Review #30: Coup

# of Players: 2-6
Playtime: 0-30 Minutes

Core Mechanic: Bluffing

Theme: Dystopian
Type: Party

Weight: Light-Med

Year: 2012

Rating: 7.5*

I'm not sure why, but Coup went unnoticed by me when it was first released. This game is set in the universe of The Resistance, a game I love and will eventually review, but still that wasn't enough to encourage further exploration. However, the app version of the game was eventually released and although it took some time for me to understand how to play, I saw the promise of the game and picked up a physical copy. And this would be another game that I am completely terrible at.

The object of the game is to be the last player standing. Each player starts with two influence cards face down in front of them along with some money and there is a pile of leftover influence cards in the middle of the table. Going around the table in clockwise order, each player can take one of seven actions. There are three basic actions and four actions associated with characters. The first of the basic actions is Income, which gains a player one coin without worry of getting challenged or blocked. Next is Foreign Aid, which provides two coins but can be blocked. Lastly there is Coup, which costs seven coins and causes a player to lose an influence card.

Before getting into the character actions, I'll explain blocking and challenging. Some actions can be blocked by other characters. For example, if someone wants to take the Foreign Aid action, someone else can claim to be the Duke and try to block the action. If this block goes unchallenged, then the player taking the action is not able to take that action and foregoes their his or her turn. Challenging is a different beast and all character actions can be challenged.

Anyone can challenge anyone trying to take a character action or trying to use a character action to block. At that point, the person who is being challenged reveals one of his or her influence cards. If it turns out that the player was telling the truth, he or she exchanges it for a random influence card from the middle and puts the new card face down in front of them. Then the player who made the incorrect challenge must reveal one of his or her influence cards permanently, thus losing one influence. However, if it turns out the challenged player was lying, then he or she must reveal one of his or her influence cards permanently, thus losing one influence. Again, players will be trying to eliminate each other's influence cards until one player is left remaining in the game.

The first of the character actions is Taxes. If you decide to use the Taxes action, you are claiming to be the Duke and can take three coins. Next is the Assassinate action used by the Assassin, which after paying three coins, you can force another player to lose an influence card. Unlike the Coup action, which cannot be blocked, this can be blocked by the Contessa. When you claim to be the Captain, you can steal two coins from another player but this can be blocked by another Captain or the Ambassador. Finally, the Swap Influence action used by Ambassadors allows players to switch their influence cards with the ones in the center draw pile, which is useful to keep others on the edge about what card you have.

I haven't been able to figure out the best strategy for this game. Amass a bunch of coins so you can Coup without being blocked? If you're not the first player though, this becomes difficult, so maybe take the risk to Assassinate? Usually the first round of the game involves everyone trying to claim Duke to collect taxes, so when to break this cycle? I never know what to do and almost always lose. But it is fun and most importantly super quick - most games are easily less than 15 minutes and you are itching to play the next round. This is a definite winner for both the Gateway and Middleweight collections. I think it is a great party game for the Essential and Collector collections as well. This is a game I will continue to play as a filler/party game and hopefully will get a bit better at forming a strategy.