by tcollett
I have always been a big fan of card games. I grew up playing tons of ten point pitch (learned a lot of different styles of pitch as well). I used to stay with my grandparents off and on and my grandfather would take me down to the local coffee shop with him. We would then sit around and play 6 and 7 point pitch for quarters with the other older men. We played a lot of Uno and Rook as well. The big draw to these games growing up was close to bedtime, we could get in a couple of card games without much issue.
A person at the local gaming group brought out Condottiere as a starter game for one evening. Having never played, I was definitely open to the idea because I love card games. After having the rules explained to us, we began and it took little to no effort to get right into the game and to truly understand what was going on.
Since then, I have played quite a few times with various people and with various numbers of people (I have played 2 player, 4 player, and 5 player games with it). The game plays well with any number of people really but again, the more the better in my opinion.
Here is my list of 10 things I have heard, seen, and learned from the game after multiple sessions.
- When I broke out the game with some of my friends, one person asked if the game was like cribbage at all since it had cards and a small board. I never really thought of it that way, and I basically told him you can make some comparisons but not a lot. I figured if it made him happy to have something that he knew how to play to compare it to, I wasn’t going to argue. *laugh*
- Do keep track of your own score when laying out the cards and call it out when you lay out another card. At first I thought it was a dumb rule in the rule book, but I learned very quickly it is very nice to have everyone know their own score and can tell you their score right away. It keeps the flow of the game moving, and I have to admit it gets irritating to have someone have to count their points each time (especially if they aren’t good at math).
- Don’t be afraid to play to just move the condotierre token by playing courtesan cards. Sometimes a battle is being fought in a place that can’t help you at all (and others are already fighting to keep another person away from it) so it is sometimes best to just play to move the token to a location that will help you in the long term.
- If a person needs a particular location that currently has the token on it, watch closely how they are playing. If the lead out with a lot of mercenaries that are just a value of 1 (and maybe a heroine), then they could be waiting to drop a bishop card or a winter card. That may be the only cards they have but more often than not it seems to be bait or to hold out to get some higher cards out to negate them.
- The scarecrow card can be your friend when winter is played. Having a mercenary of 10 dropped down to a value of 1 (or 2 if you have a drummer out) isn’t fun and if no one has spring card to counteract, you may be better off pulling back in your large value mercenaries for later in the game. Also you may want to pull back cards in hopes of someone eventually dropping a spring card and then you can put the cards in your hand back out on the table.
- Use a surrender card wisely because there aren’t many of them. Sometimes it is a good idea to keep your score higher than others just to prevent a surrender card from coming out and ending the battle. This isn’t always a good idea though (watch out for the bishop and winter cards).
- Getting spaces on the board is beneficial to not only winning the game (duh right?) but also to get additional cards when new cards are dealt out. Having a couple of additional cards in your hand can really change the course of a battle (with the right cards of course).
- Sometimes you have to fight a battle to just keep someone else from taking over the space on the board. It becomes an interesting decision within the game as to do you continue to battle to keep the other person from getting the space? Do you pass and try to make someone else battle for you in hopes of getting a better space later? Do you just let the person have the space and then work to battle for other spaces that may help you more in the long run?
- Personally, I think the biggest value of the spring card is to negate the effects of the winter card. While adding 3 to the highest valued mercenaries on the table is nice, if you don’t have one of those high valued mercenaries, it can definitely work against you. This is where the bishop can also come in to help you and get rid of those really high mercenaries and hopefully get yours to the top of the heap for a round.
- The drummer, in my opinion, is the biggest battle changer. Even if winter is played, the drummer still takes each mercenary and makes it 2 instead of 1 in value. This can put a person that is last in a battle into first pretty quickly.
- Lastly, I like the compact size of the game. The game board cracks me up with its size but it definitely works for what a person needs it for to play. You can definitely take the game with you about anywhere and have a pretty quick game without issues. Analysis paralysis doesn’t really come into play as much with this game as others which is nice and people pick it up pretty quickly. I have had nothing but positive comments about the game. It definitely gets played as a nice warm up game or a nice cool down after a heavy gaming session (sounds like a real workout doesn’t it?).
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