Brian Boru: High King of Ireland

Fantastic game! I love the classic look of it, the tarot-sized cards, and the mini-games going on in this one. The fact that the winner is pushed back down in those mini-games, while the others continue to climb up, prevents runaway leader issues. The trick-taking is a nice change from the normal formula, since it's may-follow, rather than must-follow. Two different points of fantastic decisions: during drafting (what cards do you take/leave for others), and then during play do you play low cards or high cards, even when losing? Drafting in a trick-taker is such a cool idea, and just one of the many great ideas in this game!

Highly interactive Low to Midweight game. Plays within an hour. My boardgame club loves it.

At first, I wasn't sure about how I felt about being able to not follow suit, but it makes the game shine. Players have more control over what actions they want to take, whether they want to win the trick or not. Overall great mashup of multiple fun mechanics, although the theme is a bit lost on me. I will be playing this a lot more in the future.

So far, I've only played this as a 3 player game, but with the unique combination of drafting, playing tricks, and area control I can see this one will be in my collection for a while. I can't wait to try with 4 and 5 player as I think the game will change completely. Great fun and highly recommended.

Fantastic game! I would have never guessed that trick taking with area control would be this much fun. Extremely unique title that is definitely staying in my collection.

This game is so great the meshing of each mechanic works so wonderfully and more importantly I can see myself playing this for a very very long time . Great game.

I really like this one. What it does -it does well. I like the historical theme and feel which is supported by the game mechanics, and by the well done artwork. There is low rule overhead, and play can be explained fairly quickly. The game play is fairly quick and the game doesn't overstay its welcome. Tactics, in (1) card drafting, (2) card playing, and (3) area/town selection, are a nice puzzle, without too much analysis paralysis. It is not a true trick-taking mechanic - more of an action selection using cards. One is basically trying to control areas/towns with several mini-side-quests that will help - family marriages, defeating invading Vikings, causing Vikings to overtake opponents towns, and establish church influence to help control areas/towns. The single strange thing is the use of yellow discs for a player color - but some cities are also yellow on the board - they can blend which can be distracting. Games are typically close - haven't had a runaway yet ...

Excellent combination of trick-taking and area control. I have been recommending it to all of my friends.