maid of honor is a card game where you earn points by placing cards. It has a Japanese theme and uses hand management, open drafting, and pattern building. The real fun of this game is to be smart about where and how you place your cards so that you can reveal the five cards in your hand and surprise your opponents by combining them with the five cards that everyone can see. The game is for two players only and has a maximum play time of 20 minutes. The game was designed by Mathieu Vieri and alex fortineau and is published by renegade games.
What’s inside the box?
- 16 mountain cards
- 34 development cards (19 character cards, 15 providence cards)
- 1 Court Committee
- 4 emissary tokens
- 1 first player card
- 4 player assistance
- 1 score pad
How about playing?
Swap cards in your hand and on the line to optimally place your cards to earn the most points. You play the game with a hand of five cards and a row of five cards laid out in front of you. You will be swapping these cards, but you cannot rearrange the order of these cards other than swapping out the development cards that are out.
At the end of the game, you place the 5 cards in your hand from left to right below the 5 cards in the already visible column, scoring points according to the cards and where they are located.
However, the game starts with a pile of cards, and you must take turns putting the better cards into play to earn points. You can take turns with other players to add new cards and develop your territory. You can impose an edict by placing the Court Emissary token on the board and exchanging cards, you can recall the Emissary by taking back the token, or you can declare the game over if one of the river piles runs out and the placement of the cards seems appropriate.
develop your territory – You choose a card from your hand or line and discard it. You take out the corresponding card in the same position as the card you just discarded and place a new card in your hand or in an empty space on the line. Then reveal the next card to the river.
Before or after development, you can perform additional actions by sending one of your emissary tokens to an empty space on the court board to perform that action. These actions are to discard the two cards on the two piles in the river or to swap the positions of the two cards.
impose an edict – Only the first player can perform this action. They can place one of their tokens in a court sport on the board, and that token is locked for the rest of the game. You can then exchange cards in the same position from both players’ hands or exchange cards in the same position from both players’ lines.
remember your messenger – Bring back tokens from the court to your region.
Declare the end of the game – If one of the river piles is empty, you can end the game. Your opponent will now be able to play their final turn. The game will automatically end when the two mountains in the river are empty.
The cards are then scored accordingly. One pile will give you points, but more than that will give you negative points. The Naismith card scores points if it is in the center. Advisors earn different points depending on their location, and get bonus points for being next to a Naismith card. Fort cards score points by being on the edge. A Sentinel card scores points if it is not adjacent to another Sentinel and receives bonus points if it is adjacent to a Keep. If you can get three torii gates, you can earn a lot of points. The monk gets 5 points for each piece, and more if it is next to a torii. A score is given according to the size of the rice field. One or two banners will add up to your score. The Horseman gets 3 points, but there is a bonus if the banner is in the same position on the line. Ronin scores with different types. And ninjas earn scores by copying character cards that exist in your territory.
verdict
I really enjoyed this game. The amount of cards in the game combined with the mechanics makes this game great. Gameplay is well-paced, doesn’t have much downtime, and requires intuitive controls. The game itself is smooth, with quick turns and back-and-forth play. Each player has a column of cards that other players can see and a column of cards that other players can’t see.
This game includes Japanese art and themes that are perfect for this game. Nothing outlandish, just the theme and art holding the game together. Icons help remind players of a card’s role. You’ll need to remember some of these things, but time will help you figure out exactly what the cards do.
This game is a tableau builder, where you build half on the table and half in your hands. This game may be better at this than other games because you can make your choices wisely and you know half the information about what other players are doing.
There are 11 types of cards, and there are many combinations. There’s a lot of game in a few cards, and I think the fun factor for this card is high. There are some tense moments with your opponent, but it’s a fun experience that you can play over and over again to see if you can outsmart your opponent by changing the cards each time you play.
Image courtesy of Renegade Games.
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