Coup - Quick Pour

If you’re craving a different kind of high-society clashing, you may be interested in Coup and its dystopian setting. In the not-too-distant future, the world is taken over by greedy profit-seeking CEOs of multinational mega-corporations and act as the new royal class. In Coup, you play as a very wealthy and influential government official. It is up to you to manipulate the circumstances, quell any rebellions from overthrowing the government, bribe, and bluff your way to absolute power. Unfortunately for you, other officials thirst for the same power and they will play dirty, so you must eliminate their influence totally and become the only nouveau royal standing.

Bluff or Fold?

The setup is quite simple as most players will have only 2 cards in their hand and the gameplay is also very smooth. These cards, placed face down in front of you, represent those who you have influence over in the royal court as they will do your bidding based on what role they perform. So long as these cards are face down in front of you, the other players, or the other officials in this case, do not know who is under your influence, so you may continue to take advantage of them until you are caught and must reveal your cards. For example, the Duke is a tax collector and will hand you over 3 coins. The assassin can eliminate another player’s influence if you pay 3 coins. The Captain can steal coins from other players and the Ambassador allows you to exchange your cards with the main deck. Each of these cards also have their own counteractions.

Not to mention the main twist in the game is that you can purposely lie about what cards you possess by taking the actions of the cards you ‘supposedly’ have. The challenge lies in not getting caught and revealed. As soon as players lose influence and reveal their cards, the ability to deceive others becomes trickier. At any point, you may call another player’s bluff and challenge them, where the loser of the challenge must choose to give up their influence. For any reason, if you wish to play safe and choose to neither reveal your influence or bluff about it, players may also take other actions that are not specific to any card in the game. If you amass at least 7 coins at any point, you can pay them to instantly force a player to lose an influence.

Winner Takes All Influence

The art style on the cards is excellent and I appreciate the details on the portraits. I love games that have high replayability value and that come in small boxes, so I find myself carrying these around to other friends’ houses, on road trips and even on picnics. Speaking of, Coup works excellently when you have a party of 5-6 players with you. There is a 2 player variation, but it simply does not compare because the set-up takes an equal amount of time as actually playing the game, which finishes in a matter of 3-4 turns!

Victory Royale

Coup offers multiple tactics to follow, where playing safe or deceitfully will crucially matter in specific instances. Playing true to your cards could allow others to adjust their narratives accordingly, potentially putting you in a precarious situation. Whatever the choice, the game continues until only one remains standing… as the last official in the royal court.