Board Games | Recommended Games

You are head of a family in an Italian city-state, a city run by a weak and corrupt court. You need to manipulate, bluff and bribe your way to power. Your object is to destroy the influence of all the other families, forcing them into exile. Only one family will survive... In Coup, you want to be the last player with influence in the game, with influence being represented by face-down character cards in your playing area. Each player starts the game with two coins and two influence – i.e., two face-down character cards; the fifteen card deck consists of three copies of five different characters, each with a unique set of powers: Duke: Take three coins from the treasury. Block someone from taking foreign aid. Assassin: Pay three coins and try to assassinate another player's character. Contessa: Block an assassination attempt against yourself. Captain: Take two coins from another player, or block someone from stealing coins from you. Ambassador: Draw two character cards from the Court (the deck), choose which (if any) to exchange with your face-down characters, then return two. Block someone from stealing coins from you. On your turn, you can take any of the actions listed above, regardless of which characters you actually have in front of you, or you can take one of three other actions: Income: Take one coin from the treasury. Foreign aid: Take two coins from the treasury. Coup: Pay seven coins and launch a coup against an opponent, forcing that player to lose an influence. (If you have ten coins or more, you must take this action.) When you take one of the character actions – whether actively on your turn, or defensively in response to someone else's action – that character's action automatically succeeds unless an opponent challenges you. In this case, if you can't (or don't) reveal the appropriate character, you lose an influence, turning one of your characters face-up. Face-up characters cannot be used, and if both of your characters are face-up, you're out of the game. If you do have the character in question and choose to reveal it, the opponent loses an influence, then you shuffle that character into the deck and draw a new one, perhaps getting the same character again and perhaps not. The last player to still have influence – that is, a face-down character – wins the game! A new & optional character called the Inquisitor has been added (currently, the only English edition with the Inquisitor included is the Kickstarter Version from Indie Boards & Cards. Copies in stores may not be the Kickstarter versions and may only be the base game). The Inquisitor character cards may be used to replace the Ambassador cards. Inquisitor: Draw one character card from the Court deck and choose whether or not to exchange it with one of your face-down characters. OR Force an opponent to show you one of their character cards (their choice which). If you wish it, you may then force them to draw a new card from the Court deck. They then shuffle the old card into the Court deck. Block someone from stealing coins from you.

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My personal favorite game, Codenames is a team based word game that puts 2 teams against each other in a race to guess all their secret words. Each team designates a player to be their clue giver, and that person can only give one word clues to their team about which word on the grid they need to guess. The game asks players to think critically, because if they guess the wrong word, it could end the game for them immediately. The game is perfect for experienced word game enjoyers, or a casual game night with friends.                                                                                     - Pat (Guild Service Representative) Codenames is an easy party game to solve puzzles.The game is divided into red and blue, each side has a team leader, the team leader's goal is to lead their team to the final victory.At the beginning of the game, there will be 25 cards on the table with different words. Each card has a corresponding position, representing different colors.Only the team leader can see the color of the card. The team leader should prompt according to the words, let his team members find out the cards of their corresponding colors, and find out all the cards of their own colors to win.

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