Stats:
No. of players: 2-5
Amount of time to play: 20 min
Age requirements: 12+
Set-up time: 5 min

Rising Kings Rules Description:

In Rising Kings the old king has died and has no heir. Can you gain enough support and influence to become the new king?

Rising Kings is a card game published by Omnigames. The game starts by dealing out seven cards to each player. The game ends once the draw deck is empty. The player with the most points at game ends win.

There are three types of cards: characters, buildings and rebellion cards. Each character or building card has specific abilities that let you draw cards, play more cards or destroy (or steal) other players’ cards. One rebellion card negates one City Guard or Fortress for one turn. When in play, these City Guards and Fortresses must be targeted instead of your other character and building cards respectively.

On your turn you draw two cards, keeping one and discarding the other. You then play one character and/or building and as many rebellions as you want, in any order. You must always play at least one character or building if you have one in your hand.

The character and building cards you play remain in front of you, but may be destroyed, swapped or stolen by other players. Rebellion cards stay in play until the draw phase of the person who laid its next turn.

At the end of the game you score one point for every character and two points for every building in front of you. You also get five bonus points if you have the most character cards in front of you. For each building type you have the most of you get two bonus points per building of that type.

Most points = new king!

A Quick Review of Rising Kings:

Rising Kings plays fast and is a really fun filler card game. There is a lot of gang up on the leader as you try to take down anyone who gets too far ahead. Destroying or stealing buildings and killing characters will get you ahead and sometimes quickly. Which means you are the new target.

It takes a bit to get used to the different abilities of the cards, but Omnigames has included a great reference sheet for each player. And after a few plays you should have a decent grasp of the cards abilities. The rules are well written and Rising Kings is easy to teach.

The components are great and the artwork is fun and whimsical just like the game. There is definitely a decent amount of luck involved in Rising Kings, but still enough meaningful decisions.

I highly recommend this game to most anyone. Unless you hate screw you games, I am sure you’ll enjoy it.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 2 out of 6
Luck 5 out of 6
Player Interaction 5 out of 6
Replay Value 4 out of 6
Complexity 2 out of 6
Fun 5 out of 6
Overall 4 out of 6