Game: Bacchus' Banquet

Thread: Join the party - My thoughts on Bacchus' Banquet

pezpimp — 2008-08-20T21:07:01+00:00

Bacchus' Banquet (2008)
Designer: Frederic Moyersoen
Publisher: Mayfair Games
Players: 3-5
Time: 30 - 45 minutes

Intro

A wicked party has begun, full of food, wine and poison!

Gameplay

In Bacchus' Banquet, you have been invited to a party and must try and win the party by completing the goal indicated in the game. The guest of honor is Caligula and the other guys are either trying to kill him, collect gifts or just eat and drink.

The goal of the game is to arrive at the pre-stated goal during the party. The goals are as follows:

* Caligula: Either eat 2 dishes and 5 points of wine or kill three people
* Cassius, Octavius and Septimus: Kill Caligula or have three daggers appear in play
* Caesonia and Agrippina: Collect three presents
* Claudius: Eat three dishes and three points of wine
* Messaline: Eat four dishes and one point of wine
* Vespasianus: Eat five dishes

Each player is handed out a character card. Of the nine characters Caligula is always in play and the remaining players (2 to 4 others) each get a character in secret. The player with the Caligula card shows his character to everyone, while the others stay hidden. Each player also receives one privilege card, except for Caligula who gets two (see below) and everyone sets their belt buckle to zero on their player board.

The starting player (Caligula), selects from the seven face up action cards laid in the middle of the board. The cards will consist of food, wine, poison, presents, daggers, activities and special cards. Depending on the players goals (i.e. which character they are) they select their three cards. One card is placed in front of the active player, the card they will keep, one is discarded and one is passed to another player (the gift card). The keep card will have to be applied to the active player, the discard will be thrown away and the gift will be applied to the player that accepts it.

If you are given a gift card, you must chose to either accept it without looking, or pass it on. You cannot pass it back to the player who gifted it to you, but you may pass it to any player who has not been offered it yet this turn. If all players have been offered it, you may pass it back to the original player, the active player). Whoever accepts the gift, will have it applied to them and becomes the active player. If everyone refuses it, it goes back to the active player and they must accept it.

Once the gift card is accepted (either by choice or by force to the active player), all three cards are revealed. The gift applies to the person who accepted it, while the keep cards is applied to the active player and the discard is simply shown and discarded. The cards have a variety of effects. Food cards all have a value and increase your belt by that amount. Wine cards have the same effect as food, but generally for lower values. Gifts have no effect but are simply kept next to the player, same for daggers. Any special cards will describe what they do. The special cards include the Food Taster who can prevent you from eating a dish, the Umbra who can cancel the effects of any card and the Hymn to Bacchus which makes all players drink with you and increase their buckle by one. The special cards are kept and used when desired.

Now based on your stated goal, you may want food, you may want gifts or you may want to kill people. To kill someone, you must make their buckle go over ten. Poison is especially good since it has very high values when accepted. Once all three cards have been revealed and the gift and keep cards applied to the respective party, the three missing cards are replaced and the player who had the gift card apply to them, is now the active player.

The process thus begins again with the new active player choosing three cards, discarding one, keeping one and gifting one. This goes on until one player meets their goal, in which case they simply declare victory. Cassius, Octavius and Septimus declare victory together once Caligula is dead or three daggers are on the board.

Should you die before someone wins, you simply draw another card and play as that individual. You can keep your privilege card if you still have it, but if you used it, you do not get a new one. If Caligula dies, yet no one was Cassius, Octavius or Septimus, then they are removed from the draw pile before a new card is given to the Caligula player.

The privilege cards can be played at any time and allow you to alter the game and card passing, they include:

* Claim: You may take and accept (unseen) either of the two cards indicated on the card. You must then apply the effects to yourself;
* Exchange: Swap two cards in the positions indicated. Then resolve the cards normally;
* Give Back: When a player gives you a gift card, you immediately give it back to them and they must apply it to themselves;
* Special Gift: When given a card, you immediately give it to another player who must accept it. You may give this gift to the active player or to someone who was already offered it.

