Stats:
No. of players: 2
Amount of time to play: 30-60 min
Age requirements: 12+
Set-up time: 5 min

For the Crown Rules Description:

For the Crown is the lovechild of Dominion and Chess. So do these seemingly strange bedfellows create a decent game or just something strange?

For the Crown mixes the positioning, movement and tactics of Chess with the buys, actions and deck-building of Dominion. The game play is fairly straightforward and follows the basic flow of Dominion.

You setup the game using a Supply of four core cards and ten others. Your turn consists of the following phases: Order, Action, Buy and Housekeeping.

During the Order phase you may give one order which includes: attack, move, deploy new cards or play a card with an Order effect. The Action phase allows you to play one action card. You may buy one card in the Buy phase and Housekeeping discards all your cards and drawing five new ones.

Unlike Chess there are fifteen different units. All the normal units from Chess are present as well as nine others with their own unique movements.

Your goal is to remove all of your opponent’s Sovereign units (Kings) from the board first.

A Quick For the Crown Review:

For the Crown has simple gameplay layered on top of the tactics and strategy from Chess. The deck-building is the engine to build your army.

While not a huge Chess fan the innovation behind For the Crown is great. It may take you a couple plays, but once you learn the cards and their abilities the game will flow better.

You can build a custom army of units that suits your style of play and helps you win the game.

I have to say I like Victory Point Games’ business model. Low-cost components = low-cost games. But unlike their other games, I think For the Crown suffers from the quality of the components. The cards are not full-sized, are hard to shuffle and must be sleeved or laminated. The board is light and can be shifted easily which will displace the units. I recommend using a regular chess board.

For the Crown offers a unique game experience. If you dislike Chess or Dominion, this game is not for you. However if these games appeal to you, then so should For the Crown. It may be purchased on Victory Point’s website.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 4 out of 6
Luck 3 out of 6
Player Interaction 4 out of 6
Replay Value 4 out of 6
Complexity 3 out of 6
Fun 4 out of 6
Overall 4 out of 6