Wednesday, February 17, 2021

Retrospective: Kingmaker

Though I have dabbled, I cannot by any stretch of the imagination call myself a wargamer (everybody taken a drink). That said, there are a handful of "historical simulation games" that I've played a great deal over the years. One of the most prominent is Kingmaker, designed by Andrew McNeil and originally published by PhilMar in the United Kingdom in 1974. I never saw that version of the game. Instead, I first encountered Kingmaker in its US edition, released the following year by Avalon Hill. 

Kingmaker is a simulation of the Wars of the Roses, a civil war of the 15th century fought for control of the English throne between two rival branches of the Plantagenet dynasty. These branches, the House of Lancaster and the House of York, each used a different colored rose (red and white respectively) as their symbols, hence the popular name of he conflict. Being very fond of medieval history, the subject held great appeal to me, as did the fact that it could accommodate a variable number of players, from two to seven, thereby making it a perfect game to play while waiting for friends to arrive for a weekly gaming session (back in the days when people still saw one another in person). Another element of the game's appeal to me was its lack of concern for how the actual Wars of the Roses played out. 

Unlike some wargames, before and since, which place a premium on ensuring events unfold in a manner vaguely approximating history, Kingmaker is sufficiently open-ended that counterfactual things can and do happen. Thus, Richard Plantagenet can die of plague in Calais rather than ascending St Edward's Chair as King Richard III, for example. This greatly appealed to me and one of my continued frustrations with many contemporary wargame designs is the concern for modeling the flow of real world history rather than using past historical conflicts as a frame for a more wide-ranging game. Consequently, Kingmaker remains for me the gold standard of what I hope for in a wargame, despite its age and occasionally infelicitous mechanics.

Each player controls a faction in the civil war, being dealt resource cards that represents things such as people, which is to say nobles; offices, cities and towns, military forces, and so forth. The goal of the game is to marshal sufficient resources to have one of the nobles your faction controls crowned king of England, a process that takes time and a great deal of effort. What I love about Kingmaker is that the throne cannot generally be won solely through strength of arms but through a combination of a success in battle, diplomacy, and dumb luck. The game includes numerous random events that can disrupt one's well laid plans, such as the aforementioned plague, as well as revolts, piracy, and the summoning of Parliament. Random events ensured that even the most skillful and clever player might suffer a serious reversal, a fact I know annoyed many players but which I thought was key to keeping the game's re-playability.  

Because a player's faction is made up of named nobles, some of whom hold specific offices, like Chancellor of the Duchy of Cornwall or Warden of the Northern Marches, Kingmaker games inevitably acquired pseudo-roleplaying elements. One came to identify with the noblemen of your faction, investing them with hopes and goals, almost as if they were characters in a RPG. This kind of identification with one's "pieces" is, I understand it, quite commonplace in wargames and no doubt led to the birth of roleplaying as a separate, derivative hobby. Reading Tony Bath's descriptions of his various campaigns as I have been lately, I see a similar dynamic in action. Playing Kingmaker gave me a greater understanding of the process by which my preferred hobby was born.

Like Revolt on Antares, Kingmaker is a wargame I once played a great deal and, as a consequence, has deeply influenced my expectations of what a wargame can and should be. I still own a copy of the Avalon Hill version, but I don't think I've played it since the last century. That may need to change. It's a truly excellent game that's given me untold hours of enjoyment – not bad for a game that's almost half a century old.

15 comments:

  1. Kingmaker is one of the few board games that I never get tired of. Always a new game each time.

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  2. An revised version by Gibson's Games is apparently well into development and playtesting, though Covid seems to have pushed back the release, you might find the public feedback/discussion thread on bgg of interest.
    link: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2494597/redeveloping-kingmaker-2020

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    1. Thanks for the link. The prospect of a "revised" version of the game both intrigues and worries me. I hope the new version will not change too much about the original gameplay.

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    2. haha, that was my feeling as well. The thread is heartening. Seems to be focused more on resolving ambiguities, making cards easier to read, and having any innovations be optional variants of play, such as shorter 3-hour game mode; while leaving ability to play classic mode if you desire. Doing things like developing a simplified zone-movement map, but having the classic map on the reverse side.

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    3. I had a chat with Gibson Games a couple of years ago about Kingmaker following my review of it. Essentially was interested to see a modern take upon it. I have long been a fan of the game, it being, along with Escape from Colditz, my favourite boardgames from my childhood.

      http://rlyehreviews.blogspot.com/2014/07/1974-kingmaker.html

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  3. We played Kingmaker extensively, I've lots of fond memories of it, although I think I never won.

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  4. One of the games I still have from the 70s and my kids loved to play it when they were in High School. One of the all time great board games IMO.

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  5. I wish someone was doing a reprint of Titan too!

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    1. What, another one? It was reprinted in 2008, have those all dried up to insane collector's prices by now?

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    2. This one's a bit long for my tastes, but the planned revised reprint sounds like it's working out the glitchy rules stuff and offering a faster-playing alternative option, so I'm keeping an eye on it. It certainly does have excellent replay value, and I'm with you on preferring fairly freeform historical simulations rather than recreations for wargames - exacting replays of historical outcomes get dull fast.

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  6. A copy of Titan currently ranges in price from 85 to 200 Euros (more or less 100 to 240 USD).

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    1. I believe that there was a reprint of Titan recently, wasn't there? Or am I misremembering?

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    2. The latest (Valley edition, with different counters from Trampier's) is from 2008, and is not currently in print, as far as I know.
      Digital editions are available for iOS, maybe Tabletop Simulator too, but I'm unsure.

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  7. I spent too many hours (or weeks) playing Kingmaker at Uni and then more recently with my son...great game. I was lucky enough to play in a couple of the playtester for the planned new edition...looks good.

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  8. I last played on Dec 31, 1999 (go figure). Memorable not because of that, but the incredible tension as I manipulated diplomatically and managed resources without doing a damned thing on the board itself, for hours. Amazing experience. Can't recall who won. Great game, will be better if they remove the 'ambiguities'. My copy is pre AH.

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