Politico is a newer game, just came out last year, and the first game from Small Box Games. My group has found this game to be a lot of fun, and 70 games later we are still loving it and wanting to play more. The fact that everyone we have played it with wants to play another game right away and almost all said they wanted to get the game for themselves speaks volumes for how fun this game it.

Components: The game comes with easy to stack tokens in 4 colors ( representing the: Guild, Merchants, Clergy , & Peasants ). You have 3 types of cards along with a very short and easy to understand set of rules. For me personally I would have liked to see the rules be just a tad bit bigger for easy reading for us older people. But to be fair they fit in the box perfect and they are not that small that it is a pain to read them, I just like bigger print as I get older. The cards are very nice, but John ( the designer ) mentioned that this being his first game the printer did not do a great job for him and the ink will come off the cards. I had read about the problem and wrote John asking if he could get me card sleeves since I live in the middle of the forest in Costa Rica - he was more then happy to pick them up for me and ship them along with the game. Also one of the colors was printed a little off from what John wanted it to be, but not much of an issue really ( the back ground on the card does not match the tokens of the same color - not much of an issue but the first game or two for non-gamers it is something they have to pay attention to more then if the colors where matched ). The 3 types of cards are 1.) your action cards ( you have a either a hand shake between 2 hands or a hand holding cards ), which let you decide if you want to get people ( tokens ) or actions ( getting or playing cards ) that round 2.) class cards - each round a new class card it turned over ( same classes as the tokens ) 3.) Influence cards - these are what you can pick up as an action or play during your turn. These are fun and make the game interesting to say the least! I feel there are enough influence cards, but I would love to see a expansion deck that gave us even more influence cards.
All this in a very small box, living in Costa Rica I love a great game with a small box that can be shipped for a decent price - keep up the great work in small boxes is all I can say! Also I think having a small game that can be carried around easily makes a big difference in how much I will play this game. I put it in a bag and bring it to the gardens with me to play a game with the volunteers, I couldn't do that with most of the games I own so this one gets a lot of playing time being so small and easy to carry around.


How it is Played: The game is pretty simple to master after just a game or 2, we had a few questions and made a couple of simple mistakes at the start, but we figured it all out pretty quickly. A great part of BGG is that the questions I did have got answered very quickly here by John himself or one of his play testers, so that makes it a joy to own ( designers giving tips and answering questions just rocks IMO ). We didn't really miss any rules, we just played a few of the influence cards wrong.
So each person get 1 of each of the 2 action cards ( 1 has 2 hands shaking on it, the other is a hand holding cards ) and the extra action cards are set aside ( this is for 3-5 people, in the 2 person game you actually use the extra action cards - but more on that later ).
So the idea behind the game is that the King is dying and the siblings are all fighting to get to be the next king! But they must get enough support from all 4 factions that hold power in the kingdom ( the first to get 13 tokens with at least 1 token from each faction wins ).
So the oldest person gets to go first ( which is a neat rule for the theme, but we change it up since I don't want to go first every single game - we played 11 games the first day and so you want to mix up who goes first when playing a lot ) and turns over a Class card ( lets say it is a merchant ). Now everyone gets ready to lay one of their actions cards down. If you choose the hand shake then you get to pick up tokens from the merchant pile ( you could also play a merchant influence card verses getting another token), if you choose the hand holding cards you get actions ( either picking up influence cards, playing influence cards, or both, and you could trade in a merchant influence card for a merchant as a 3rd option ). So that is one round, everyone decides what action card to play after seeing the class card that is turned over this round. You get 1 card or action for your card and an additional card or action for every action card that is different then yours ( so in a 3 player game If choose to get tokens and the other 2 players choose to get actions then I get 3 tokens and the other 2 players get 2 actions { I get an extra token because both of the other guys played different action cards then me, the other 2 guys only get an extra action for my card being different then theirs ). I really like this aspect of the game and it goes along way to the thinking part of it. You are playing against the cards but also against the other people and trying to decide what they will play.
The influence cards add a whole lot of fun to the game. There are cards for every faction and the guild cards are the really good ones that let you steal other peoples tokens ( so we have found these are sometimes really good to save till near the end, and then you can win the game by using them ), the clergy has only one card - the Inquisition - which is great one if one of the other guys gets a whole lot of one kind of token. The merchant cards are fun and can gain you extra actions or make other players put back the tokens they have gotten this round. The Peasants have the weakest cards in a lot of ways ( and the most cards ) but they can make a huge difference in the game. Most of these cards are to change a token from one faction to the other ( I will turn your only clergy token into a peasant, or one of my peasants into a guild member ).

It is a pretty fast moving game with a lot more depth then I thought possible for such a simple game. With the 3 person game you don't always have enough time to really think about your turn in depth. With 4 people it feels like the perfect amount of time to decide, and with 5 people we found there was a little bit of down time and the game can take a really long time since you have so many people screwing the guy in the lead that it can be hard to win it with so many people out to take you down.

