Royal Visit

A game for two from the prolific Reiner Knizia, it’s unusual, complex, yet tightly balanced. The original title, “Auf der Reeperbahn…,” references a popular German movie from 1954.

Near the centre of a 17-space track start, the game contains 6 miniatures - 5 figures and a crown which the players will compete to attract them to their end of the board.

Players can play as many cards of the same colour on their turn as they wish. Most of the movement is a direct result of card play e.g., by playing a orange four you bring the orange figure four spaces closer to your end of the board.

Be careful, there are special tricks and restrictions which must be learned and held firmly in mind before the sense of the game begins to emerge. The purple figure wins for you if the game ends with his (the King!) on your half of the board, and can only move within the bounds of his “bodyguards,” two grey figures (the guards). The orange figure (a.k.a the Wizard) can summon, without benefit of a card played, any of these three figures to his square. The jester is a blue figure, and can act as a Joker to use its cards as any other colour. The crown piece, which can also win the game if you get it into one of the two spaces at your end of the board, only moves toward you if the board situation at the end of your turn involves both bodyguards on your half of the board and/or one (or more) of the other figures in your Chateau. And so on.

Ages 8+