| To Court the King | ||
 | ||
| Developer(s) | Tom Lehmann (designer) Volkan Baga (illustrator) | |
| Publisher(s) | Amigo Spiele (German) Rio Grande Games (English) | |
| Platform(s) | Dice-based board game | |
| Release | 2006 | |
| Mode(s) | 2-5 players | |
To Court the King is a dice-based board game for 2–5 players designed by Tom Lehmann. It was published in German by Amigo Spiele as Um Krone und Kragen (Around Crown and Collar) in 2006, and in English as To Court the King by Rio Grande Games. The basic mechanics of rolling and re-rolling dice have drawn comparisons to the game of Yahtzee.
Publication History
When Amigo Spiele was designing this game, they invited players to comment on the ongoing development and make suggestions. This started with the initial conceptualization, and continued through the prototype game, initial sketches of the character cards, final oil paintings, and selection of the symbols appearing on each card. Players were also invited to submit suggestions for a game title, and one of them, Um Krone und Kragen, was chosen.
Description
Components
The game components are:
- 60 character cards with 19 different characters
- 12 dice
- 5 character overview cards
- a starting player marker
- rulebook
Gameplay
For setup, the character cards are distributed in the middle of the table
The first player receives the starting player marker and starts a round of dice rolling with three dice. After the first roll, the active player may choose to reserve any number of those dice (but must choose at least one), and then re-rolls the rest. The active player can repeat this process a second time. Once the active player is done rolling, they may use those dice to claim any of the character cards. Different cards will require different combinations of dice. The Laborer, for example, requires a total of 15 or greater. The Knight requires 5 of a kind. Each character card claimed will give the owner an additional ability, ranging from rolling more dice or having additional re-rolls to the ability the change the die to the number of your choice, but a player cannot claim more than one of any type of character. Claimed cards are placed face-up in front of the owner.
Once the first player is finished, play then passes to the player on the left.
Once everyone has had a chance to roll dice and claim characters, the starting player marker is passed to the right, and the new starting player begins a new round of dice rolling.
Dice-rolling abilities gradually progress due to abilities conferred by owned character cards.
Endgame
The first player to roll seven identical dice acquires the king and queen. One final round of dice rolling follows this action, where each player is given the opportunity to wrest ownership of the king from the current owner by rolling a better dice result than the current owner rolled.
If the king is successfully claimed by another player during this final round, the owner of the queen has one last chance to roll a better total of dice to win back the king.
Victory conditions
After the final round of dice rolling is complete, the owner of the king is the winner.