Brides
& Bribes by Spaceballoon Games,
Reviewed by Jason Elliott from
PaladinElliott Productions
What
are the recommendations for this game?
Number of players: 3-5 Players
Time of game: 60-90 minutes (this can vary due to
players learning the game)
Age recommendation: 12 and up
The
back story:
This game transports you back to
16th Century Genoa, Italy (during the Renaissance), where families seek greater
importance by arranging influential marriages, gaining influence, collecting
wealth, and hiring workers. You will lead your family (choosing from Malabita,
Granara, Foglietta, Carretto, and Oliva) and attempt to gain dowries and
influence from ladies in waiting across the Cities' boroughs. You will pay
attention to delegations (loyal members of your family) that need to be sent
out across the Cities' boroughs, while at the same time competing with other
players doing the same thing. If you do get a bride, you will need to safeguard
against your betrothed being poisoned or assassinated! You will need to
convince a lord of borough that you wield enough influence, and then convince
the bride of your wealth, to secure your place in history. Use everything you have and acquire to its
fullest, and don't be afraid to undermine other players attempts at being the
most influential family in Genoa!
What
comes in the game? (this was based off of my print and play copy)
1 Rule Book
1 Game Round Book
1 Game Board (the city will be divided into five
boroughs, denoted by colors red, blue, green, yellow, and black)
5 player residence boards (following the same
colors denoted in the five boroughs)
24 workshop cards (these are the businesses you
will need) and are broken into Apothecaries, Hospitals, Taverns, Jewelers,
Notaries, and Tailor Shops (4 of each)
32 object cards (item cards) and are made up of 8
poisons, 7 antidotes, 5 wines, 4 rings, 4 Doge's Edicts, and 4 Luxury suits
69 Character tiles that are made up of 5 Lords, 7
First Brides, 7 Second Brides, 20 Loyal Characters, and
30 Common Characters
(these Common Characters will be divided into groups of six characters for each
of the five boroughs)
55 Workers (meeples) that are 11 of each in the colors
of the five boroughs
16 Coaches (these are what the delegations travel
in) 3 of each of the five colors, and the 16th is a white coach to designate
the first player token
15 Influence Tokens
42 Ducato Coins
10 Player Markers, where 5 of them would be
cylinders (one of each color) to mark the Doge's Favor and
5 of them (one of
each color) mark your influence on the influence track
What
is the end game objective? What am I striving for?
You will want to be the one with the highest
influence if the game goes all six rounds. Otherwise you will want to be the
one to reach the game winning influence first (this will vary based on the
number of players). You will need obtain workers, who build your buildings and
grant you additional items and support commons folk to help you gain influence,
money and abilities. These items and common folk can help sway the marriage
attempt, or thwart other player's attempts! You will need to capture influence
wherever you can to get you to the victory threshold (20 influence points if
there are 4 or 5 players, 25 influence points if there are 3 players, or
otherwise whoever is highest at the end of the 6th round).
Remember
these are the following ways to collect your influence (victory) points to win:
-have a successful arranged marriage to a first
wife (make sure you pay attention to bonuses)
-have a successful arranged marriage to a second
wife (make sure you pay attention to bonuses)
-collect influence from a borough
-gain influence due to workers building a
workshop
-every 5 Ducato you have at the end is worth 1 influence
How
do I set the game up? Where is that leading me to?
You will need to make sure you get acquainted
with locations on the board, and your families' board. You will first have the
boroughs, Village (yellow), Fortress (red), Citadel (blue), Market (green),and
the Port (black). You must remember that no matter what, the Port must be used
in every game. You also have the Influence scoring track just below the
Village, the Doge's Favor track just above the Port, and the Distant Colonies
(Ships sailing to and from the Port).
Then you will look at the breakdown of the
Borough (I will be speaking in terms of looking at a borough), with the Lord
symbol at the top left (going left to right), the First Bride's bonus
Influence, the Second Bride's bonus Influence, the symbol of the Borough.
Moving down slightly and going from left to right again, The Lord placement
area, then the First Bride area, the Second Bride area, the Workers Placement
area, the Influence token area, the Ducato token area, and the area to place
the stack of 6 Commons, and then below is where you will place your Carriages
with your Delegations.
