Annotated Games: Version 1.3, 4 players

This game was played during testing of Knights & Damosels. The table lists for each player which chivalry cards his damosel holds (to the left), which cards he holds (to the right). The letters shows the chivalry (Ar=Armor, Hr=Horse, Sw=Sword, Hn=Honor, Lo=Loyalty, Va=Valor, Fa=Farmer, Fi=Fisher, Fo=Forester) and the color the damosel. The number in parentheses shows the knight's worship and the * who plays the Arthur role.

Event phase

Launcelot starts as Arthur and draws Excalibur (Prosperity), Arthur's Marriage (Prosperity) and Conquest of Rome (War). He selects Excalibur and Conquest of Rome, of which Percival as Merlin selects Excalibur.

Damosel phase

In the Damosel phase, all players play different chivalry cards to give to Merlin so no competition is to be expected.

Knight phase

In the Knight phase, Launcelot picks Horse, Gawain picks Farmer, Bors pick Forester and Percival picks Sword. The random damosel card (Honor) is not picked by any knight.

Service phase

In the Service phase, all players get to offer their chivalry cards and earn 1 worship each.

Event phase

Gawain is next as Arthur and draws The Adultery (Disaster), The Death of Merlin (Disaster) and Tristram & Isolde (Quest). Since The Death of Merlin may lose him his Prosperity card, he selects the other two, of which Launcelot as Merlin selects Tristram & Isolde, since no player has Virtue cards to lose anyway.

Damosel phase

In the Damosel phase, Bors play Loyalty to tempt Gawain (who picks first) with another of his damosel cards. Anticipating this, the other players play other virtue cards to avoid having them picked by Gawain.

Knight phase

In the Knight phase, Gawain does indeed pick Loyalty, Bors picks the only Honor, leaving two Valor cards for Percival and Launcelot. Again, the neutral damosel's card (this time a Farmer) is not interesting to any knight. Coincidentally, this results in all players having two cards from the same damosel.

Service phase

In the Service phase, Launcelot offers Valor, Bors offers Honor and Gawain offers Loyalty. Percival doesn't find it worthwhile to joust Launcelot for the right to offer Valor, after which Gawain offers Farmer and Bors Forester. All players choose to participate (face up cards) so the quest succeeds and all earn worship.

Event phase

Bors as Arthur draws The Battle of Mount Badon (War), The Questing Beast (Quest) and The Holy Grail (Quest). Since he has a Honor card and no War cards, he selects the two Quest cards. Gawain as Merlin has neither a Valor card (+1 worship for The Questing Beast), nor an Honor card (+1 worship for The Holy Grail) so he selects The Holy Grail, hoping that the other players will compete for Honor, leaving him to play his Valor card with no competition.

Damosel phase

In the Damosel phase, Launcelot plays Honor to tempt Percival (since he picks second and Bors already has Honor). Gawain doesn't want to tempt Bors with Loyalty, since he wants to offer it himself, and instead plays a Sword. Bors plays Valor, knowing that only Gawain can pick it, while Percival tempts Launcelot with Honor.

Knight phase

In the Knight phase, Bors can only pick Sword since he already has Honor. Likewise, Percival and Launcelot must pick Honor, leaving only Valor to Gawain, since the neutral damosel's Horse is less interesting for a qeust. Now all players have three Damosel cards from the same damosel.

Service phase

In the Service phase, Gawain offers Valor, knowing that he can offer Loyalty later. Launcelot offers Honor, after which Percival must either joust or not offer any card. He chooses to joust Gawain and wins the first round. Gawain doesn't want to risk a second round and offers Loyalty instead. Finally Bors decides to joust Launcelot for the right to offer Honor. He succeeds in winning two consecutive rounds and earns both the right to offer Honor and 1 worship from Launcelot. Percival has no playable cards left and neither he, nor Launcelot decides to joust. Gawain and Bors end by offering Farmer and Forester respectively and the quest starts. This time, both Gawain and Bors gamble and try to earn more points by not participating. The result is that both lose 1 worship each to Percival.

Event phase

Percival is next as Arthur and draws The Siege of Carlion (War), The Round Table (Prosperity) and Mordred (Disaster). Knowing that Bors will get to offer first and that he also has a sword (which earns extra worship in this event), he chooses to discard this to see it later. Bors as Merlin then chooses The Round Table, since he has a forester that will earn extra worship in this event.

Damosel phase

In the Damosel phase, Launcelot plays Farmer, a card that nobody else has and that thus should be tempting for Percival, who picks first. Gawain plays Valor, a card that every player except his target Bors has. Likewise, Bors plays Honor, which only Gawain doesn't have. Finally, Percival plays Armor, a unique card that should be tempting for Launcelot. The neutral damosel also plays Valor.

Knight phase

In the Knight phase, Percival can only pick Farmer, Launcelot only Armor, Gawain only Honor and Bors only Valor. Fortunately for Bors, he picks the neutral damosel's Valor so now all the knights except him have all their chivalry card from the same damosel.

Service phase

In the Service phase, Bors offers Valor, Gawain Farmer, Launcelot Honor and Percival Sword. Bors proceeds with Forester, Gawain with Loyalty and Launcelot with Horse, after which Percival decides to pass. Bors and Gawain also pass but Launcelot can play Armor as well. This gives Bors 3 worship (+1 for Forester), Launcelot 3 worship and Gawain and Percival 2 worship each.

Event phase

It's now Launcelot's turn to assume Arthur's role. He draws The Battle of Mount Badon (War), The Death of Merlin (Disaster) and The Conquest of Rome (War). As the knight with the most war cards and no vassalage cards, he chooses to keep the first war event and the disaster. Gawain chooses the disaster, hoping that it will either relieve him from one of his damosel cards or hurt the leading knight Bors.

