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Hello friends of analog entertainment. Here we are, Hunter and Cron.
Right from the Spiel 2013 in Essen. And we have bought something new for you.
Cron has secured himself a tip.
Yes, a very small tip. Namely, the wonderful card game "Love Letter". From Seiji Kanai, a Japanese author.
An unused theme, because we write love letters to the princess in the royal court.
Her father, the king, wants to marry her and we players, we are the suiters.
We all write love letters and our goal is that at the end of the day these love letters reach the princess.
And if we succeed, then we score such a small heart.
If you read the instructions, you think well, a card game for 2-4 people.
Only 16 cards! Out of these only 8 different cards!
But it is precisely this simplicity that has a very special charm.
In the beginning, everyone gets one card and if it's your turn, you draw a second card from the pile,
thus you have two cards and then you can decide which of the two cards you play out.
As I said, there are only 16 cards, that represent all persons in the royal court.
The cards are all equally designed. Top left is name and the card value.
The Princess has the highest value 8. Then it goes down, Countess 7, King 6, Prince, Maid, Baron ,Priest
Down to the Guard with 1. Each card also has one function
and when I play the card, this function automatically comes into action.
There are two ways to win a round and to score one of the coveted hearts of the princess.
Namely, if either the draw pile is exhausted
and then everybody has still one card in his hand , which is then played out openly.
Who has the Princess, she is unique and has the highest value, has of course automatically won.
Similarly, if someone has the King and all the others would have only lower card values, he would also have won.
But what can also happen is that it does not come to this,
because a player succeeded to force all the other players into submission by using the functions of the cards.
And that is indeed the thrill of the game.
Because the Princess, for example, is indeed the supposedly strongest card,
because it has the highest card value. But it is also the most dangerous card,
Because if I am forced to play her out before the end of the game, I have also automatically lost.
I was really convinced by Love Letter as a filler, and it is a filler ,
because it takes as I said 15-30 minutes and you do not want to play it for nights and weeks.
But as a warmup or a midnight game "Love Letter" in my eyes is an almost perfect game.
A very atmospheric game, beautiful artwork, original mechanics and very entertaining.
You can play with people who have no clue about board games,
but you can also play with hardcore players
who want to relax from thinking a bit.
The only catch, I would say, because it's so much fun, you want to play it with more people.
But that's not possible. It is a game for 2-4 players , and ...
Well 2 players .. then you realize again that of course this game has its limitations, what you can do in it.
Because you have only 2 options.
What card do I play and then, Which players do I select with the effect of the card.
Which player I affect or try to harm .
And if there are only two player logically this option is also no longer an option .
You have to always select the other player. That's quite a limitation, so it's actually better for 3-4 players.
So what can you expect in the future, of course we have picked up more than Love Letter at the Spiel.
We want to present you one new game after the other in the near future.
Yes, we will first take care of all the innovations from Essen.
Rampage, Robinson Crusoe, Glück auf, Mayday Mayday, Phantom of the Opera.
We still have quite a pool. So we hope you had fun.
Love Letter, you play it and like it just as well as we do. And until next time.