Architects of the West Kingdom

Every workforce has an optimal size. Yours is however many you can afford to have arrested.

The Carolingian Empire is coming apart, it is around 850 AD, and the King wants monuments. You are one of his architects, competing to build the landmarks that keep you in noble standing. That means raw materials, apprentices, and a close eye on where your people are standing at any given moment, because these are treacherous years and your rivals are not above having your workforce carted off. Shem Phillips and S J Macdonald designed it; the Garphill house style of muted colour and heavy iconography is all over it.

The clever, faintly nasty bit is that workers here are not protected. Pile several onto one action and you get more from it — but a stack of your workers sitting in the open is a target, and any rival can pay to have them thrown in gaol. You can also inform on your own people for coin, which is exactly as grubby as it sounds and tracked on a virtue marker that everyone can see. Sliding down it opens the black market and closes the cathedral. Around eighty minutes, and it is a genuine step up in weight from a gateway game.

Perfect for: Anyone who has ever done the honest thing chiefly because someone was watching.

1–5 players | 80 minutes | Age 12+

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