Stats:
No. of players: 2-4
Amount of time to play: 45-60 min
Age requirements: 10+
Set-up time: minimal

Tumult Royale is a game about resource management and area control. Can you build more statues than your opponents before the game ends?

Tumult Royale Rules Description:

In Tumult Royale you are a royal and want to spread statues of yourself around all the land. Of course this requires resources and what better way to get those resources than stealing from the common folk. If you are too greedy the people revolt and take some of their stuff back.

You start Tumult Royal with 25 statues. Each player will have a starting rank. The rank cards are double-sided with one side showing a male and the other a female of that rank. After deciding you will go first each player places one statue on the board in reverse order of their rank.

The king (or queen) then spins on the tumult spinner to gauge the people’s sentiment. Depending on the result, the people will require anywhere from two to five of each resource. There are three resources, bread, marble and tools.

After you know what the people are demanding, you collect taxes. There are resource tiles with one to three bread, marble or tools on them. The tiles are placed in the center of the table face down. Then each player removes three tiles without looking at them. Next the king (or queen) flips thee 20 second timer and players use only one hand to look at the tiles and decide if they want them.

Building statues on different types of terrain costs a different number of resources. And some terrain lets you build two or three statues there. It is cheaper to build on spaces adjacent to your current statues. So before you collect taxes you should look at where you want to build statues. This gives you a goal for what resources you need.

Once the sand timer is empty you flip the remaining tiles in the center of the table face up. All players also flip their tiles face up. You count the total of each resource in the center of the table. If you left enough of a resource to satisfy the result from the tumult spinner nothing happens. But if there are less of any of the resources a tumult occurs. The player that has taken the most of a resource involved in a tumult loses all their tiles but the one with the lowest value and three supporters (more on supporters in a bit). If players tie have the same number of a resource involved in a tumult, the higher ranked player loses their tiles.

Then starting with the highest ranked player you pay resource tiles and place statues on the board. The trick is you cannot make change. So if you spend a tile with three tools and you only need two the extra cannot be used to build on another space. But for each resource you spend that you don’t need, you get one supporter (again keep reading for more on supporters). Each player builds on one space then the next lowest ranking player gets to build. This keeps going until all players have built all they can.

Now you redistribute ranks (and learn about supporters). The player with the most supporters becomes the new king (or queen). The rest of the ranks are distributed in descending order of the players’ supporters. If two players have the same number of supporters the player with the higher rank the previous round gets the higher rank. The new king loses five supporters and places a statue on the track that measures the game’s end.

The track on the board has space for one or two statues. It also determines when more land tiles are flipped face up and the end of the game. The last five spaces have a number under them. You subtract the number of statues the last place player has from the leader’s total. If the result is greater than the number below the most recent space, the game ends. The player with the most statues built wins the game.

A Quick Review of Tumult Royale:

Tumult Royale is a fun game for families. It has a funny theme that really comes through in the mechanics too.

The components for this game are great. The art is sort of goofy and helps evoke the theme. The rules are easy to follow and read.

Tumult Royale has a unique theme that is fun and wonky. I can just imagine a bunch of royals wanting to plaster their busts across the countryside and using their peasants’ stuff to do so. As you grab tiles and are involved in tumults, it sometimes feels like you are being too greed and might have to pay for infuriating the people.

My kids enjoyed playing this and once you get the hang of it, it plays fast. There is little downtime.

Like I said some spaces let you build more than one statue there. They cost more resources but can really help you get your statues on the board. Players seem to fight over these spots so you need to plan where you are building and try to keep others away from the valuable spaces.

How the rankings fit into the game play and theme is nice too. The king places statues first and on the time track but they are considered the greediest if there are ties during tumults. And the fact they lose supporters very round means the ranks will shift often.

Tumult Royale is very good for families but I am not sure hard core gamers will enjoy it. It is on the lighter side and they might want more decision making ability. There are decisions to be made, but most are pretty straightforward. So if this sounds interesting pick it up, but some players may want to try before they buy.

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