Who doesn't love a good beheading? I know I certainly do, especially when its done for fun and laughs. In most places, beheadings are against the law. And besides that, they can be really messy. In order to avoid finding myself in jail or having to do lengthy cleanups on my apartment, I decided to buy Guillotine to satisfy my desire for decapitation. Will this game rise head and shoulders above the rest? I'm sticking my neck out on this one, but I will say yes, it certainly does.


Rules

Guillotine is a simple card game in which players are trying to collect points by killing off Nobles. To start the game, separate the cards into 2 decks: The Noble deck and the Action deck. Place the cardboard guillotine at one end of the table and deal out the top 12 cards of the Noble deck starting from the side away from the guillotine. Deal 5 Action cards to each player.

On a player's turn, they have the option of playing 1 Action card. Most of these cards deal with rearranging the line of Nobles in order to help you score the most points and to reduce the number of points your opponents can score. After playing an Action card, you will claim the Noble closest to the guillotine and place it face up in front of you. The player will then draw a card and pass the turn.

Once all the Nobles in line have been killed, the day(round) is over. Repeat this same process for 2 more days(rounds). At the end of the game, each player totals their score and the highest score wins.

Thats the long and short of how the game plays. The rules are incredibly simple which is usually a warning sign for me. I find that games with short rules frequently have a lot of ambiguity (most abstracts withstanding). While there are some rule questions which come up, most of them can simply be house-ruled or referenced here on the Geek. Since this is a light game, nothing should be taken too seriously anyway.


Components

Guillotine is a card game and as such the cards are the most important component. Aside from the cardboard guillotine, they're the only component in the box. The cards are normal playing card size and are made of a very similar card stock. The coating is an eggshell style and the paper seems to be of good thickness. My favorite thing about the cards is the artwork and graphic design. Since the game is set in the French Revolution, the general presentation of text and characters is appropriate. The cartoony artwork is terrific and serves the game well by keeping it light and fun. Marie Antoinette is a wonderful card and makes good use of the pastel shades of blue, green, purple, and red found throughout the game. One of my favorite cards is Spout of Blood which shows a woman in a purple dress about to get hit by a large spout of blood. The dark humor in this game is terrifically represented by the art and the effects of the cards.

As mentioned above, there is a small cardboard guillotine which comes in the box. It serves no real purpose besides dicating where the front of the line of Nobles is, but its thematically wonderful featuring an executioner in the same cartoony artwork as the cards.

The rules come on a small folded pamphlet and are really clear and easy to understand. You should be able to open the game and be playing in about 5 minutes.


Gameplay

Guillotine is a very light and fast game. On a player's turn, they are going to play a card, claim a Noble, and draw a card. Thats about it. There are decisions to be made, but its almost always quite obvious what the right choice is. While this may seem limiting, its not quite as simple as it sounds.

The game has a light set collection mechanic due to certain Action cards. Some of these cards stay in play throughout the game and offer bonuses in relation to collecting Nobles of certain colors. This adds an additional layer of strategy by forcing you to take extra considerations about your opponents' tactics. If you see them collecting a lot of a certain color, they may have a powerful multiplier in their hand, waiting for the final moment to play it.

There is a small "take that" factor inherent in the game as well. Several of the Nobles have negative scores so its in your best interest to make your opponents take these cards. Its also usually a good idea to try and move better Nobles away from where your opponent can grab them.

The first time new players join in, expect the game to drag just a bit because there is a fair bit of reading involved. Its not much, but its enought to slow the pace down just a bit. This will certainly pass as players become more and more familiar with the cards.

Guillotine can be quite chaotic in multi-player games but its also a lot fun. The game plays very fast with more players and scores tend to be quite a bit lower. The "take that" factor is reduced somewhat because there will be so many more options on how to change the line.


Compare it to...

The dark humor here makes me think of Gloom, but Guillotine is much lighter than that. Its a fast filler style game which could very easily take the place of For Sale or No Thanks! on certain nights of my gaming group. Its arguably less skillful than either of those but still provides a light way to kill some time.


Overall

I like Guillotine quite a lot. While its not the head of the class in the filler category, it has quite a head start over a lot of other games. If played with the right crowd, this could make a lot of headway as a gateway game so long as nobody is put off by the theme. The easy rules and fast gameplay make in an excellent choice for a gateway game or as a filler between heavier games.

I rate Guillotine 7.5/10 which according to my ranking of filler games is really quite good. The game is fast and fun and has really nice cards. I love the dark humor and the theme which helps put this one ahead of a lot of similar games. The card quality is terrific and the artwork and graphic design make it that much better. Just a head's up, this game is now out of print and I doubt Wizards of the Coast will print it again. I highly recommend you pick this game up while its still readily available. As a matter of fact, I'll race you to the FLGS. Heck, I'll even give you a head start.