Components: The game board is made up of 12 double sided square cardboard tiles. Both sides are used during the game, and each side has a picture depicting a person from the court of Louis XIV. Those familiar with history or art history are likely to recognize at least some of the pictures as they are taken from portraits of the actual persons. Also included on each card are the rewards and requirements in terms of influence markers for attaining their support. The requirements are different on the 2 sides of the cards.
An example of one of the board pieces.
Other pieces include influence markers, mission cards, influence cards, intrigue cards, gold cards, shields, hexagonal favor markers, money, and a cardboard figure for Louis and the palace. Each of 4 colors is provided with 16 colored wooden markers to use as influence markers. Each card type has a different back. The influence and intrigue cards have the pictures of the person whom they affect as well as the number of the board. Mission cards are divided into 3 different classes, easy, medium, and hard, which are indicated by the shade of blue on the back of the card. The shield tokens are small cardboard chits with a picture of a simple coat of arms on one side.
All pieces are language independent once players are familiar with the symbols. Overall, the game is very nice to look at, but I would like a board to hold all of the pieces in place. Some members of BGG have made such boards, and the added expense of the boards would deter some people from buying the game. Since it is not necessary with the modular set-up, I understand why one was not included, but I can still dream.
The image depicts the modular board set up with the starting positions for a four player game, with the blue player going first.
Setup: The board is arranged starting with tile 1 and continuing placing the tiles diagonal to each other in a clockwise manner. Each set of cards is shuffled separately, including the three different difficulties of mission cards. The shield tokens are placed face down and mixed.
Each player chooses a color and takes corresponding markers. A starting player, who takes the palace figure, is chosen, and each player places the appropriate amount of markers into the general supply for their color within one of the spaces created within the modular board shown above. Each player starts with 5 gold, 1 easy mission, and 1 medium mission.
Game Play: The game is divided into 4 rounds of 4 phases each.
1. Supply phase: in which players replenish their abilities to influence the various member of the court. The top gold card is flipped over, and players receive the gold indicated on the card and the Louis figure is placed on indicated board (numbers 1-4). Five influence cards are dealt to each player. If missions have been completed (rounds 2-4) that indicate a bonus can be taken in the supply phase, players collect the indicated bonus.
2. Influence phase: in which players gallivant through the court to influence those close to his Majesty. Completed missions that are used during the influence phase are activated at the appropriate time (beginning, during card play, or end). In this phase, players play influence cards to either take influence markers from their general supply or play influence markers onto the board from their personal supply, located in front of each player. Influence cards come in two varieties: jokers which have curtains covering the picture and people (as above) which indicate a specific person. On a players turn, the player plays a single influence card to the center. If the card is a person, the player may either move up to 3 influence markers from their general supply to their personal supply or play up to 3 influence markers starting at the indicated board. When playing the markers, the markers placed on a board can be redistributed to a neighboring board, but at least one marker must remain on the initial board. If the player so chooses and 2 markers were moved to the second board, the third marker can be moved to a third board diagonal from the second board. If a joker is played, the player may move up to 2 influence markers from their general to their personal supply or play up to 2 markers starting at any position on the board.
Play continues from the starting player clockwise. Once a player plays their second to last card, the player discards their last card without drawing or playing influence markers, and they are finished for that round. All other players continue until all players have discarded their last card.
At the end of this phase, the played influence cards are shuffled along with those that were not used.
3. Scoring phase: in which it is decided who gained favor over the various nobles. Starting with board 1, the victory conditions for the board are checked and the winners of the board are determined. The 3 victory conditions are most on the board, most on the board with a possible bride, and at least a certain number of markers on the board. If a player chooses to play influence cards, they do so when the appropriate boards are being scored. The player plays either two influence markers from their personal supply on the indicated board or one marker from their general supply. Boards are scored in numeric order until all boards are scored.
For those boards where the reward goes to anyone with a minimum number of markers on the board, all players with the required markers gain the reward and move the markers from that board into their general supply. Any player not getting the reward returns markers on the board to their personal supply. As long as at least one player wins the reward for the card, the card is flipped for the next round.
For the boards where players need to have the most to win, the player with the most collects the reward and returns their markers to the general supply, and the board is flipped. All other players return markers to their personal supply. If there is a possible bride, those players that wish to and have at least 1 marker on the board may pay the indicated number of Louisdor (money) to obtain the reward. If there is a tie, no one wins the board and the board is not flipped.
The board with Louis on it provides the winner of the board with a bonus crown marker. The player who comes in second on this board receives the marker indicated on the board, but they still return markers to their personal supply. All other players follow the normal rules. If there is a tie for first, those players who are tied receive only the marker for the board and not a crown marker. If there is a tie for second, those who are tied receive no marker.
Players with completed missions that affect the scoring phase (win a tie or reduce the bribe) use their mission abilities at the appropriate times.
