Renegade Game Studios Renegade Game Studio | Architects of the West Kingdom | Board Game | Ages 12+ | 1 to 5 Players | 60 to 80 Minutes Playing Time

Product Information

Architects felt ok to me, but I did not take advantage of several of the spaces that make the game special, so I don’t feel equipped to judge it. There is a victory point score associated with your position on the track at the end of the game… but there are also in-game benefits/penalties for your current position. Two Influence can be spent to prevent one virtue loss or reduce a cost by two Silver, while four Influence can reduce a cost by one gold or marble. The tax stall, which gets populated with a portion of all the money spent in the game, works like the way everyone misremembers free parking working in Monopoly.

My first impression was “Wow, this reminds me of Stone Age”, and I can tell you that in my books, that’s high praise. The aim of Architects of the West Kingdom is to be the player with the most Victory Points (VP) at the game’s end. The ability to capture workers adds depth to the game as does the Virtue balancing act (both for VP at the end of the game as well as the ability to do certain actions in-game). It’s why on every serious application you ever use on your computer you’ll find ‘print’ under the ‘file’ menu.The insert is perfectly serviceable, and the box is perfectly adequate, even for adding extras from the Kickstarter. The solo version of the game is well worth playing if you have a hankering to play but you don’t have the players. And yet, it all plays in a fresh way because of the way output is exponentially influenced by input. It’s not a game like The Lost Ruins of Arnak, where there is worker-placement, but you only have two workers.

It’s not to your benefit to have fifty pieces stone on your player board if all you’ll ever need is ten. If you believe board game accessibility is important and can support our Patreon you'd be helping make sure the site can continue with this valuable work. It mimics a player’s need to spend turns visiting those locations, but doesn’t cripple the bot’s ability to build when it’s sent to the Guildhall. I do appreciate that this game is a nice, lightweight worker placement game, with a twist and I love that twist. When the player has played their turn, they flip over a card of the bot deck and follow what the card says.A few underhanded deals here and there might not seem like much, but fall too far and you will be punished. Your owner is approaching and they haven’t yet noticed what you’re doing so you’d best speed up before they reach you. They may then place their two trackers on the main game board, one on space seven of the Virtue track, and the other underneath the Cathedral spaces.