Coup Board Game Review:

In the Coup board game, you are trying to eliminate all your political rivals. You use your political allies to gain power and funding quickly. While also bluffing on who you have as an ally to accelerate your plans. But if caught, your plan may grind to a halt.

Setup

To set up Coup:

1. Give each player 2 coins.
2. Give each player 2 character cards, which allow them to freely use the cards’ abilities.
3. Give each player a reference sheet for easy reference.

How to Play

On your turn, you may take any 1 action. There are 3 general actions. These actions cannot be challenged. The 3 general actions are Income, Foreign Aid, and Coup.

Income: take 1 coin from the supply.

Foreign Aid: take 2 coins from the supply. If another player claims duke, you get 0 coins instead.

Coup: Pay 7 coins. Pick a player to immediately lose an influence.

When a player loses an influence for any reason, they reveal one of their face-down cards. They no longer have influence over the revealed character. If a player loses both their influence cards, they are eliminated from the game and cannot take turns or be targeted for the rest of the game.

In addition to these 3 general actions, there are Character actions. These actions offer great power and utility but come at a risk. When you take a character action, another player may challenge you if they believe you do not have that card. If challenged, you must reveal one of your face-down influence cards. If you revealed the card in question, you complete your action and replace the revealed card with another random card from the deck. In addition, the player that challenged you flips one of their cards over to represent losing influence. On the other hand, if you reveal a different card than the claimed card, you must lose that influence and end your turn immediately. There are 5 characters, each giving unique abilities listed below:

Duke: Take 3 coins from the supply. It can block other players from taking foreign aid. When you block an action, their turn ends immediately, and they do not complete that action. The blocked player may challenge. If you were bluffing, they get to complete their action.

Captian: Steal 2 coins from another player. Blocks Captain.

Ambassador: Draw 2 cards from the deck. You may exchange any of your current influences with the 2 drawn cards. Then return 2 remaining cards to the deck. Blocks Captain.

Assassin: Pay 3 coins, then eliminate another player.

Contessa: Blocks Assassin. (The Assassin still pays the 3 coin cost.)

The last player with influence wins when every other player has been eliminated.

Pros

The Coup board game is a very quick game. Taking just about 5-10 minutes for a small group. It’s rare you will ever play just one round.

Coup is full of player interaction. As you make and break treaties when convenient. You will constantly be guessing their next move.

Cons

It isn’t natural for some people to lie to their friends. This can make it difficult for them to be on an equal playing field. While being honest for a round or two can be strategic. If you are reliably honest, you will struggle to win.

It will take a few rounds for everyone to learn all the cards. Until then, they must continue to look at their hand or reference sheet.

Coup the board game is fun, easy to set up, and quick to play. Because of how easy it is to get to the table, the game can quickly become one of your most played games. While this is usually a good thing, in Coup’s case, the game can get stale because when it comes down to it’s a 15-card game with only 5 unique cards. There are only so many ways those cards can provide new experiences.

Accessibility

Color Blind: Perfectly Compatible

Reading: Once you memorize the abilities of the 5 cards, you will not need to be able to read to play.

Children: This game will be challenging to play with children as it requires secrecy and bluffing. This game also directly deals with both destroying others’ reputations and assassinations.

Who would love this game?

The Coup board game is excellent for people who like short games will love this game. They will be delighted by all the tension in such a small game. This game performs exceptionally well among players who have played before, allowing you to get straight into the action. This is an excellent warm-up to other longer games.

Final Thoughts

the Coup board game is a game specializing in giving the most tension for your time. You know someone among you is lying straight to your face, but you can’t figure out who, and you make allies with other players. Coup is able to give this effect without any formal teams. You get to choose your own teams. If you love pure strategy without anyone interfering, Coup isn’t for you. But if you are short on time and are looking for a tense social deduction game, Coup may be your new favorite game.

If you would like to purchase the Coup board game and support Tabletop Game Source, you can purchase it from Amazon here.

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