Courtisans Review – Mind Your Manners, Someone’s Poisoning the Guest List

Disclaimer: Courtisans was provided for free by Pandasaurus Games, although the writing and opinions of this article are my own.

It’s an exciting time in Courtisans because, against everyone’s better judgment, you’ve been invited to the Queen’s banquet. From the Hares to the Nightingales, all the great houses will be in attendance. So there should be plenty of food to eat, stories to tell, and influence to spread.

How to play

Starting this banquet you’ll unroll the game mat at the centre of the table and give everyone two secret objective cards. From there, everyone picks up three cards and the game begins.

These cards represent members of the six different houses of the land.

On your turn, you’ll place one of your cards to the centre playmat, one card in front of another player in their domain, and the third card on your domain.

When playing a card to the centre, you play it either above the mat or below. At the end of the game, you check each house to see if they have more cards above or below the mat.

If a house has more cards above, then that house is esteemed and celebrated by all. Their cards in your domain are worth positive victory points.

If they have more cards below the mat, then that house has fallen from grace and we shan’t speak their name again. Their cards are worth negative victory points.

Otherwise, if there’s the same amount above and below, then the house didn’t make an impression at all and is neutral. Their cards are worth no points.

So as you play you’ll be reading and manipulating the central mat trying to get as many esteemed cards in your domain as possible.

To help, several of the cards have special abilities.

• Nobles are worth two cards each
• Assassins let you remove an already-placed card
• Spies are played face-down
• Guards cannot be removed by Assassins

Points are also gained from your secret objectives. But achieving them requires you to further manipulate the banquet.

Keep taking turns handing out three cards until there are no remaining cards to deal out. At that point, count your victory points and see who wins.

Monitoring the food court floor

Courtisans is one of those games where the beauty of it stems from its simplicity. You have three cards, you hand them out, pick up three more and wait for your next turn.

It’s a standard formula that shouldn’t excite anybody.

However, as soon as different houses start changing their status to esteemed or to fallen from grace, things get interesting.

You’ll find that you’ve started gaining cards with one of these houses, only for their reputation to plummet. Then you need to decide if you should keep investing in this house or jettison it for another.

While you’re making these decisions, so too is everyone else. This creates chaos on the food court floor as players back different houses, causing reputation swings faster than a ballroom dancer on a freshly polished floor.

So quick is this movement, that it feels like you’re bumping shoulders with stock brokers.

Toads are in, buy all the Toads you can get your hands on… Wait, are you seeing this? Sell all the Toads!! Buy Nightingales!

This feeling is helped by the different card abilities that hasten the instability of a house’s reputation. A Noble card played in the right position is enough to swap a house’s status. So too will a well-placed Assassin.

Alternatively, you can play these ability cards to your domain. A Noble might give you two points if the house is esteemed. Or an Assassin can remove a negative scoring card from your domain.

Meanwhile, you want to do the opposite for your opponents. Give them a Noble for a house that has fallen from grace, and an Assassin to remove their esteemed house cards.

But you don’t want to be too obvious about this. Because if you do, you’ll find your domain stacked with similarly unwanted cards. So you must be cautious to spread out your misgivings, and hide your intentions.

In this way, Courtisans closely mirrors the theme of gossiping elites. You’ll spread rumours and cards while smiling widely with a crooked dagger hidden behind your back.

What about two players?

Even though there’s a lot that happens under the surface of a game of Courtisans. It’s still placing three cards before passing to the next player. As a result, turns are taken quickly around the table as the game sets into a comfortable rhythm.

It’s this snappy-paced reactionary gameplay that kept me engaged while playing Courtisans. But I was worried that it wouldn’t translate into the two-player version of the game.

Worry no more!

Two-player Courtisans was just as good – although there’s not as much table talk or politicking. It’s a tighter experience. One where you’re trying to thwart your opponent’s plans while setting yourself up for the win.

Now, before we all get too excited there is one tiny thing that Courtisans could have done better. That’s the secret objectives. Some are just impossible to pull off and put players at a disadvantage from the get-go.

For example, one requires you to get three Spies. Which doesn’t sound like a lot, but you need some luck or someone dumping their spies on you, for it to happen.

Otherwise, Courtisans is a great small box board game with great production value. It won’t show on any photos but the parchment surrounding each character on the cards is gold foiled. Check out our unboxing video to see all of their glory. It’s just enough to look great without being too distracting.

Arboretum Deluxe Edition could learn a thing or two.