Renegade Game Studio RGS02033 Paladins of the West Kingdom, Mixed Colours

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One word of warning would be that this game can induce analysis paralysis. Because you are trying to optimise your turns, and chain things together, it can take a little time to plan your moves. Especially the first few times you play the game, the number of choices can seem overwhelming.I do think that if you focus and specialise a little more the game does seem a little easier.Although, of course, some analysis paralysis will remain given the nature of the game. If I had a complaint about Paladins, it’s that after maybe 10 plays or so, you may find it getting a bit same-y in terms of the actions you’re doing. If that’s the case for you, I can highly recommend including the City of Crowns expansion, as this adds in a new attribute and more actions for you to get your teeth into. The expansion itself has a 4.17 weight ranking on Board Game Geek, as opposed to the 3.71 of the base game, but it’s still a really good expansion. Arriving at Nashville Game Night, I ran into another couple of friends, Scott and Piotrek, and they agreed to join us for a game of Paladins at the full four player contingent. So we sat down, eager to play. We got started a little late as it was the night of the annual Nashville Game Night flea market and Eric was away from the table doing some shopping. When he returned, we rolled up our collective sleeves and got to work. For instance, paying four silver and two workers of any color allows you to use Develop to remove the leftmost workshop from your player board and place it onto one of the action spaces on your player board that are surrounded by dotted lines. This makes those actions cheaper in the future. Additionally, as the workshop is removed, a bonus worker is earned. In fact, all of the spaces that were covered by wooden pieces during setup will reveal some kind of bonus once the space is revealed. If you’ve ever played a game like Terra Mystica or Clans of Caledonia, this mechanic should feel familiar.

You can accelerate your progress by praying, which lets you spend resources to remove your pieces from a space so you can use it again the same turn, but the hard limit on doing the same action seven times over the course of the game forces you to build multiple engines. This is the closest the game has to a catch-up mechanic, but players who have been able to gain extra resources throughout the game will also have an easier time diversifying than those who are struggling to gain traction. Paladins of the West Kingdom is a board game for one to four players that focuses more on military strife, rather than the creation of beautiful constructions. Players must leverage their influence to strengthen the defenses outside the city, creating outposts and fortifications to prevent the invasion of Saracens, Vikings and Byzantine forces. Whichever player manages to collect the most victory points by enlisting the aid of the various paladins patrolling outside the city becomes the winner.Debt is the game’s most entertaining gameplay element, earned by either recruiting townsfolk without paying their silver price or running afoul of the inquisition. There are six types of workers - labourers who can perform only generic actions; fighters, clerics, merchants and scouts who perform the actions you’d think they’d be appropriate for; and criminals who can do anything but earn you a suspicion card whenever you collect one. Those cards award zero to three coins from a collective tax pool, which is great for accelerating your plans.

This is where, for me, Paladins shines. Instead of having to worry about whether a spot is free for your worker, you now have to make sure you have the right colour workers. Many spots need two or even three workers.Players therefore also need to make sure they have enough workers left to do what they want. Fighting For Space? unique Paladins and more than 60 Townsfolk and Outsider Cards provide a huge amount of depth and replayability The basic actions – Develop, Hunt, Trade, Recruit, Pray, and Conspire – reward you with essentials like provisions and money. They also allow you to mitigate action costs elsewhere, earn purple workers which act as stand-ins for other colors, recruit Townsfolk for either their immediate bonuses or their long-term abilities, or clear action spaces elsewhere on their player board to enable them to be used a second time within the same round. Most of these spaces are pretty straightforward (place a worker, get a thing), but some are slightly more involved. Townsfolk can be recruited using the ‘RECRUIT’ action. As noble men and women, players must gather workers from the city to defend against enemies, build fortifications and spread faith throughout the land. Fortunately you are not alone.Set in West Francia, the medieval kingdom that would become France, Paladins of the West Kingdom has players take on the role of a noble working to earn the most victory points by the end of the game through strengthening and defending their kingdom. The primary way to earn points is to raise your faith, influence and strength values, which also act as a cap on various actions, ensuring that players can’t just focus on a single strategy.

If you’re a fan of medium to heavy weight games and you want to get a full experience, might I suggest that you don your armour and take on the mighty dragon that is the AI in Paladins of the West Kingdom. It is 900 AD, and the city needs to be developed and protected from enemies. Whilst the game itself has a wonderful feel at 2 to 4 players, sometimes, you can’t get the numbers together. Or you want to learn the game in a stress-free environment so you can teach it at a later date. I talked about the Architects of the West Kingdom solo game before, so now let’s go forward in time to the second game in the series! Solo Differences Yes, this can seem disheartening at first, when often games can score points in the hundreds.You are not in any danger of getting close to a hundred points in a game of Paladins! But, once you accept that your opponent is not going to be getting huge scores either, you can take it more at face value. With Paladins, as with many games, some of the challenge of the first few games is actually finding out what a good score is. The Final Score

Paying the Tax Man

The only thing about the game that feels a bit off to me are the jars. From a thematic, story-driven standpoint every other element of Paladins makes sense. But I can’t wrap my mind around the jars. I like what they bring to the game mechanically, but they feel a bit out of place thematically. Are they jars of anointing oil? Jugs of wine? I just don’t get it. At the start of each round, players draw three paladin cards and select one to help them that round.The paladin card gives a player three things.Firstly, it sets out your special ability for the round. Secondly, it shows two workers which the player should acquire. Finally, it gives you bonuses to one or two of your attributes (strength, faith, and influence).The bonus lasts for that round only, although there are ways to permanently boost your stats. During the expansion, players can choose to hire workers to build the city’s five wonders, whilst ensuring that they gather enough approval from the princess to have her survey the monuments herself. Alternatively, players can decide to gain Profiteer tokens, should they want to seek support from the secretive individual. The expansion will also feature a solo board game mode that includes six possible opponents for players to compete against.

I will accept, you do have to worry less about a space being available than in other worker placement games.Each player has their own board with action spaces on it.The King’s Favour cards do offer contestable spots.However, in the main, players will be making use of action spots on their own board. Absolve uses the player’s Influence to move their pots from one area, earning Faith in the process, to another which earns them an instant bonus. The more pots you move, the more victory points you’ll earn. Additionally, the player gets to remove a Suspicion card. This segues nicely into the last aspects of the game that we haven’t talked about… Paying the Tax Man The aim of Paladins of the West Kingdom is to be the player with the most victory points (VP) at game's end. Points are gained by building outposts and fortifications, commissioning monks and confronting outsiders.Architects of the West Kingdom and Paladins of the West Kingdom are the first two entries in a trilogy of board games - which was completed with the release of Viscounts of the West Kingdom last year - set during the era of the Carolingian Empire, a power that ruled central and western Europe during the Middle Ages. In Paladins players do not have their own colour of workers. Instead, at the start of each turn they will draw workers depending on the Paladin card and tavern card they choose. The cards display different colours of workers, and the different workers have different roles. The game takes place across two main arenas: the central game board and each player’s personal player board. Though they are both in the same series of games, comparing Paladins of the West Kingdom to its predecessor is difficult, as they are very different games. This one is a much more complex affair, and so it really depends on what mood you are in. Personally, if I were to compare, I much prefer this one, as I like a crunchy game with an interesting puzzle. I prefer the attribute system to the virtue system in Architects, and I love the interaction between the actions. That being said, I think for a lot of people, I would recommend Architects as the better starting point. Prices delivered by BoardGamePrices