You will want to pay attention to Prestige values
(to convince Lords to allow the marriage- Shield values), and Charm values (to
convince the Bride to accept the marriage-Gem values). You will need to meet or
exceed these values. You will be able to add to your attempted values through
Common Characters, Items, and sacrificing Influence and/or Coins at a 1 to 1
ratio (whatever you are short). Then the other players who have sent
Delegations to that same Borough will be allowed to attempt to break the
marriage by influencing the values, poisoning, and assassination. You will be
allowed to try to prevent, and respond to these threats, depending on who and
what you have sent with the Delegation, versus who and what the opponents
Delegations have brought with them.
If your marriage is successful then you reap the
bonuses, and dowry. If you don't then you still get to respond again last in
the turn order for that Borough. So, you may have been thwarted, but you are
not entirely knocked out. If your marriage is a success you will have married
off one of your loyal family, and will no longer be able to use that Character
for the rest of the game (or until the marriage is dissolved through an
assassination or poisoning), so always think about what will be your best move
for the most Influence points.
Now that you have considered these things you can
study the setup proper.
Have the game out, make the sure someone is
playing black, as the Port. The other players may choose any of the other
Boroughs. Place on each Borough in play one of its color workers, one Ducato,
and one Influence token. Then you will want to sort the Common Characters by
borough, shuffle each borough's deck so that the order is random, and place
them face down in the appropriate borough. Then flip the top one up as it will
be common knowledge (throughout the game, the top one will always be common
knowledge).
Special
Note: At the Port Borough (Black) the top Common
Character to start the game will be an Assassin. This is only to start the
game!
You will assign at random a Lord (1 Lord for each
player and then add a Prestige Value 3 Lord into the shuffle) to each in play
Borough. Then shuffle the Brides that have Charm values of 8, 9, and 10 and
draw at random one for each in play First Bride position. Then shuffle the
Brides that have Charm values of 5, 6, and 7 and draw at random one for each in
play Second Bride position.
You will place your cylinder marker at zero on
the Influence track. You will place your player disc marker at random on the
Doge's favor track. Get your piles of Influence tokens, all five colors of
workers, and Ducato coins close to the board. Get your Workshop cards separated
into their stacks by the board with the lowest Influence value at the bottom of
the stack and then the highest at the top (so the first person to build that
Workshop gets the most influence and so on), and below them, separate the Items
cards into their respective stacks.
Here is the details on those Workshops:
Apothecary,
makes Poison, you spend 1 Green Worker, 1 Yellow Worker, and 1 Black Worker to
build the Workshop. You spend 1 coin
there to make a poison (gain that card). This is important to poison another
player's potential bride.
Hospital,
makes Antidote, you spend 1 Green Worker, 1 Yellow Worker, 1 Red Worker, and 1
Blue Worker to build it. You spend 1
coin there to make an Antidote (gain that card). This is important to heal from
being poisoned.
Jewelry,
makes Ring, you spend 1 Green Worker, 1 Red Worker, and 1 Blue Worker to build
it. You spend 1 coin there to make a Ring (gain that card). This is important
to raise your Charm.
Notary,
makes Doge's Edict, you spend 1 Green Worker, 1 Yellow Worker, 1 Black Worker,
and 1 Red Worker to build it. You spend 1 coin there to gain 1 Edict (gain that
card). This is important to act first in a given Borough's order of resolution.
Tailor's
Shop,
makes Luxury Suit, you spend 1 Blue Worker, 1 Red Worker, and 1 Black Worker to
build it. You spend 1 coin there to gain 1 Luxury Suit (gain that card). This
is important to raise your Prestige.
Tavern,
makes Wine, you spend 1 Yellow Worker, 1 Red Worker, and 1 Black Worker to
build it. You spend 1 coin there to gain 1 Wine (gain that card). This is
important to take a worker from the Borough it is in, in addition to whatever
action you are performing.
Finally, you will make sure you have your
residence board, all four of your loyal family Character cards, the 3 Coaches
of your color, 2 Ducato coins, and 1 Worker of your choice (any color) to start
with. This is for all players.
Now
follow these special instructions concerning the order of tokens on the Doge's
Favor track:
If 3 players, give 1 additional Ducato to player
2, and the White Coach Starting token to player 3
If 4 players, give 1 additional Ducato to player
3 and the White Coach Starting token to player 4
If 5 players, give 1 additional Ducato to players
3 and 4, and the White Coach Starting token to player 5.
The
Sequence of play:
In each round you will go through:
Placing your Carriages and Delegations (you will
be able to supplement these Delegations)
Choose from this list twice during your action,
and then the next player does the same, and continues on until all players have
declared pass:
1.
