Welcome back to the world of Valeria!

In May, we reviewed the first Valeria game published by Daily Magic Games, Valeria: Card Kingdoms. It’s a fun card and dice game where players build their crew of various citizens to expand their realm and fight monsters.

Since then, Daily Magic Games has published a number of card games in the Valeria universe. Each have unique game mechanics.

Today, we’re excited to share our thoughts on one of the most recent Valeria card games, Thrones of Valeria.

It’s a unique trick-taking card game where the ranks of the different Houses (suits) change constantly. Every card played may alter your plans. We hope you’ve got what it takes to win in Valeria.

 

How to play Thrones of Valeria

Thrones of Valeria is a trick-taking card game for 2 to 6 players. With 4 or 6 players, you can also play in 2-person teams.

The goal of the game is to be the player (or team) with the most money after 2 rounds.

To begin, the 48 cards are shuffled and dealt to players depending on player count. For example, in a 3-player game, each player starts with 13 cards while in a 6-player game, each player starts with 7 cards. The undealt cards become a draw deck. Each player also starts with 2 silver coins.

The 5 colored House tiles are randomly set on the Standings Board in the middle of the play area. The player with the highest ranked card of the House highest on the board begins the first trick of a round.

When a player starts a trick, they may choose any card from their hand to play.

The big twist in Thrones of Valeria from other trick-taking card games is that when a player plays a card from their hand, they must also perform the associated action. Each card rank (number) has a special action. The icons are on the side of the card (and also described on a reference card).

1. Assassin: Move one House tile to the bottom of the Standings and shift all others up.
2. Thief: Take 2 Silver coins from an opponent.
3. Mercenary: Gain 3 Silver coins.
4. Rogue: Swap the positions of 2 adjacent Houses on the Standings.
5. Hunter: Draw 3 cards and add 1 of them to your hand. Put the remaining 2 at the bottom of the draw deck.
6. Alchemist: No immediate action. If you win the trick with this card, gain 6 Silver coins instead of the House Standings reward.
7. Sorceress: Gain 1 Silver coin then discard a card from your hand.
8. Condottiere: Lock or Unlock 1 House Standing tile. Locked House tiles may not be move by other actions.
9. Matriarch: Move 1 House up 2 Standings and move the others down 1 space each.
10. There are also 3 green Jester cards. Players pay 1, 2, or 3 coins to activate it and move it above all Houses. If you win with a Jester, you gain 5 Silver coins instead of the House Standings reward.

As with most trick-taking card games, the first played card in a trick determines the color that following players must play. If following players don’t have a card in that color, they may choose to play any card from their hand.

After all players have played a card, determine who wins the trick.

The player who played the highest rank card of the House in the highest Standing position on the board wins the trick.

The winner of the trick gains the reward (or pays the penalty) indicated on the Standings board next to the House color they played to win the trick. For example, if that House color is at the top of the board, the player gains 5 coins. If it’s at the bottom of the board, they must pay 3 coins.

If all players still have cards in their hand, the player who just won the trick begins a new trick. If any player is out of cards, the round ends.

At the end of the first round, shuffle and deal out the cards again for round two.

After two rounds, the player with the most money wins!

 

Can the whole family enjoy Thrones of Valeria?

Thrones of Valeria is a fun card game for older kids and above. The main reason being the added complexity of having each card force an action and the constantly changing Houses on the Standards board.

And that’s also why we love the game!

We’ve played an enjoy lots of trick-taking card games. And we’re constantly impressed by the new ways publishers put a spin on basic trick-taking.

With Thrones of Valeria, our minds are clicking throughout the whole game. We’re constantly thinking about the impact of each card in our hands.

Since many of the cards have an action that shifts the House tiles on the Standings board, you often won’t know who is going to win a trick until the last card in that trick is played.

Sure we can play a high card to win a trick. But if it’s low on the Standards board, do we really want to win the trick and have to pay a penalty? Or is there a way to play a card which will switch the House order and get someone else stuck with winning when they don’t want to an have to pay a penalty?

Plus, we can play the game in teams!

When you play in teams, your coins are kept collectively. You have to work together to get more money than your opponent teams. But you can’t communicate what’s in your hand. So you have to think not only about what’s in your own hand, but what your teammate may have and how you can work the Standings to win big.

The one thing we find interesting though is the lack of a cohesive tie to Valeria. The only reference to Valeria is in the intro in rule book where it says this is a card game played by the people in Valeria. The game play itself nor the artwork give us a Valeria vibe.

Even though we like the artwork, if I hadn’t seen the box cover or name of the game, I would never have guessed it was in the Valeria universe of games. All the other Valeria games have the same art style and iconography. But Thrones is different in that regard. It seems like Daily Magic Games was just riding the popularity of the Valeria name by putting that in the name of the game.

On the plus side though, you don’t have to have played or be familiar with any Valeria game to enjoy playing Thrones of Valeria.

 

How does Thrones of Valeria score on our “Let’s Play Again” game meter?

Thrones of Valeria scores high on our “Let’s Play Again” game meter.

The first games for new players take a bit of getting used to the different actions and figuring out how to best use them to your advantage. But after that, it’s a great game to dig into again and again.

If you like trick-taking card games and are looking for a new one with a twist, then we’d recommend checking out Thrones of Valeria.

 
The Board Game Family would like to thank Daily Magic Games for the review copy of Thrones of Valeria.

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