Coup D'Etat (2005)

Finalist for 2005 About.com Deduction Game Design Competition.

Secretly deploy the king, and all those who could become allied in a coup against him, including his wife, his son, two assassins, and countrymen of varied influence. In addition to all those people who will hold their posts, you openly deploy five mobile spies.

Your spies reveal to you the identity of the face-down character cards below them. You can permanently commit a spy in order to influence the character under the spy, so that character supports the coup against your opponent. If, instead, your spy is on one of your opponent's assassins, you may attempt an assassination (even on your own countryman), in the hopes of getting your opponent's king.

Even if you can't assassinate your opponent's king, you can still win the game by amassing 25 influence points in support of your coup against the opposing king. (The queen and prince are each worth 9, assassins are worthless, and the countrymen are worth 2 to 8 points.) If neither player can pull off an assassination or coup d'etat, the game is a draw.