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Annotated Games: Version 1.2, 4 playersThis game was played during the game testing of Christina Regina. For test purposes, the players follow pre-defined strategies. Blue aims for early influence and a short game end whereas Red aims for late influence and a long game. Green plays a bluffing game aimed at attracting failed assassinations and Black plays a tactical game aimed at ignoring the assassination risk and get as much influence as possible. The diagram used shows the influence tiles with a color and a bold number and the player movements with plain text code (B=blue, R=red, G=Green, O=Onyx or Black) and an order number (1=first Queen move etc.) The influence stacks are listed to the right of the board with the numbers in parentheses to indicate assassination attempts. Round 0
Looking at the board, Blue will aim for the upper right corner, where she can get tiles of all levels. Red plans to move the Queen clockwise, ending with the red 3-tile in the lower left corner. Green will pick tiles in the upper right corner first, since there are no green tiles there. Black will try to stay in the upper part of the board, since most of her black tiles are there. It looks like the Queen will be heading upwards in the game opening... Round 1
Blue starts moving the Queen upwards but Red steers her to the right and away from the red 1-tile, since it's too early to pick this. Green is happy to continue right and pick up a black 1-tile to start confusing the other players. Black is happy with that and moves the Queen upwards to the other black tiles. Round 2
Blue has dilemma; she wants the blue 1-tile picking it herself is suspicious and moving elsewhere is a risk that it never gets picked. She decides to gamble, hoping that such an early pick won't arouse any suspicions. Now Red faces the same dilemma. She decides to leave the red 1-tile for now so that it can be picked later if necessary. Green continues to give the other players the impression of playing Black, after which Black happily picks the black 2-tile. Red and Blue now both suspect that there is a black player in the game but have no idea who it is. Green on the other hand knows that she's not Black so that leaves only one player... Round 3
The Queen has moved too far away from the upper right corner for Blue's taste so she takes the risk of picking yet another black tile to get back there. Red is pleased with this, as she may now force the Queen into a clockwise move along the edge. Green and Black have no choice but to continue moving the Queen to the right. Round 4
Blue is reluctant to pick a second blue tile herself but picking the black tile instead may lead to the blue tile never being picked. This leaves the move to the right as the only option for Red. Green decides to provoke the other players by picking up yet another black tile and leaving the Queen without moves. With the current score, Black would win in the tie break (4 points plus a 2nd tile in the 3rd influence stack) but not playing any cards would be very suspicious. To save her cards, she attempt an assassination as her action, knowing that a failure wouldn't affecting her ranking in the 3rd influence stack. She chooses Blue, given Blue's history of picking blue tiles, and is right! She chooses to discard Blue's agitation card to prevent her from removing opponent tiles. If Black now can end the game soon, she'll be well set up for victory. Round 5
Blue has no choice but to spend an action cards and plays Persuasion to return a blank tile, after which Red is able to move the Queen downwards to it. Green moves the Queen one tile further downwards and Black moves her one tile to the right, hoping that Blue will move the back to the almost cleared upper right corner again. Round 6
Blue has already been assassiated once but still chooses to pick up her 3rd blue tile, hoping that the other players will think she's bluffing. Not it's Red's turn to be forced to spend an action card and challenges Green and Black (one of which Red thinks plays Black) by playing a Persuasion card to the left of the Queen. Both players now have the option to "kill" the game but none of them want to, Green because no green tiles have been picked yet and Black because this would reveal her color. Instead, Green moves the Queen to the left and Black plays a Persuasion card below the Queen. There is now a path back to the board but 3 Persuasion cards have been played. Round 7
Blue is now forced to move the Queen downwards, after which Red is "forced to" pick up a red tile, just like she planned. Green consider another bluffing move by picking up the purple 3-tile but decides to move closer to her green 2-tile instead. The Queen has now picked most of the black tiles already so Black is reluctant to pick more tiles and moves the Queen to the right. Round 8
In spite of the assassination, Blue would win if the game ended but trying to "kill" the game by moving the Queen upwards would reveal her color so she's forced to move the Queen downwards. Red now has the choice of two "evils" and chooses the purple 3-tile as the lesser of them, since the green 2-tile would decrease the red rating. Green moves the Queen to the left, partly to get her closer to a green tile and partly to see if her suspicions regarding Black are correct. Black realizes this and rejects the offer to pick up the black 2-tile and picks up the red 1-tile instead. Her main hope now is to keep the Queen in the lower right corner until the game ends. Round 9
Blue moves the Queen downwards in a final (?) attempt to have the blue 3-tile picked and the game ended early but Red returns her to the board with a left move. Green returns to her bluffing game by picking the black 1-tile after which Black, pleased but confused, move the Queen further upwards away from colored tiles. Round 10
Blue continues upwards, knowing that the next player's move will either bring the end closer (right) or isolate the two competing green and purple tiles (left). Since Red needs more tiles and is happy to leave green and purple behind, she moves the Queen to the left. Green now has to choose whether to move the Queen towards the upper left corner or the lower right corner and chooses the latter, since she a 1-tile and a 2-tile here. Blacks seizes the opportunity to have her last black tile picked up but don't want to go via green and red tiles so she moves the Queen to the left. Round 11
Both Blue and Red are happy with their scores and, with the hope of a successful assassination before the end of the game, race downwards with the Queen. Green, however, is less happy but can she pick the green 2-tile without arousing suspicions? She decides she has to, hoping that the other players will think she just tries to prolong the game. Black on the other also wants to end the game and with yet another downwards move, this may happen very soon. Round 12
Round 13
Blue chooses an interesting action: Manipulation to move the green 1-tile to the isolated "island" in the lower right corner. The idea is to increase the likelihood that the only player with a Persuasion card left (Green) will choose this direction so that one more blue card gets picked. Red isn't pleased with the idea of the black 2-tile and the green 1-tile being picked as this would lower her rating and uses her Manipulation card to move the former. Green would still benefit from playing her Persuasion card to reach the green 1-tile but fears that this would arouse suspicions. Instead, she successfully assassinates Black, after which all the other players pass. The final round ends with no changes since Green plays her Persuasion card on another part of the board and deny the other players clues about her color for final assassination attempts. Instead, all players pass and the game ends. The players score as follow:
Black and Green score 5 points each and Red and Blue score 4 points each. Green wins the tie break thanks to having a higher ranking in the 3rd influence stack! It was a tight game. Only two of the four players dared assassinating but it was Green's assassination on Black that awarded her the victory. Also, the players held on to their action cards as long as possible but due to the restricted movements in the end, only half of them entered the game. The scores were too even to judge the different strategies played but there seems to be no game-breaking strategy. If the game had been just a few tiles shorter or longer, Blue or Red might very well have won instead! |
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