Tudor and the Sweet Minis Add-on and the King Henry VIII miniature and the card booster pack!!!
Get all the Tudor Kickstarter goodness here!
[Quick up front note! Academy Games uses a Minimum Allowable Price (MAP) and as such I cannot sell the game for any less than it is listed here. In order to remain true to the MAP and to my goal of providing you games at the best prices possible… I am offering a $20 instant shipping credit and a $20 credit toward a future purchase when you buy this game. Shoot me an email and I’ll get you the details.]
The King will now hear your concerns…
Tudor is another solid release from the good folks over at Academy games. If you’d enjoy a light-medium Euro game that somehow packs tough decisions, strategic depth, and a serious dose of fun into 1.5 hours of non-tournament level gameplay… then Tudor definitely needs to be on your shelf!
I had a chance to play a full game with Uwe (Academy Games Front man, leader, maybe President? You get the idea…) and a good friend of mine at BGG CON in 2018. He taught us the game and we started playing just 60 minutes before the first security guard came by to toss us out of the exhibition area. They were trying to close down for the night.
Banking on the fact that the three of us could talk our way out of any situation (hahaha… unjustified Ego is the best…), we played along unhurried. And, in just about one hour and a little change, I handily crushed everyone! Oh wait… I mean, I had a really fun time playing this game with my friends. Honest!
Darn you EGO!
Theme…
In Tudor, players take on the role of Lords serving at the King’s pleasure in the court of King Henry VIII. Whether you and your Courtiers are presenting yourself in the Audience Chambers, or perhaps visiting the Court itself… all roads lead to prestige.
And it is this prestige that will win you the game… and a place amongst the highest pillars of the aristocracy for time immemorial.
Or at least until the fall of King Henry’s reign 😉
But hey, by then the game will be back safely on your shelf… and you’ll be enjoying a glass of red wine. I mean, if that’s your thing… ? And yes, it’s definitely my thing ?
Tasty inter-play variability baked right in! ?
Game length and bonus scoring for Tudor is determined by cards randomly selected at the start of each new game.
Scenario cards depict game length, the number of Courtiers placed into the audience chamber each round, and bonus actions taken in exchange for Influence and Intrigue tokens.
Two scoring cards determine end game bonuses that influence player strategy from game to game.
In short, there is a ton of inter-play variability built into Tudor right from the start. Or in common boardgame poarlance, “Tis game has a lot of replayability!” Hahaha… I’ll figure it all out some day.
Basic game play. Complete with flavor text!
During the game players send their Courtiers and Lords to the Audience chambers to take the main actions of the game. These actions affect other Courtiers movement through the actual King’s court; as they ascend the “columns” of power in hopes of holding the offices of the King.
Thematically, you send people to the audience chambers in an effort to influence the goings on of the court. Then you meander your way through the court’s political climes in an effort to reach a pinnacle Court station; for example, the Secretary of State. A brief chat here… a threat there… perhaps a fleeting partnership or a donation to the clergy. You get the idea.
If you ascend to one of these court offices, you will be given a new privilege ring which affords you ongoing bonuses throughout the rest of the game. Historically, I would guess these rings held a good deal of sway within the political circles of King Henry’s orbit ⚔️?
Multiple rounds. Five phases. Game ON!
Scenario cards tell you how many rounds will be played based on the number of players. Each round then consists of 5 phases. I’ll briefly review the phases and then give you a quick wrap up…
Chamber Assignment
Going in clockwise order, players place one Courtier on an assignment bench of their choice. These benches are located outside the Audience Chambers and so where you place your Courtier will depend on which Chamber you would like to enter. Each chamber has different action possibilities… you get the idea.
Chamber Entry
Adding a fun twist to the action selection set-up in Chamber Assignment, this phase finds the Couriers moving into the Audience chamber in the order they were placed amongst the Benches in phase 1.
If there aren’t enough chairs available, the Courtiers who are still hanging out here after the last round get pushed out of the Chamber and back to their player’s supply.
What is really cool about this phase is that if you enter a chamber on a given round, you will remain there after you complete your actions. On the next round, if no one pushes you out of the audience chamber, you will yet again carry out one of the actions of this chamber.
I love the unpredictable nature of this tiny piece of the game’s mechanics. It’s not random in that it totally depends on what you and the other players do in subsequent rounds. But then again, it is tricky to predict the actions of Lords trying to gain favor in the king’s court.
Nicely done… Nicely. Done. ?
Lord Placement
Now, once your Courtiers are in the Audience Chamber, they cannot take actions unless at least one player places their Lord in that chamber. In other words, there is the possibility that you placed your Courtier there for nothing!
Player note – do not enter a chamber by yourself unless you plan to place your Lord there. If your opponents can help facilitate a wasted Courtier placement on your part… well.. you know how it goes 😉
Audience Chamber Action
Now we go around the table with each player activating one Courtier/Lord from their team. After carrying out the chamber-specific actions (or perhaps one of the handful of bonus actions available to all players), it is the next players turn to perform a single action; and so on. Once all actions have been completed… we move along to the End of Round phase.