Strategy/Comments

Many people compare this to Bang! And it definitely has some similarities. The main goal is to reach your specified winning condition, but at the same time, you need to be sure that no one else reaches theirs. At first, you would think it is easy to determine who is who and I guess if you really pay attention, you can, but the better players will hide it better. At one point, people cannot hide it anymore as they try harder to reach their goal since others are also getting close.

Some goals are harder to do, such as killing off others, since no one wants to die otherwise they will have to start over. For Caligula, the best bet is to go for the two dishes and five points of wine. Same for the conspirators, who are much better off trying to get the three daggers since they only need to be in play (accepted by anyone). Even killing Caligula may prove difficult since you also do not want to give him his wining conditions by feeding him. Selecting a dagger during a round almost ensures that it will be out it play if no one uses their privilege card. This also makes it obvious that you are a conspirator if you do not discard the dagger, but this may be a good idea since if there are other conspirators, you can now work together. Being two trying to obtain the goal is much easier. Since there can only be a max of five players, having 2 conspirators is a little of a disadvantage to all others who will be working alone.

The catch of having to accept a gift to be the active player makes it so that you cannot just pass on the cards all the time, which would really suck if the start player simply rotated. Generally, you need to try and become active when there are cards you need on the table and it may even help you to pass on a card if you are trying to kill others and you suspect that food with a high value is being passed along. Also, if you see someone else almost at their goal (based on your suspicions) you may want to chose the card they need when you are the active player and discard it. Not only do you need to win, but you must prevent others from winning.

Another nice rule is that if everyone rejects your gift, you get it. This may prevent you from obviously trying to kill off others. This is not a problem for the dagger cards however since they only have to be in play, another advantage to the conspirators.

Since the cards that are not drawn remain in play, you can be patient and wait for the right time to accept a gift, but again, ensure that no one else wins and that no one knows what you want since they may discard it.

One final thing I like is that if you die, you are not out, which is often a problem with these types of games. But the problem is not that simple, since once you die, it would be very hard to win since you have to start over and you tend to die later on in the game. Now you become more of a king maker or an obsolete character. If you happen to draw a conspirator and there are two daggers in play, then you just got really lucky.

It seems the game plays almost individually with people just trying to make their goal and not many people trying to kill others or determine who is who. Only after some time do you really need to look around and see what others are doing to ensure no one is close to winning. Also, it is often very hard to stop someone from winning. You only get one privilege card and it cannot always stop another player. In many games, everyone knew someone was going to win, yet no one could stop them. But I guess someone has to win. I wish there was a little more interaction and trickery.

Conclusion

All in all, a decent game that does not have that early player sits around and waits aspect that many games of the type are plagued by. There is less interaction then you would think here and it is a little dry. It does play fast and is simple to understand and definitely plays best at five since more characters are out and there is more back and forth. Worth a try, but I still am not a huge fan of the genre in small groups since there is not enough interaction or options.

Rating: (6.5 / 10)

Thread: Re: privilage card question

locusshifter — 2008-07-26T15:47:58+00:00

The priviledge card that I believe you are mentioning allows you to force a gift onto someone and they must accept it.

So yes, if it seemed that you were going to be forced into taking the gift, you could instead force it onto somone else.

Thread: privilage card question

kounabi22 — 2008-07-26T12:04:05+00:00

if a player have the privilage card "give away or
special gift" and he is starting the turn,he choose 3
cards 1 is poison and is the gift card,the other 4 players
arent accepting the gift card (because they afraid)so
naturaly he's gona have to accept it as it return back
to him but can he play those previlage cards so the last
player who hasent accept the gift must now accept it?