4. Mission phase: in which player complete and draw new missions. Starting with the player with the palace marker, players are allowed to complete missions. The easy missions take one specific favor and any other favor. Medium missions require two different specific favors. Hard missions (indicated above) require two of the same specific favor In all cases, crown tiles are used as wilds. Each player in turn completes as many missions as the can. Once they complete one mission, they can draw another mission of any difficulty they choose, but they may not discard missions they do not like unless they have a mission completed that allows them to do so. Play continues in clockwise order until all players have been allowed to complete their missions. If a player has more than one favor remaining, they must discard until they only have one. For each tile discarded, the player draws a single shield tile.
At the end of the four phases, the palace figure is moved one player clockwise.
Special rule for 3 players: The player who goes first in the last round draws an influence card at the beginning of the last round.
Special rules for 2 players: During the set-up phase, eight influence markers for a dummy player are placed on the board: 2 on the board with Louis and 2 each on the boards indicated by the first 3 draws of cards from the influence deck which have persons on them. During the scoring phase, if the dummy wins a board, the board is not flipped.
End of the Game: The game ends at the end of round 4. At that time, each influence marker played on the board, influence or intrigue card in hand, unplayed favor, and 2 Louisdor are converted to shield tokens. Each player flips over their shield tokens. The player with the most of each type of token is given a bonus shield token, but no bonus is given for the blank tokens.
Each completed mission counts as 5 points. Each shield token counts as 1 point. The player with the most points wins. Ties are broken by the player who has the most influence markers in their personal supply.
Explaining the Game: This game has a lot of moving parts and can be difficult to explain. It is important not to overwhelm the new player.
As always, I start with a brief description of the theme and the goals of the game, then I move into the various pieces that are involved in the game. It is important that they understand what each piece is for and when it is used, so I try to make sure that at this point everyone knows what each piece looks like.
Next I go over the game play as described above. One of the most difficult things for players to understand is the difference between the personal and general supply. This is best described while going through the influence phase and showing how only those markers in the personal supply in front of a player can be used to influence the court, but some influence must be gained, like political capitol, by discarding influence cards.
Also during the influence phase, players need to know how they are allowed place markers then move them to adjacent boards. I use a number of different visual examples of this, but they generally follow the examples shown in the rules.
New players must also understand the importance of completing missions and how to gain the favors necessary to complete missions. To accomplish this, when going through the missions, I show the benefits that the missions can give to each player along with the different difficulty levels on the card. At this time, I once again go through where favors can be obtained, and the combinations necessary for completing missions.
In the end, I make sure players know that it will be a combination of missions and shields that will win the game. Players must get shields cheaply where they can, but missions are important to complete since they are worth 5 points and provide abilities to make things easier later in the game.
Conclusions: Louis XIV is a great area control game where players fight favors to become leaders in the courts of the Sun King. The game plays much quicker than the 100 minutes listed, and I have time in 100 minutes to both explain the game and play. With experienced players, this can easily take as little at 30-40 minutes including set-up time.
That being said, the game does have many moving parts, and the bits are frequently moving back and forth. The fiddliness of the game may deter some people, but it really should not. While there are many moving parts in the game, the board is designed to have destinations and areas for each of the pieces, and the positions are important for knowing what resources are available.
The game was truly designed to be played as a 4 player game. Adjustments have been made to expand the player range to 2-4 players, but the game is still best with 4 players. In the 3 player game, the disadvantage of going first twice by one player is offset by the bonus influence card. We still think this is a meager compensation, but we have not come up with anything better. The dummy player in the 2 player game increases the cost of some of the positions and is designed to make the influence and scoring phases more competitive. For those who do not like playing with dummy players, the 2 player game is not for you.
Despite the high metal input and planning that goes into the game, many people complain that the outcome is still highly luck-driven. Luck is introduced into the game in the missions and shields that are drawn. Much of the luck involved with the mission draw is reduced by dividing the missions into 3 difficulties, which players can choose from, but there are still some missions that are more useful than others. My belief is that part of the game is working with the missions that are drawn to maximize utility. Thus, the luck from the draw of the mission cards is decreased, and part of it is simply dealing with what the game presents.
The luck involved with the shields is a bigger problem. The bonuses given to the player with the most of each type of mission will reward players with skewed distributions in the tile draw. While this does have an effect on the game, I believe this is necessary to reward those players that receive many shield chips. The difference in scoring between missions and shields is partially offset by the bonuses, but these bonuses are small and generally go to players who have many shield tokens.
Overall, I think the game is a lot of fun. I think the luck adds to the game by giving players different circumstances to deal with and increasing replayabililty. Some players have mentioned that a game with less luck that is similar may be Mykerinos for the luck averse, but I haven’t played it so I cannot give a firm recommendation for it. I play Louis frequently with 2 or 3 players despite my preference for the 4 player game.
Rating by Number of Players:
2: 7
3: 7
4: 9
Posted Tue Oct 2, 2007 7:23 pm