Le Roi c'est Moi !

Long ago, in a land far, far away, there was a prosperous valley with many different inhabitants. They wandered aimlessly and needed a true leader to guide them. Are you the king who will show them the way? Do you have a strategy to gain their trust, and are you cunning enough to challenge the other potential kings? You can't trust them, because they will do anything to claim the crown you deserve. No sacrifice is too big or too small for them. They may think that being king is as easy as calling subjects to their side, extracting gold from them through taxes and arranging a few marriages, but only a true king will be able to maintain morale and lead the inhabitants through the ever-changing circumstances of the valley and the hills. In The King is Me! you must achieve the best reputation of all the contenders for the title of king, with reputation being determined by influence, bonuses and gold. To start, lay out 25 Age I character tiles on a 5 x 5 grid, with each king starting on a different tile and having 2 gold coins in his reserve.

On a turn, you may first choose to acquire a 'hill' tile for the gold price shown; the hill has two columns of six characters, with characters costing from 2 to 10 gold depending on their height on the hill. When you acquire a tile, you add it to your personal castle board. Characters have an influence of 0 to 5, with characters of 1 to 5 being sorted by type and the 0-value jester replacing a character of your choice (but still worth 0 influence). You then move your king orthogonally or diagonally, stopping on the character tile you want to claim; you can also move across 2 or 3 identical characters in a row, stopping on the square after them to collect them all! Add these character tiles to your castle board, and if you now have face-up characters with an influence of 1-5, you can turn them face-down to claim a kingdom bonus in points and coins.

To finish your turn, fill the empty spaces on the grid by choosing a column from the hill, then drawing characters from it as needed to fill the empty spaces. Finally, draw character tiles from the pile to fill the hill again, giving everyone a glimpse of what may come onto the playing area in the future, not to mention what can be acquired if you have enough coins in hand. Specialised characters appear on the board - the priest, the wizard and the tax collector - and you receive immediate bonus actions if you collect them. When the hill cannot be completely filled, the game ends. All characters in your collection add their influence points to your score. Collecting 3 to 5 knights in the same order gives you bonus points, as does every pairing of a farmer with a farmer's wife. Add any kingdom bonuses to your sum, then the one with the highest reputation wins.

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