Viscounts of the West Kingdom Review: Adapt and Influence!
Intent: Inspire you to try playing Viscounts of the West Kingdom
Have you ever wondered if you have what it takes to influence a kingdom? Do you have an eye for recruiting and strategic action? Well, take a seat because this week’s review features Viscounts of the West Kingdom. It is a deck building strategy game published by Garphill Games and Renegade Games, designed by Shem Phillips and S J Macdonald with the art done by Mihajlo Dimitrievski. This game plays 1-4 players and takes about 60-90 minutes to play. Will you accomplish deeds or pay off debts to claim off victory?
Overview
The aim of the game is to have the most victory points by the end of the game. Points are scored through building buildings, paying off debts, acquiring deeds, transcribing manuscripts, and placing workers in the castle. The game ends when poverty or prosperity (or sometimes both) is(are) achieved.
In Viscounts, you will take on the role of a viscount and travel the realm in search of resources to accomplish various feats. You will work with the town folk to construct new buildings, acquire new deeds, pay off debts, transcribe manuscripts and work within the castle to further your influence. You’ll begin the game with a starting deck, including a leader and a handful of townsfolk and each turn you will move and perform various actions in the West Kingdom.
Each player board is designed to hold up to three cards. Each turn begins with you playing a new card onto your board always on the left, which means the other cards will shift to the right, with the rightmost card being discarded. Townsfolk and leader cards provide either in-play bonuses, on-play bonuses or discard bonuses and allow you to utilize their skills to complete actions on the main board.
Your player board will help you navigate through all the phases of actions in a clear manner. You’ll begin with your card management, then move in the realm to a spot where you will complete your primary action. The primary actions are the main way to gain resources and victory points throughout the game. You’ll then have the opportunity to recruit new townsfolk, resolve collision of your corruption and virtue if applicable, and then draw back up to your hand limit. Sounds pretty straight forward? After a first playthrough this game is fairly easy to grasp.
The game ends once the prosperity or poverty decks (or potentially both) are empty, the points are then scored and the victor is declared. Do you have what it takes to influence the kingdom and win over the hearts of the people?
First Game Impression
Let’s start off by saying we missed a rule at the beginning of the game and it ended up lasting much shorter than expected. The good news is, we really liked the game even after playing it a bit wrong. Best way to learn is to make mistakes and grow from them.
This game is the third to a trilogy of games, Paladins of the West Kingdom and Architects of the West Kingdom, which we both love (Paladins is Tylor’s favorite game). This meant, that this game had some pretty high expectations going in. Fortunately, the first play through the game was a hit! Not to mention that the art in this game was yet another beautiful masterpiece.
Initially, I thought this game would revolve more around the worker placement aspect similar to the other two in this set of the West Kingdom games. Instead, I was thoroughly surprised to see that this was not the case. It took similar concepts that we were familiar with from the other games and twisted them around to focus on deck building and resource management.
After the first game we realized the many possibilities of combinations and paths to victory and were thrilled to keep playing. (Hoping to make less/no mistakes moving forward.)
Thoughts After Five Games
What an absolute wonder of a game! Unfortunately, we’ve only been able to play with two players because of COVID-19, but we simply cannot wait to begin introducing this game to others! The various elements, the strategy with corruption and virtue, the castle mechanics! Ah what a beautiful game.
We’ve had tremendous joy in discovering and trying different strategies, racing for the castle, collecting all the manuscripts or even focusing primarily on buildings. One thing we did realize is that we must interfere and not let each other capitalize in one domain. It’s been such a pleasant journey of discovery and each game we played was quite close in terms of victory points.
It did take a couple of games to fully grasp the scope of the game, and we’re still beating ourselves up with some of the mistakes we made early on, but I can comfortably say this is a game that will stay on our shelf for a long time.
MERIT Report Card
Overall Letter Grade: A-
Strengths: There is so much variability within this game it makes each play unique and enjoyable. The castle mechanic is chef’s kiss*. The adaptability to actions of others, the incredible artwork and the mix of components create a wonderful experience each playthrough.
Areas of Improvement: A common mistakes section in the rulebook would have helped us tremendously, we’re typically pretty good for rules but we definitely made some big and small mistakes throughout our first couple of playthroughs.
Memorability: A-
How often do I think about the game? This is a game that often lurks in my brain and one I want to play again and again. What a joy and memorable experience this game is! there are simply so many paths to victory and it is so interesting to strategize and decide which route to take.
How often is the game brought up by the individuals I play with? We unfortunately haven’t had the chance to introduce this game to others because of the pandemic restrictions, but I know it’s only going to be better with more individuals. The castle mechanics is an element I can see many folks remembering and admiring as well.
How many memories can be built from this game? Many memories! Well this game has incredible player interaction, you’re never going to directly attack somebody but your actions certainly have repercussions to others. The castle with workers shifting left and right, certainly allows for many grand moments.
