by JasonRider
Score: 7/10
To begin this review on the proverbial right foot, let me justify why I’m only now getting around to reviewing a game that’s eight years old and seemingly no longer in print to boot. The short answer is that I’ve only just recently purchased it myself thus it must still be available in certain circles regardless of whether Fantasy Flight Games actually has fresh copies coming off the assembly line.
To judge the game based on the box art alone, one might expect to be whisked away into a heavy role-playing inspired realm of kings, knights and dragons. The actual game play, however, is pure Reiner Knizia, which basically means numbers, positioning, and mathematics will supercede the game’s themes, however intriguing they may be.
Hard facts first. All apologies to those who’ve come to associate Fantasy Flight Games’ fantasy line with intricate maps and highly detailed plastic sculpts, within this box is nothing more than cardboard chits: 10 location tiles, 6 character tokens, 88 district tiles (22 each of 4 colors), 36 victory point markers and a 16 page b&w (that’s blue and white) rulebook.
The game is recommended for players ages 9 & up, works for 2-4 players with an average game taking between 20-40 minutes.
I suppose I should begin by addressing the rulebook, which at 16 pages is sure to intimidate. Rest easy; only 2.5 pages are devoted to each language with English occupying the first 2 (the half page left over is actually the back cover of the book). As is almost the case with all Fantasy Flight Games, the wording and structure of the rules are a bit more cobbled than the experience of actually playing the game. I found it worked best to simply pop out all of the pieces and attempt to play the first game with the rules acting as a sort of step-by-step. Before long things will click and flow well without the aid of the manual.
Veteran players may argue that information such as what each character counter does when activated or how certain locations have special rules of their own will force players to keep the manual handy and indeed, this data would have been very useful in reference card form. The good news is that this info is well organized and easy to reference in the rulebook until such details commit themselves to your memory banks.
I mentioned that the game play itself is pure Knizia and if that means nothing to you, rest assured the man has earned a fantastic reputation as a master game designer and the strategic elements that have served as the foundation of such a reputation are definitely present here. To the rest of the world, fans of games like Lost Cities, Beowulf the Movie Board Game or Kingdoms know just what to expect.
The game works off the principle of laying a single tile (a location) for which players to surround with cards from their hand (which is always 6 cards). The numbers indicated on the cards they place are added together at the end of the round (which happens each time ten cards surround the center location tile) and the player with the highest value is awarded first place, the next highest value second place and so on. The game rewards the first three places. The next round begins by the addition of the next location tile to the fray. This goes on until all 10 location tiles have been played and scored or until the players run out of cards to play. That’s all there is to it.
However, and like most Reiner Knizia games, the strategy and complexity exist within the perceived simplicity. Certain locations allow players the ability to place their cards atop their opponents’ and character counters (such as the king, wizard, merchant and so on) add all sorts of surprises to the formula. In the end this is a game that comes down to strategy, budgeting, and a little bit of luck simply in the order in which you draw the cards into your hand.
All in all though, I can attest to the fact that this is an example of a title that really and truly eliminates luck of the draw dynamics from its inherent strategy thanks in no small part to the fact that each player holds 6 cards in their hand at any given moment during the game. Moves are very rarely the result of lack of options at the player’s disposal.
Pacing is pretty spot-on in its 20-40 minute assessment and games move along quite nicely once everyone at the table’s had a few rounds worth of experience under their belt. This is definitely one of those games that can result in the famous 'let’s go one more round' logic that tends to cause the hands of the clock to mysteriously rotate much quicker than usual.
In all, this is a solid enough game to, in my opinion anyway, warrant Fantasy Flight’s consideration to re-release as perhaps a second edition like they’ve done with other classics like Drakon, Citadels and Cave Troll. The fact of the matter is a whole new generation of gamers would likely find much to enjoy here. Besides, there is no doubt that the game would benefit immensely by receiving Fantasy Flight’s latest chit production process which appears to interweave some sort of fabric into the cardboard, making the pieces both extremely durable and a joy to handle.
It’s getting more and more difficult to track down a copy of King’s Gate, but should you come across it in your gaming travels, it’s highly recommended light-hearted fun.
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