For the King (and Me)
The air is buzzing in the King’s Court! All the advisers are busy bustling about the young monarch, each one trying their best to attract the ruler’s attention. When the King finally takes power, he will surely appoint his most loyal advisers to positions within his Council. How will they stand out? By taking on the most prestigious duties, of course! Who will take care of all the necessary tasks concerning diplomacy, architecture, and the military - not to mention all the royal banquets? Most importantly… how will you choose the right time to sweeten the pot and belittle the other contenders in the King’s eyes? Improving your own image while weakening others’ - that’s the Court in a nutshell!
The game is played over 2 phases. During the first phase, players will take turns drawing cards one by one and deciding where to place them until the deck is empty. During the second phase, players will acquire new cards and gain riches. Be the player with the most influence in each office of the government to gain the most points! Invest your Gold wisely to establish yourself in different offices: diplomacy, military, architecture, livestock, entertainment, and provisions! Lower the esteem of the offices your opponents are focused on to become the ultimate Adviser to the King!
Number of players: 2 - 5
Game duration: 20 mn
Complexity: 1 / 5
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Play For the King (and Me) and 730 other games online.
No download necessary - play directly from your web browser.
With your friends and thousands of players from the whole world.
Free.

Rules summary
Setup
- There are 5 offices in 2-4 player games and 6 with 5 players.
- Each office's primary value start at 3 and their secondary value start at 1. There are no secondary values with 2 players.
- Remove cards according to player count (also see "Card Distribution" section below.
- Remove 4 of each gold and 22 random cards with 2 players,
- Remove 3 of each gold and 13 random cards with 3 players,
- Remove 2 of each gold and and 8 random cards with 4 players.
Gameplay
- The game consists of 2 phases: share influence and gain esteem.
- Government cards represent the offices you can occupy. Their values range from 1 to 4.
- At any time if you gain a king card, you must immediately use it to adjust the primary value of a office to a new value between 1 and 6.
- Players take turns to be the advisor.
- The advisor draws the top card from the deck and decide whether to put it in front of himself, in the middle, or on the favor deck.
- Each place can only hold 1 card, except the middle can hold one card per opponent. The advisor draws until all places are full.
- Then, each opponent gains one card in the middle of the table and add it to their hand.
- If the deck is empty, start the gain esteem phase.
Gain Esteem
- Reveal the top card of the favor deck. Starting with the first player, each player bid on the card.
- The number bidded must be at least 1 and larger than the last bid value. If you pass, you cannot bid on the card.
- The last bidder remaining must pay their bid. If the card is a king or government card, you pay with gold. Else you pay by discarding cards.
- If you cannot pay, one of your cards is instead randomly discarded.
- Repeat until the favor deck is empty. Then scoring takes place.
End of the Game
- For each office, each player adds up the value of their respective government cards.
- The player with the highest value gains the office's primary value while the second highest gain the secondary value (1/2 of the primary value, rounded down).
- Ties are broken by alphabetical order on the cards.
- The player with the highest score wins. In case of a tie, the tied player with the most gold wins, then the most blue cards (diplomancy).
Card Distribution
- Orange, Violet, and Green : 7x 1s, 2x 2s
- Red, Blue, and Pink: 4x 2s, 3x 3s, 2x 4s
- Gold: 13x 1s, 13x 2s, 13x 3s
- Color Manipulation:
- +1, -1, +1 (2 colors), -1 (2 colors): x3 each
- +1/-1: x2
- +1/-1 (2 colors): x1
- In games with less than 5 players the pink suit is removed. In addition:
- For 2 players remove 4x of each type of gold plus 22 random cards
- For 3 players remove 3x of each type of gold plus 13 random cards
- For 4 players remove 2x of each type of gold plus 8 random cards