When someone gets around 8-10 tokens you have to really pay attention to taking them down a notch with the influence cards, or it will be to late and you lose the game. I found that you really need to keep track of your tokens but also everyone elses tokens or you can space out for a round near the end and then realize to late that the other guy is about to win and there is nothing you can do about it.
I have played with people who love stacking the tokens in odd ways and are trying to hide their one clergy at the bottom or make tall stacks of tokens that are hard to count - I have reached over and made the stacks smaller to make sure I counted how many they have right ( and which types if they are hiding some - Ok not really hiding, but concealing the best they can ). We have found that stacks of 3 work well for everyone to be able to count what the other guy has to work nicely for our groups.


There is a lot of luck in this game, in the form of what influence cards you get. In a 2 person game this is a bigger deal since you are the only one blocking the other guy from winning, with more people it is less of an issue since you have 2 or more ganging up on the leader. There is also a lot of skill in the game, by knowing when to play a certain card or when to save it for later. 70 games later and I am still finding new things out and learning to play better all along.
The game plays fast, although being the real gamer in most groups I play with I like to keep the tempo for the game and make it move along faster. When deciding what action card to play there can be a lot of wasted time, where I am the guy going ( 1, 2, 2 1/2 { if someone is not ready but close }, 3 - and we all lay down our action cards face up ) - having someone do this will keep the game moving along a lot faster. With more plays you get the groove going and it moves along, but again having someone set the pace will make for a much faster game and the more you play the quicker the choices come ( but even after 70+ games it still takes some time to think of the choices and try and figure out what the other guy will be playing and what is your best option).

2 player game; 5-10 minutes
3-4 people - 12-20 (25 ) minutes
5 people - a longer game up to 1/2 an hour or more. I think our longest was around 35 or 40 minutes.

A big thing with this game is to pay attention to who is going to go first next round, since they get first dibs at getting getting guys or taking actions. It is always a bummer when you realize to late that your friend gets to go first this round and he will win by just playing a hand shake action card and picking up a token or 2 ( when people are paying attention to the wrong guy or to their own stack of tokens this can happen very easily. I have seen games where someone wins because the other people didn't realize how close the other guy was to winning and played a hand holding cards action card- thus giving the guy who played the hand shake card an extra guy which is enough for that person to win it { if that person would have played a hand shake action card also then the other guy would not have won and the other players would have another round to try and stop the leader from winning }).



Theme: I think the theme fits this game perfectly. When you get 3 pr 4 people there is a lot of backstabbing and it feels like a big family feud. Who ever is in the lead gets picked on ( attacked? ) by the other players. Coming from a family of 5 kids I can tell you that this is a lot like a family fighting for something that everyone wants. We had a couple play it that really loved it. It was funny to see them progress in the game. At first the girl would not play influence cards on her boyfriend, then when he had to play one on her to stop her from winning the glares and comments started to come out. She was not happy and then realized she needed to play to win and to play influence cards on her boyfriend also. It was a lot of fun seeing her change into a gamer who wanted to win and was willing to stab her boyfriend in the back. They exchanged a few words and it looked a little ugly at first, but they where good gamers and dropped it after the game. But this is one where you can take it personally if you want - we had a guy play influence cards on the people who screwed him with their cards verses playing his influence cards on the guy in the lead ( It is great to hear someone say , so your calling me a Liar in front of my people huh - take this you lying dog ).
I have read other reviews that said the theme was generic, but I did not get that feel at all, I wonder if these people played enough games to get the feel and if they played with 4 or 5 people. I have found the more people the better the theme plays out, IMO. I can see the theme not shining though in the 2 person game as much, but get a few people around the table and the gloves are put on to see who till be the next king.




Personal Perspective: I rated it an 9 over all ( I think I would go 7.5 for the 2 person version ). I think this is in part because it plays best with 3 or 4 people. 2 people it is still a really fun game ( he has a 2 person rule to use the extra action cards in there so you get more influence cards and you are choosing your action card based on having a third action card already shown to the players, this leads to a neat aspect of the 2 person game and gives it a lot more strategy). We played a few 5 person games and it was a little to long for us, but still fun. It was a challenge to try and win when so many people are out to get you - which is a good thing.
Everyone we have played with so far ( around 10 people including my wife and I ) loves it and wants to play another game right away - which to me is the biggest factor when rating a game. It has not even got close to being stale for us , which is another great sign of a good solid fun game.

My wife loves to play it so that makes it an even better game in my eyes.

It is a light game, a great filler till the whole crew shows up, or for us we have found it a great light game to end the night on!

Keep your eyes out For John and Small Box Games next 2 games that are coming out this week:

Elemental Rift - http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/35040

Temple - http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/35039

Hope you enjoyed the review!
Hendal