a cause to complain.
Sad really, everything else is really fun.
Jesta ThaRogue