Thread: Re: Similarities and Differences between Bacchus' Banquet and Bang!

qzhdad — 2008-07-24T17:36:35+00:00

I agree with a lot of your post, but one key difference wasn't highlighted. The conspirators can win as a team, but otherwise, there is an individual winner.

So the guests are different from the deputies in that although they don't want Caligula incapacitated, they aren't really "on his team." And incapacitating the conspirators directly helps Caligula while only indirectly helping themselves.

Thread: Similarities and Differences between Bacchus' Banquet and Bang!

TangentZ — 2008-07-24T16:09:10+00:00

After playing a few games of Bacchus' Banquet, I find it hard to ignore the similarities to Bang!, while noting some differences.

Caligula = Sheriff

This is kind of obvious. Their identities are both open and known to everyone. The difference is that Caligula doesn't care which 3 guests are incapacitated (or he can just feed himself enough dishes and wine), while the Sheriff needs to kill the Outlaws.

Conspirator = Outlaw

Again, this is obvious. The Conspirators are out to get Caligula while the Outlaws are out to kill the Sheriff. The difference is that the Conspirators can also use the other guests to put the daggers in play.

Other Guests = Deputy (?)

This one is not obvious and it took us a couple games to realize it. The Deputies must protect the Sheriff by killing the Outlaws. Now, the Other Guests not only have their own winning conditions, but they also have the implied obligations to keep Caligula alive long enough to reach their objectives. This typically means they should try to incapacitate the Conspirators.

Renegade in Bang! has no equivalent role in Bacchus' Banquet.

Perhaps it is a little too hard to have a Renegade in Bacchus' Banquet, who must incapacitate everyone else.

Thread: Re: [Review] Bacchus' Banquet

Zalasta — 2008-07-24T15:19:41+00:00

sefton wrote:
Or maybe you take 3, but secretly decide which one to place in front of you and which one to offer?

This is correct. Everyone know which 3 cards you picked, what they don't know is which was the one you kept, discard and gave away as gift.

Thread: Re: [Review] Bacchus' Banquet

sefton — 2008-07-24T15:16:35+00:00

Or maybe you take 3, but secretly decide which one to place in front of you and which one to offer?

Thread: Re: [Review] Bacchus' Banquet

RPardoe — 2008-07-24T14:53:33+00:00

TomVasel wrote:
On each turn, the active player chooses three of the face up cards and secretly looks at them.

Doesn't seem very secretive if they are face up. I assume these are from the 7 face down cards...

Edit - Thanks for the comments below. Secretly looking at face up cards in hand is what caused me to trip over the description. I'd imagine I'd look openly at the cards, but select secretly which card to keep, discard, and gift.

Thread: [Review] Bacchus' Banquet

TomVasel — 2008-07-24T14:15:26+00:00

Over the years, I've come to like Bang a bit less and less, if only because with some groups the game takes entirely too long. I love the theme, but I want to do something like that in a shorter frame of time. Bacchus' Banquet (Mayfair Games, 2008 - Frederic Moyersoen) manages to do this, as players each take the role of either Caligula or someone at one of his overflowing banquets. Each player has a separate goal for winning, and a lot of gift giving occurs until one player pulls off the victory.

Since a player can win even if one of their characters has been killed, and the game uses belt buckles for player tracks, I was immediately charmed by the game. I was a bit wary of the theme, but it remains suitable for families; and if anything, it teaches the dangers of overeating! The game takes thirty minutes or less and includes bluffing, deduction, and secret roles. All this will cause players to enjoy it enough to want to try it again. Funny and fun, Bacchus' Banquet is an enjoyable card game that will have folks laughing and taunting one another.

Each player is given a player display, which mainly shows the goals for each of the guests in the game but also has a "fullness level" track. The player uses a buckle piece on the track, starting it at zero. Players are then randomly dealt one of the nine guest cards (Caligula is in every game), which they keep secret - except Caligula, who is revealed immediately. All players also receive one privilege card (Caligula gets two), and a pile of Action cards is shuffled and placed face down in the middle of the table. Seven of these Action cards are turned face up in a circle around the pile, and the player who is Caligula begins the game, becoming the first active player.

