Review of the board game 'Courtisan' where you earn points with luck and strategy and win the queen's favor

' Courtisan ' is a game in which you earn points by using cards called 'courtis' to raise or lower the status of the six 'houses' that have gathered at the Queen's table. You can earn points by collecting courtiers from a reputable house, but one of the game rules is to 'push courtiers onto other players,' and one of the fun things about it is that you can be forced to collect courtiers with a bad reputation, which can lower your points. Hobby Japan provided me with this version of Courtisan, so I actually tried playing it.

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Inside was a game mat, cards, and instructions.

There are two types of cards: 'Secret Mission Cards' and 'Courtier Cards'. Below is a 'Secret Mission Card', and each card has a different goal. If you achieve one goal, you get 3 points. There are two colors, white and green, and each player is dealt one of each color, for a total of two cards.

These are 'courtier cards.' Courtier cards are exchanged between players during the game.

Some courtier cards have special symbols on the four corners, and cards with symbols are treated as 'role cards'. The cards with 'x2' written below are 'nobles' and are always counted as two courtier cards.

Below is the game mat, which is also called the 'Queen's Table' during the game. The six courtiers sitting on either side of the queen in the center are set to represent their respective 'houses', and from the left, they are assigned symbols of butterflies, frogs, birds, and rabbits, deer, and fish, skipping the queen.

Let's set it up. This time we're playing with four people. First, we randomly remove the courtier cards according to the number of players. Courtisan can be played by two to five people, but if there are two players, we remove 30 courtier cards, if there are three players, we remove 18 cards, if there are four players, we remove six cards and put them back in the box. If there are five players, we do nothing and use all 90 courtier cards.

Next, set up the Queen's dining table in the center of the table.

Shuffle the Courtier cards face down and deal 3 to each player. Place the remaining Courtier cards face down on the game mat next to them and use them as your deck.

Finally, one white and one green secret mission card is dealt face down to each player. This completes the setup. Each player checks the face-up side of the courtier card and secret mission card they were dealt, decides the starting player, and starts the game.

The flow of a Courtisan game is as follows:
When it is a player's turn, they place three courtier cards in each of the three areas: 'Queen's table,' 'in front of themselves,' and 'in front of one of the opposing players.'
Draw 3 Courtier cards from the deck
- Pass the turn to the next player

Let's actually play. The first thing the first player does is to 'place it on the Queen's table.' When placing a courtier card on the Queen's table, you basically need to place the card on the 'upper' or 'lower' side of the same house as the courtier card.

At the end of the game, if the number of cards on the Queen's table exceeds the number of cards on the table, the house is considered ' favored '; if the number of cards on the table is greater than the number of cards on the table, the house is considered ' disfavored .'

If we count the nobles as well, the count at the end of the game will look like this. The white 'Butterfly' family on the far left has two cards on top and one on the bottom, so they are considered favored. The red 'Bird' family, second from the left, has two cards on top and two on bottom, but has one 'Noble' on the bottom, so it counts as three cards in total, which has incurred their displeasure. The 'Fish' family on the far right, with the same number of cards on top and bottom, is neutral.

Next, the first player placed a courtier card in front of himself. The cards placed in front of him will be points at the end of the game, and if the courtier card of a favored house is a plus 1 point, if the courtier card of a disliked house is a minus 1 point. In other words, it is necessary to manipulate the reputation of the house in the 'Place on the Queen's Table' phase, and to line up courtier cards of houses that are likely to have a high reputation in front of you.

In addition, you must also be aware of the conditions of the 'Secret Mission Card' that was dealt to the first player. The contents of the Secret Mission card that was dealt to the first player were 'Make sure that the player to your left has more 'Deer' courtier cards than you' and 'Make sure that there is at least one card from each house on the bottom of the mat.'

To achieve this condition, the first player placed a 'Deer' courtier card in front of the player to his left.

After placing one courtier card in each of the three areas, the first player draws three cards from the deck and ends their turn. This process is repeated until the deck runs out and all players have placed their courtier cards, at which point the game ends.

There are other courtier cards besides 'Noble'. Below is the 'Spy', which must be kept face down when placed in the area.

When placing them on the Queen's table, place them above or below the Queen's seat in the center, and at the end of the game, turn them face up and place them back on their correct seats. When they are replaced, the top and bottom positions do not change.

When you place it in front of you, it should also be face down.

Below is one of the courtier cards, 'Assassin'. A player who places an assassin in one of the areas can choose one courtier card in the same area and eliminate it. The eliminated card is removed from the game.

This is a 'guard' card that cannot be assassinated by assassins. Its effect is simple, but it is the only courtier card that cannot be removed, so it is one of the strategically important cards, as it shows the intention of 'definitely incurring the displeasure of this house' by placing it under the Queen's dining table, or it can push the guard of a house that is likely to incur displeasure onto someone else. There are five types of courtier cards: normal cards, nobles, spies, assassins, and guards.

In Courtisan, all players collect courtier cards while affecting the reputation of their house, but early in the game it is very difficult to predict which house will have a bad reputation.

In such a case, you can use the 'Secret Mission Card' as an indicator to solidify the direction of play. The first player drew a secret mission card that said 'Make sure that at least one card from each house is placed on the bottom of the mat,' so for the time being, he played with the goal of placing a courtier card on the bottom of all the houses, and successfully earned 3 points.

Some players tried to control the reputation by placing multiple 'spies' on the Queen's table. Only the 'person who placed it' knows what the spy is until the end, so the more spies you place, the easier it is to predict the reputation. However, this player had other people placing spies before him, so in the end, the outcome of the game was unclear until the end.

In the end, the reputation of each family was as follows: Frog, Bird, and Fish were 'neutral,' while Butterfly and Deer were the only two that were favored. The Yellow Rabbit family was disliked.

Players' scores range from 4 to 9 points. One player who got 9 points had collected 7 courtier cards from the 'Large House', which had a high reputation from the beginning. The 'Large House' was one of the houses with almost no cards placed on the unpopular side, probably because all players thought that the house 'should be high'. A player who sensed that their reputation was likely to improve collected courtier cards and tied for first place. A player who tried to control the field with a spy only got 3 points from the courtier cards, but earned points by clearing both secret mission cards, and also got 9 points.

The Secret Mission cards have the perfect level of content that makes you think 'I could clear it on my own if I try hard enough,' so I definitely want to clear it, but even if you get all the Secret Mission cards, you only get 6 points, so in the end you have to collect the Courtier cards, which is a dilemma. However, even if you collect cards of houses with a good reputation, you are always worried that 'what if my reputation gets bad at the last minute and all my cards go negative?', so it seems to depend quite a bit on luck.

The overall rules of Courtisan are quite simple, and you can understand them immediately after playing once. Although it is a game that involves a lot of frustration in not being able to grasp other people's goals and card luck, it is not completely dependent on luck, and a certain degree of strategy is also required, making it a game design that makes you want to play it over and over again to try out different strategies. The rules are also very simple and easy to understand, and even if it seems like you are getting in the way of your opponent at first glance, it may not actually be the case, so the stress is low. In addition, the box to carry it in is small and compact, the components are generally of high quality, and the cards are foil stamped, so the overall level of completion is quite high.

'Courtizan' is sold on Amazon.co.jp for 4,000 yen (tax included).

Amazon.co.jp: Hobby Japan Courtisan Japanese Version (2-5 players, 20 minutes, ages 8 and up) Board Game: Toys