Product-Fidelitas
Producer–Green Couch Games
Price– $ 20 here http://www.amazon.com/Green-Couch-Games-Fidelitas/dp/B00RZNJ6KK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1456088649&sr=8-1&keywords=fidelitas
Set-up/Play/Clean-up– 20 minutes (2-4 players)
Type-European
Depth-Light
TL; DR-A simple, small town hides the depth underneath. 95%
Basics-The Revolution will not be televised, but it will be gamified! In Fidelitas, players take the roles of different revolutionaries fighting for support of the guilds of a town to overthrow the cruel king! This is done in an extremely simple card placement game where you move various guild members all around the town’s buildings. Set up is placing the town cards out and then each player drawing two Missio(objective) cards and two Virtus (guild member) cards. Each turn player then does three things in order: play one Virtus card, score as many Missio as they can, and possibly draw one or more Virtus cards. The main part of the game are the Virtus cards. These cards are the different guild members and the powers the each have. A Virtus card is placed into its guild location if possible and then the cards power occurs. These powers vary from moving cards to different locations, drawing cards to a location, and even removing cards from the location totaly. Or the player can play the card to the tavern and then discard Missio cards and draw new ones. Next, the active player checks his or her Missio cards to see if they have occurred. Missio cards have objectives that could be having three members of a guild on both sides of a location card, have so many of each guild at a location, and even only have members of a specific guild at a location. Finally, the player draws up Missio and VIrtus cards, and the next player takes his or her turn. Play continues until one player has 10 points and all players have had an equal number of turns. Then the player with the most points wins and leads the guilds to overthrow the crown!
Mechanics-I love games that are simple and complex at the same time. The best comparison to this game is Connect Four if players had to complete different patterns. Players move cards around trying to create patterns of different guilds according to their Missio cards. As they are hidden, no one has a good idea of what your goal is and that makes this even more fun. You may accidently score due to the actions of your opponents! The games simple to play and learn but complex to master nature makes this a blast. The icing on this cake is that this experience also happens in under half an hour! 5/5
Theme– The game has a theme, but it’s not as strong as some other games. I feel the theme of earning influence, but I don’t feel as much as a conquering hero to the revolution. It’s fun, but might not hit the original story’s goal. 4/5
Instructions-The instructions are short and sweet. If you can read the rules in the introduction of this article, you know how to play! Also extremely useful is the fact the the rules describe corner cases to make playing the game that much easier. 5/5
Execution-The game comes in a small box, but packs enough punch to be awesome. The card art is fun, the minimal writing is enough to give you the rules without being overbearing, and the cardstock is great quality. It’s all the things I want in a simple, elegant card came. Also for about $20, it’s priced right for what it is. 5/5
Summary-I love games that have you mastering the game’s mechanics in under five minutes but have enough depth to keep your playing. This is a pocket game. If you’re ever bored, then pulling this game from your pocket is a great way to spend half an hour. Even better your average bar table will hold this game along with an order of fries and some drinks. It’s compact, yet well put together. It’s simple, but deep. The only problem I have is the game’s story. It’s not a bad story by any means, but I didn’t necessarily feel the story when I played the game. If you can get past that one point, you will have a blast sitting down to play this game. 95%
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