On each turn, the active player chooses three of the face up cards and secretly looks at them. One of the cards is discarded face down; one of them is placed face down in front of the player; and third is offered face down to another guest as a "gift". The player to whom the gift is offered must either accept it, flipping it face up in front of them, or pass it on to another player, "gifting" it to them. If nobody accepts the card, then the original giver must flip it face up, placing the card in front of them. The player who finally accepts the card becomes the active player for the next round. However, if a player has two fewer cards in front of them than all other players, they may immediately claim a gift card and become the active player.

Most of the cards are food and wine cards - each with a number on them, showing how far the player must move their belt buckle piece. If a player ever moves the buckle to or past the "10" on the track, their character dies; and they must discard their guest card, along with any action cards they have gained, drawing a new guest card (effectively starting over). Other cards in the deck include poison cards (which add enormous amounts of points to the belt track), exercise cards (which subtract points from the track), present cards (which do nothing but are key to some of the guests' victory conditions), dagger cards (which do nothing, but three of them in play kill Caligula), and special action cards (which allow the player to discard food cards, etc.)

Players can also use their Privilege cards once a game, discarding them afterwards. These cards are similar to special action cards, and they allow players to steal gifts, exchange cards, or give back gifts.

The game continues until one of the players can claim victory for their guest. Each character has a different victory condition. For example, Claudius wins if he eats three items of food and drinks at least three points of wine. Caesonia wins if she gets three of the six different "present" cards. Octavius wins if three daggers are on the table, or if Caligula dies. Caligula wins if he eats two items and drinks five points of wine, or if three other guests are killed. It is possible to have more than one player win (since three guests want Caligula dead).

Some comments on the game...

1.) Components: The cards in the game show a very cartoonish look at the Roman world, and the whole thing has a very humorous effect. I was concerned that perhaps the game would be inappropriate for children (given the theme), but it's all very mild and, if anything, shows the dangers of overeating. The player displays are well designed, showing the sequence of play, each of the nine character objectives, and the buckle display. The wooden buckle tokens are hilarious and look quite thematic as they are slid along the track, showing the fullness level in their center. All the cards are of good quality, and everything fits nicely inside a standard plastic insert in a small box.

2.) Rules: The eight pages of the rulebook show pictures, give examples, and spend some time discussing strategy. The game is one of the fastest I've explained, as players simply are giving and receiving cards the entire time. In fact, the only thing that slows down the explanation for the game is the privilege cards, which have a good deal of text on them and aren't immediately intuitive to many players. Other than that, the game is easy enough for kids to handle, as most of the cards have no text, and the idea of giving/accepting gifts is an easily understood system.

3.) Players and time: The game handles up to five players (I wish it could take six), and I'm not sure I would often want to play with less than that. The more players there are, the more victory conditions there are in play, and the most interaction is going on. With three players, you only have two choices of whom to offer a gift; while with five, you have four folks in the game. Having a limit of five might disappoint some who like that Bang! can handle up to seven or eight, but it does keep the game moving very quickly. The box announces that the game takes only thirty minutes -- I think most games will be twenty minutes or less.

4.) Deduction: I'm a big fan of deduction games, and attempting to figure out who each player is can be a fun part of Bacchus' Banquet. However, this deduction is often mostly guesswork, and it's not entirely critical to winning the game. For example, you may have deduced that Sam is playing the character of Messalina (a character that needs a lot of food to win), and stop giving him food as a result; but if his character dies and he draws another, all of that deduction has become a moot point. I do like the mild reasoning involved in the game, but the main focus is upon the bluffing of the gift cards.

