Sunday, August 23, 2015

Coup d'etawesome

This week we visited Calvin Fletchers Coffee Company in Fountain Square to play Coup.  Our experience was very nice.  The employees are very kind and attentive, and the beverages really hit the spot!  The environment was relaxed, art-centric and welcoming.  We very much enjoyed the service we received from Calvin Fletchers Coffee and look forward to returning again!  Today's awesome game of choice is Coup, the dystopian future, social deduction, player elimination game so get ready for a mix of deceitful, but also truthful allegations and backstabbery. 

Coup is a social deduction, player elimination game based in a dystopian futuristic setting.  In this era, the government is run for profit by a new royal class of multinational CEO's.  Their greed and absolute control of the economy has reduced all but a privileged few to a life of poverty and desperation.  Out of the oppressed masses rose The Resistance, an underground organization focused on overthrowing these powerful rulers.  The valiant efforts of The Resistance have created discord, intrigue and weakness in the political courts of the noveau royal, bringing the government on the brink of collapse.  It is up to you to manipulate, bribe, and bluff your way into absolute power.  To achieve success, you must destroy the influence of your rivals and drive them into exile.  In this 2 - 6 player game, each player begins with two tokens, and two cards (also referred to as influences)  The card count in the base game does not change, where as you may accumulate more tokens as your proceed throughout the game by either stealing from other players, or allocating them from the treasury (or token pile).  Each player will receive a guide which will show which legal actions can be made by the other characters/influences around the table. 

Regardless of what influence you may receive at the beginning of the game, you can still perform any of the actions that other influences would use, even if you do not have those character cards in your possession.  This is where the bluffing and deduction aspect of the game comes into play.  You may play any action you wish.  You can either tell the truth, or you can lie.  Either strategy can play into your favor, especially if you're good at manipulating the other players around you into believing you.  However, anyone at the table can call you out on these actions and challenge you to reveal whether you are bluffing or telling the truth.  If someone does succeed in calling your bluff, you will lose one of your two influence cards. The end goal is to survive the longest and eliminate all other influences around the table.  If you can do this and still maintain at least one influence, you are the winner.  Some may not like to bluff, and this is perfectly fine.  Claire and I have played this game many times and you can win both ways either by only telling the truth or only bluffing, or a combination of both.  It's entirely up to you!  This game is a lot of fun!  Since it is a social deduction game, it can include deceiving mechanics of bluffing and that may not be for everyone.  Coup does require a lot of player interaction and that is definitely an element that we really enjoy about it.  The box is well packaged and small, so it's nice and portable.  The artwork on the character cards is also very well done.  This game is very quick and easy to teach.  It has a lot of replay-ability and I love the theme!  There's a lot more to this game than what I've mentioned, both in the mechanics and the strategies that can be executed, and I would absolutely recommend this game to anyone over the age of 13.  This is definitely an essential game for your library!

Coup
Overall Meeple Rating: 8/10



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1 comment:

  1. I love this game! Great review! I've been to Calvin Fletcher's Coffee too. Cool place. :)

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