End of Round
Clean up. End of round Prestige is scored. Get back at it!
So what exactly happens during the action phase?
I won’t get into the details to heavily.. but suffice to say that from a large brush-stroke perspective, most actions involve either moving around the court or gaining benefits that will help you to move around the court.
Privilege Ring Enhancements
A really neat aspect to this game involves the placement of colored rings upon one’s hand. Admittedly if you have medium to large fingers, you will be placing these rings on the cardboard hand displayed in front of each player.
Mind you – in truth the rings should go on the display hand. But I must admit that I tried mightily to get these plastic rings to fit on my hand as I thought it would be cooler to, for example, rub my chin with the ring-laden hand while raising my eyebrow suspiciously.
I don’t get into LIT RPG, but I do love me a good theme immersion! ??
So anyway… after starting the game with two rings, players can gain additional rings by achieving political office or taking certain other actions. These rings can be arranged on the players hand in a variety of different patters. Each pattern has different bonus associated with it.
You wear one ring on your thumb and the other on your pinky, you say? Very well. You may effect movement with less restrictions when using Audience Chamber 1…
The different patterns of ring display range from requiring 1 – 3 rings, but if one was to achieve a ring on each of their 5 fingers, then they would automatically unlock every combination possible.
Bottom line on ring play
Crafty ring positioning allows a clever Lord or Lady to achieve multiple combinations simultaneously. Smell that puzzle-y goodness. Oh wait… that’s just a warm pretzel. Sorry.
When the game ends at the conclusion of the last round, prestige points are tallied for a variety of achievements, and a winner is crowned! Well, not crowned.. as Henry isn’t exactly stepping down.. but, you get the idea 😉
Parting thoughts…
This is a tremendously fun, medum-light Euro with some solid strategic depth and a clever theme that ties it all together. I am forever in search of another game that I can add to the “sweet Euro game that doesn’t always take 4 hours to play and will not result on total brain melt” section of my library.
Of course I do enjoy a solid brain-melter from time to time.
Phil Ekland I have a place in my heart for your games, my friend. But one must have balance… and so, the search for an engaging medium/light Euro must go on!
Anywho… Tudor scores a huge win in the non-brain-melter-but-still-strategically-deep-and-also-fun category for me, and is a game that consistently leaves me wanting to get it to the table again soon. I can’t say that for every game in my library… can you?
Snag a copy today and you’ll see what I mean. You won’t regret it…
Ages: | 12+ |
Players: | 2 – 4 |
Play Time: | 90 – 120 minutes |
Designer | Jan Kirschner |
Artist: | Dennis Lohausen |
Publisher: | La Boîte de Academy Games, Inc. |
SKU: | Academy Games 001 |
MSRP: |
Running at around $89-99 on eBay
from multiple sellers at the time of this
listing (MAY 2019). As noted above, since
I am held to the MAP agreement, I am
offering $20 shipping discount and a
$20 store credit to anyone who purchases
this game. Heck, if your shipping would have
been significantly less than $20, I’ll plus
up your store credit. Hope that seems fair ?
|
Our Price: | $96.00 |
Links to BGG: | Tudor |
So sorry... this game is SOLD OUT 😢
Description
Tudor with Kickstarter Stretch Goals and the Plastic Minis and the King Henry VIII mini is HERE!!! 😉 <inhale>
In Tudor, you are a Lord in the court of King Henry VIII. Here you will be positioning your Courtiers among the influential Lords who grant you actions that allow you to maneuver your family members to high title offices and gain their respective Rings of prestige and power.
Players take turns placing their Courtiers into the three Audience Chambers, each with unique actions. Then each player will place their one Lord in a Chamber of their choice. Only Courtiers in an Audience Chamber with any player’s Lord present will be able to use that Chamber’s actions.
But be careful, since there are only a limited number of seats available in each Chamber and competing families can push you out of a Chamber!
Then all player Courtiers, in Chambers with a Lord, take turns performing ONE of the two Actions in their Chambers. The powerful Lords may also take both actions in the Chamber they occupy. Chamber Actions allow you to gain Court Cards and to move your Courtiers in the Throne Room onto spaces with square Court Tokens that represent various faction interests and demands at the court.
You collect these Court Tokens, which are one way to gain Prestige at court.
When you reach the top space of a Court Office in the Royal Court, you will gain that title – represented by a Ring. A player’s Rings are placed and displayed on their individual Player Hand Screens.
Positioning your Rings on different fingers project your interests, intent, and inclinations to the other players, because different positions enhance specific Actions that your Courtiers take in the Audience Chambers!
You must always be vigilant, because other players can seize your Court Office, kicking your Office Holder out in disgrace and then taking one of YOUR Rings!
The player with the most prestige at game end wins!
In each game of Tudor, you will choose to play one of many scenario cards, each with their own special rules that can alter the game in dramatic ways. In addition, choose two different scoring cards to vary gameplay, creating a strategic experience with exceptional replayability.
—description from the publisher
Additional information
Weight | 6.6 lbs |
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Dimensions | 11.75 × 12.125 × 5.5 in |
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