5.) Giving and Receiving: The mechanic of offering someone a card that may or may not be good isn't new to this game; other games (such as Knock, Knock!) have done it before with varying degrees of success. But Bacchus' Banquet takes this gift giving and adds the mild degree of deduction that I mentioned, along with a healthy dollop of humor, keeps the game easy and quite fun. The game all comes down to a big bluff - did Bob just offer me a poison card, or did he offer me something he wants, hoping that I won't accept it? A few strategic thoughts might occur on the way, as players could possibly accept a gift simply to make them the active player on the next turn, but it's mostly one big bluff.

6.) Fun Factor: The bluffing factor, miniscule deduction element, and humor all combine to make Bacchus' Banquet a fun little game. If the game lasted more than thirty minutes, I can imagine that it would likely wear out its welcome, but it's an enjoyable diversion. The heated discussions that players have as they attempt to determine who is who, the laughter as Septimus eats too much lobster and collapses to the floor, and the cries of victory as Caligula succumbs to poison make this a game that will be a raucous, enjoyable time.

Bacchus' Banquet isn't anything to be taken too seriously; it's merely a simple, light card game. However, the funny theme and artwork, combined with the guessing on what kind of gifts people offered to you, keep the game fresh and enjoyable. With five people and only thirty minutes, this is the perfect game to pull out to keep game night moving quickly; and repeat games will likely occur since it finishes in a speedy manner. Some folks will likely not enjoy the bluffing aspect, but I found it entertaining, and the whole concept of keeping your food intake low worked well for the game, giving it a very unique feel. So fasten your belts and eat away!

Tom Vasel
"Real men play board games"
www.thedicetower.com

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kohee — 2008-06-21T09:59:39+00:00

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machollic — 2008-06-20T18:47:15+00:00

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machollic — 2008-06-20T18:42:56+00:00

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Bridyhelphelp — 2008-06-18T03:57:04+00:00

Choose to give card on Baquet party - Piece or Poison

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Bridyhelphelp — 2008-06-18T02:24:22+00:00

The Banquet's Menu

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Bridyhelphelp — 2008-06-17T04:34:19+00:00

The actual situation of the game

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Bridyhelphelp — 2008-06-17T04:14:05+00:00

it's about eating and killing game !

Thread: Re: players: 3-8? or max 5?

kounabi22 — 2008-05-22T18:57:45+00:00

the games plays with 5 player max because of 3 reasons,
1)you have 8 privilage cards so if you play with 8 players the kaligula player needs 2 privilage cards for him self so 6 cards remaing.
2)if you die you choose another character and start again,so if 8 players are player then its game over to who ever lose.
3)you have only 5 boards in the box for the player setup.

its clear that 3-5 player as tell in the box.

Thread: Re: players: 3-8? or max 5?

pusboyau — 2008-05-19T23:53:01+00:00

It plays with 3-5 only, and so far I think I prefer the game with 4 players; 3 doesn't give you much choice as to who to give the gift card to, and with 5 it seems too easy for the conspirators to get 3 knifes. This is only an impression as I've only played 3 times with varying number of players.

Nick

Thread: players: 3-8? or max 5?

ukai — 2008-05-19T16:19:29+00:00

The Mayfair's site and other sources state that this game is for 3-8 players. Though the author's blog says that the maximum player is 5. Also, the package includes only 5 display cards and 5 belt buckles...

Am I misunderstanding? The article is here. http://fredericmoyersoen.blogspot.com/2008/03/caligula-and-c...

Thread: Re: Conspirators?

Pozman — 2008-05-10T17:16:12+00:00

That's correct, even if all the daggers our with Caligula himself

Thread: Re: Bridge-style partner variant

Frederic Moyersoen — 2008-04-27T17:58:25+00:00

Nice idea, but does it still works when I form a team with Caligula while being a conspirator?

Thread: Bridge-style partner variant

mojo shivers — 2008-04-22T22:29:32+00:00

I've been playing the last few weeks and while the game as is plays remarkably well for a medium-level filler, it plays great as a partnership game.