Send a Delegation to a Borough (to
attempt marriage, to claim Ducatos, to claim Influence, to claim Workers, to
hire a Common Character, and whatever your special actions are (to poison
someone else, to assassinate someone else, to gain more money, to gain more
money through a specific action, to gain additional workers to a specific
action, etc.)
2.
Send a Delegation to the Distant
Ships (to trade a worker that you have for a different color one, or to spend
money to hire more workers)
3.
Reinforce a Delegation (bring in
additional help through Loyal Family Cards, Common Character Cards, or Item
cards)
4.
Go to the Doge and ask for favor (to
change the order in which borough Turn Orders will play and resolve)
5.
Declare Pass ( you have ran out of
Characters/Carriages to act with, or determined better to stop)
Resolving all players who are using Distant Ships
Resolving each Borough (one at a time) -make sure
you follow the correct order. This is also dictated by who marries the First
Bride, then the Second Bride, and finally the Highest Guide Prestige Value (the
Guide is the one who you have designated the Lead Character for the Carriage,
and/or the one to marry.
End of the Round (this is a phase)-Each player
will receive 1 Ducato per Worker they have on their family board, each player
must pay 1 coin for each Common Character they have, if they can't or choose
not to, then the Common Character leaves the game permanently. Each player can
pay one Ducato per used item from their plays for the round coming to an end,
otherwise this chance is lost. Now each player can build a Workshop (only one,
and you are allowed only one of each type to own). Then check for the Victory
conditions being met. If the conditions have not been met, then the game
continues.
Cleanup (what you will need to do after the End
of the Round, and before starting the new Round)- You discard any Common
Characters that were not claimed (that were face up in the borough). Turn over
the next Common Character card for each stack. Make sure to add one Worker, and
one Influence to each Borough in play (so yes there could be a stack of either
or both building up in a Borough if it wasn't claimed). Pass the White Coach to
the player on the left. Make sure you have taken back your cards, and Carriages
that were used. Leave Characters that have been married on the board.
Now you are ready to start again!
Are
there any variations for this game?
I did not see any additional plans for expansions
or variations of play at this time.
Some
game results:
Our games have been riveting to say the least. My
wife has personally taken to this game. Possibly due to the very first game
being a victory for her (she ended up with 26 Influence points in a 3 player
game). You can't solely fixate yourself on Workshops alone, as that will only
gain you, at most, 19 Influence points (and only if you are the first to build each type). You have to risk and go
after those important marriages!
That being said, there are a lot of ways to mess
with other players both directly and indirectly. You can poison, you can assassinate,
you can perform an action within a Borough that they wanted to do, thus that
player losing out on it for that turn, and manipulate through Bluffing. With
the Carriages having cards played face down, and not revealed until the moment
of truth, you will have to make the best decisions that you can, and just let
it ride.
Final
Thoughts:
You
have a game here that brings Strategy and Tactics head on with Chance and
Bluffing. You will always be able to do something, but is it the right
something, or the something that you really wanted to do? You will find this
game to be a race from start to finish, as you want to make decisions that
allow you to strike first during opportunities. You don't want to be late to
whatever it was you needed in a given Borough!
Options
and choices are all around you, ready to take, yet once the other players get
into the mix, you have to consider who will get to act first. Will you be able
to bring down their attempts at the big marriages, or will they be able to
bring down yours? Will you have the right Workshops in place for key items?
Will you have enough Ducatos to pay your Common Characters? Will you have the
right workers at the end of a phase to build the Workshop that you need? Does
that other player have the card that you didn't account for in your marriage
attempt?
Take
all of this into account when you sit down to play Brides & Bribes, a game
where every decision counts, and bluffing is just as good as actually having.
Thank you so much for reading this report on Brides & Bribes: A Game of Cunning, Intrigue
and Deception from SpaceBalloon Games!
I hope you will check out my PaladinElliott Blog at:
https://paladinelliott.blogspot.com/
check out
some of my videos at:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC58qYf_vaCaCnu6qvd-WpKw
and check out my Ready To Game Podcast at Soundcloud and/or Itunes:
https://soundcloud.com/jason-elliott-641636807/ready-to-game-podcast-three-may-25-2016
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ready-to-game-podcast-episode/id1111793358?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4
and remember I am always....READY TO GAME!!!
RET. SSG
Jason L. Elliott (PaladinElliott)