There’s also an element of a race, you see a card you want, you must travel and get to it before anybody else, similar for manuscripts, buildings, and resources. The game is changing constantly, which means adapting but also being proud and frustrated with your moves. The entire experience certainly sticks with you.
Education: A-
Ah, what a masterpiece when it comes to educational elements. You’re essentially sharing a pool of actions with other players so prioritizing what you need to do and adapting to circumstances is a huge educational element to the game. Board games in general are phenomenal at teaching these sets of skills but Viscounts especially, I really found myself thinking ahead not only for myself but for Tylor’s moves as well. This game will certainly improve your strategic thinking but also allow you to multitask in the best way possible.
Let’s chat about the castle. As more workers are placed, more workers are bumped up and bumped off. You have to be quite strategic because not only are you racing to try to get to the centre, but when you bump off workers you give benefits to players. Oversimplified of course, but this really has you more invested in your decisions and actions as if you bump somebody off, it might mean that person has enough to purchase something they’ve been saving for. You really have to explore and understand the scope of your actions, which honestly might take a few games to grasp.
How it relates to real life? Well planning ahead is one of the most important elements of this game, especially with your deck of villagers. You’ll need to make sure you’re not only thinking ahead, but optimizing your moves and resources. Games like this one can really help you begin to think optimally when doing every day tasks. Even the simple things, for example, how you clean. You might want to wipe the table first before sweeping, as if you sweep first you might end up knocking some crumbs on the floor while wiping the table. Seems simple but it’s only through practice do we realize these things faster and with ease.
Replayability: A
This game deserves an award for replayability alone. Although it is a complex game, you’re essentially guaranteed to never play the same game as there’s so many moments of variability, your villager deck, the villager decks on the board, the manuscripts, the buildings you build, the variations of combinations are essentially endless.
Not only does the game throw in a lot of variation at you, you also have tremendous opportunity to take many paths to victory. You can spend most of the game sending workers to the castle, or just building buildings, OR transcribing manuscripts. There’s just so many ways you can play this game and the individuals you play with will have a large influence on what you do as you’ll want to stop them in their path, while maintaining your own road to victory.
Imagination: A-
Well first of all, let’s recognize the talent of Mihajlo Dimitrievski. The art in this game is so unique, inviting and a pleasure to interact with. The villagers can each have a story, you really get to deploy some of your imagination as you take a look at all the wonderful elements of the game.
Beyond that, you’re a viscount. You’re a force to be reckoned with and there can be many story elements if you choose as you focus. Maybe, you’re a viscount who wants to rebuild the kingdom by placing many buildings and focusing more on that element. You can also be a viscount that is a professional transcriber of manuscripts, history has to be preserved after all. What sort of viscount will you be, and what will be your story?
When the castle erupts with workers, it’s fun to create stories of why some are getting upgraded, while others are getting kicked off, your imagination really is in command and this game provides a toolbox to let it thrive.
Target: A-
A West Kingdom game? Yes please. Architects and Paladins of the West Kingdom have left a large impression on the community, with Architects being a phenomenal worker placement that’s fairly easy to grasp and Paladins being an intricate and exciting puzzle that is so rewarding to play. Individuals who love either of these games will love Viscounts, as it’s another masterpiece from Garphill Games.
If you enjoy strategic, many paths to victory type games with a lot of moving pieces and incredible illustrations to go alongside that, this game just may be for you!
The only thing that did catch me a bit off-guard is that I did think that this would be a worker placement game as well, it’s certainly more of a deck-building experience with a slight worker placement element but that did not stop us from loving the game.
The art is inviting the box is exciting and I can certainly see individuals pick this game up with knowing very little about the trilogy or other games of Shem Phillips and everyone else involved. When they do pick it up, they’ll realize how much of a treat this game really is.
Tylor’s Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐½
Well this game had a lot of high expectations for me as Paladins is probably my favourite game right now. It definitely did not disappoint! It further builds on the theme laid out in Paladins and Architects and still manages to be a very unique and fun game.
One of the reasons I like this game is because you have to be adapt to what the game is giving you and there are multiple ways to pull out a victory. It’s like a balancing game because if you focus too much on being everywhere than it likely won’t fair well and the same thing can be said for if you focus too much on one aspect. It’s almost as if you have to dabble in everything but still have your focus on one point generated. On top of that, you have to be weary with what other players are doing because if you let them run free in the castle, you’ll regret it at the end!
I’m excited to play this game some more and although its a bit more complex, I will be looking forward to introducing it to the friend group once we get the chance!
Final Thoughts: The balance of all actions this game provides creates an extraordinary experience that will keep you wanting to bring the game to the table. The artwork and mechanics are simply incredible. If you enjoy multiple pathways to victory, adapting to players you play with and incredible artwork this game may be for you.
MERIT Report Card Letter Grade: A-