Damosel phase

In the Damosel phase, all knights play non-Vassalage cards; Launcelot plays Loyalty, Gawain plays Armor, Bors plays Armor and Percival plays Sword. The neutral damosel plays Fisher.

Knight phase

In the Knight phase, Launcelot suspects that the Sword is a trap and picks what he thinks is a safe Fisher. Gawain picks the Sword instead, after which Bors and Percival pick Armor. Thus all knights are still safe with less than five cards from from the same damosel.

Service phase

In the Service phase, each knight has one Vassalage card at risk. Launcelot and Percival place theirs face up and Gawain and Percival place theirs face down. This means that no card is lost.

Event phase

Gawain as Arthur draws The Questing Beast (Quest), Arthur's Marriage (Prosperity) and Mordred (Disaster). Having plenty of Virtue cards but few Arms cards, he discards Arthur's Marriage. Bors doesn't want to risk losing another card and chooses The Questing Beast.

Damosel phase

In the Damosel phase, Gawain plays Loyalty, Bors plays Fisher, Percival plays Loyalty and Launcelot also plays Fisher. The neutral damosel plays Farmer.

Knight phase

In the Knight phase, Gawain must pick a Fisher and it happens to be Bors', giving him five chivalry cards from Bor's damosel. Bors picks Percival's Loyalty, Percival picks Gawain's Loyalty and Launcelot picks the only remaining option, the neutral Farmer.

Service phase

In the Service phase, Launcelot offers Valor, Percival offers Honor and Bors offers Loyalty. Gawain decides to joust with Launcelot and is fortunate to win two consecutive jousts. Gawain offers Valor and Launcelot has to make do with offering Fisher out of his turn and then Farmer in his ordinary turn. Bors makes the last offer with his Forester. This time all players participate so Launcelot earns 2 worship, Percival 2 worship, Bors 3 worship and Gawain 3 worship (+1 for Valor).

This ends the game with a Damosel victory for Bors with five damosel cards given to the same knight (Gawain) and he draws his Honor from Gawain. Launcelot and Percival tie for the second place with four cards given and six chivalry cards each but Percival has more worship (11 against 8).

The Battle of Camlann

In the Battle of Camlann, Bors leads Arthur's side and Percival leads Mordred's side. Both Launcelot and Gawain think they have better chances to win on Percival's side, leaving Bors to fight alone (but immune to defeats and wounds the first four rounds since there are two more knights on the other side).

The tables show played cards as bold, defeated cards as crossed out and wounded cards in parentheses.

The first round is a success for Mordred's side as Launcelot's Farmer survives Bors' Honor while Gawain's and Percival's Virtues are merely wounded.

Bors strikes back in the second round, defeating both Launcelot's and Percival's Arms with his Honor. Gawain's Farmer survives so he may take back his wounded Loyalty. All knights on Mordred's side now have five cards against Bors' seven cards.

Since Percival is the only knight with wounds, Bors targets him with his Forester, hoping that he doesn't want to risk his only Arms or Virtue cards. He's right and defeats Percival's played Valor. He also wounds Launcelot's Armor while Gawain escapes casualties thanks to playing his Farmer again.

In the last "safe" round, Bors targets Launcelot with a Forester, knowing that he has no Arms. Launcelot foresees this and makes the best of the situation by playing a Farmer, who is merely wounded. Gawain is less lucky with his Valor, which is defeated. Percival is better off with a Sword, meaning that his Loyalty is no longer wounded.

With that, Bors' safe rounds are at an end and the real battle can begin.

In the third round, Bors considers that he has four Virtue cards but only one Vassalage card (Forester). Hence, he wants to save his Forester as long as possible and expects the other players to guess this. For this purpose he plays Honor, a chivalry that can be spared and that hopefully will at least wound his opponents. Launcelot and Gawain read Bors' mind well and play a Fisher and Loyalty respectively while Percival guesses wrong with his only Sword.

Bors defeats Percival's Sword and keeps Percival's Loyalty wounded but loses his own Honor. He has now only one card more than Launcelot.

Given that his opponents have many Vassalage cards left, Bors decides to play his Sword. This turned out well since both Launcelot and Gawain sticked to their strategy from previous round and played Fisher and Farmer respectively, with the unfortunate result that both are defeated. Percival on the other hand plays Honor, which not only defeats Bors's Sword but also heals his Loyalty.

Bors still has more cards than each opponent but can he afford defeats every round?

Bors gambles and puts his only Vassalage, the Forester, forward. It's a lucky move since both Launcelot and Percival play Virtue and get defeated. Gawain escapes with a wounded Fisher.

Bors decides to rid himself of one opponent and, knowing that Gawain can only play a Sword, plays Valor. Launcelot and Percival anticipate this and both play Farmers. Gawain is out of the game but it cost Bors his Valor.

In the 9th battle round, Launcelot and Percival know that they don't have to face any Vassalage and choose the safe Virtue cards Bors does the same and they all wound each other. The end is now near.

Percival has only a Farmer left and Bors can take him out with his Armor. However, he gambles again and plays Honor, hoping that Launcelot will play Armor. He guesses right with the result that his Honor is lost but so is Launcelot's Armor.

The result is that all knights have one unwounded chivalry card left but both Launcelot and Percival have Farmers, which will be defeated by Bors' Armor. Bors wins the Battle of Camlann and the game!

P&P (PDF, A4)

P&P (PDF, US letter)

Annotated games

• v1.3, 4 players
• v1.0, 4 players
• v1.0, 3 players

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