The only three rule changes that needs to be made for a four-player bridge-style game are:

1. Each team is comprised of two players who sit across from each other so that partners are not sitting next to each other.

2. Instead of choosing any player to give the gift card to, the gift is passed clockwise. This way a partner can't just directly give a beneficial card to his partner; the opposing team always has at least one chance to intercept.

3. One team wins when either of its players fulfills his victory conditions.

Not only does this lend the game an added element of strategy, victories feel more orchaestrated and has less of the "stop the leader" mentality that these types of games devolve into. Like I said, I like the game as is, but every once in a while this variant is a nice change of pace.

Thread: Re: Deck runs out .....

Frederic Moyersoen — 2008-04-18T14:47:13+00:00

Yes, you are completely right.

Frederic

Thread: Deck runs out .....

Moviebuffs — 2008-04-18T13:54:00+00:00

I assume if the deck runs out, then the discard pile is re-shuffled and the game carries on ?

There's no mention of it in the rules .....

N.

Thread: Re: New Release and New Artist in the Gaming world.

cornelanner — 2008-04-17T21:55:56+00:00

Can't wait to purchase a copy. And yes, great art ALWAYS brings a real joy to any good game.

Thread: Re: Conspirators?

jjloc — 2008-04-11T19:13:36+00:00

pezpimp wrote:
I have not played yet, but based on my reading, that is what I understood also. Three daggers, regardless of who plays them. It makes sense, since the conspirators can pass the daggers to others that way, helping them reach their goal.

Right, thus hiding their identity.

Thread: Re: Conspirators?

pezpimp — 2008-04-11T19:01:18+00:00

I have not played yet, but based on my reading, that is what I understood also. Three daggers, regardless of who plays them. It makes sense, since the conspirators can pass the daggers to others that way, helping them reach their goal.

Thread: Conspirators?

jjloc — 2008-04-11T18:03:11+00:00

I was wondering about the rule for the conspirators. When 3 daggers are in play the conspirators win, even if the daggers are not in play by any of the conspirators? Meaning if there are 5 players, 2 of which are conspirators, if 3 of the other players besides the conspirators have the daggers in play the conspirators win? This is how it reads in the rules. The rest of the goals by the other guests are won only if the gifts, dishes, or wine are put into play by that particular guest, right? Hope this makes sense.

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TrojanDan — 2008-04-08T22:49:38+00:00

Wooden Buckle Discs

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TrojanDan — 2008-04-08T22:47:09+00:00

Player Displays which show 1)Play Sequence, 2)Goals of the guests, 3)Belt where "buckle" loosens

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TrojanDan — 2008-04-08T22:45:11+00:00

Card Decks Still in Shrink, Deck on left contains Privelege Cards, Guest Cards; Both decks contain Action Cards

Thread: Re: New Release and New Artist in the Gaming world.

sisteray — 2008-03-31T07:50:52+00:00

All the art is here:
http://fredericmoyersoen.blogspot.com/2008_03_01_archive.htm...

Thread: Re: New Release and New Artist in the Gaming world.

Germarish — 2008-03-15T01:23:05+00:00

Excellent to hear. I'm been waiting for an update on this.

Thanks for posting some of the art

Thread: Re: New Release and New Artist in the Gaming world.

sisteray — 2008-03-14T23:11:39+00:00

Sure thing.

Thread: Re: New Release and New Artist in the Gaming world.

jtakagi — 2008-03-14T21:03:15+00:00

Can you upload any of the art to the game's page so we can check it out?

Thread: New Release and New Artist in the Gaming world.

sisteray — 2008-03-14T20:52:00+00:00

For all that care Mayfair is set to release Bacchus' Banquet April 10th.

I'm particularly excited as I worked on the art for this, and I'm happy to see great art on a solid little closer. British comic artist Chris McLoughlin did a bang-up job. For what it's worth, I'm quite pleased with the results. I think his art really brings a real joy to the game.