The Court of Miracles – First Impressions
Review copy provided by the publisher
“I must tell you about the Brotherhood of the Poor, the Beggars’ Guild! The nobles have their rich palaces, the bourgeoisie their lavish homes. As for us, we have our Court of Miracles. Seedy courtyards to anyone who isn’t one of us, but for beggars, mendicants, and paupers, they’re real little pieces of heaven. Who knows, if you have a mind for it, you may well ascend to the throne someday. Tell me, kid, wouldn’t that suit you... to be the PENNILESS KING?”
The Court of Miracles is an area-majority, hidden worker placement game from designers Vincent Brugeas and Guilhem Gautrand. Published by Lucky Duck Games, it’s a strategy game for 2-5 players that will crown a new beggar king in under an hour.
This is a game of shifting power as players will compete for control of neighborhoods in Paris. The guild-leader who establishes their renown the fastest will be the one to take over after the passing of the Penniless King.
It’s a fast-paced smash-up of a lot of mechanisms that are exciting to many players in the hobby. Use your secretive Rogues to take up positions and perform actions, unleash devilish Plots whenever you can, and make sure that you’ll win the Standoffs to wrest control of the Parisian neighborhoods from your rivals.
What It Does
Players all start with the four same Rogue tokens. Three of them are available for use immediately and one is locked away behind a paywall for players to access later. These Rogue tokens are the agents used by the guilds of beggars in Paris and they represent each player as they move through the Parisian neighborhoods. Each neighborhood only has three available spaces and whenever they’re all filled, a Standoff will occur.
Whoever has the highest cumulative power on their Rogue tokens in that neighborhood wins the Standoff and takes control of the neighborhood. That’s one-half of placing Renown in The Court of Miracles. The second half of the Renown placement involves collecting coins and purchasing actions in the square. Those are one-time bonuses that give permanent Renown gain for players.
Using two Henchmen, one Beggar, and on Right-Hand, players will perform actions and place their Rogues in strategic locations to take control of neighborhoods back from their opponents and position carefully to get new ones. Identities are always concealed until a Standoff occurs. Rogue tokens can be exchanged throughout the game for fresh faces with unique powers, but the aim of the game is the same: increase your presence in Paris while the city is focused on the Penniless King.
During the game, players will also be able to use Plot cards, which can strengthen an action, steal coins, retrieve discarded Plot cards, and do other nefarious things. These are a manipulation of the game’s core rules and give players additional freedom over how they take their turn.
How It Does It
In the area-control pie that is The Court of Miracles, some interesting ingredients have been baked into the crust of player vs. player meeple-cide.
Worker placement is at the center of the game, with Rogue tokens going down on the board to activate certain neighborhood locations and powers. These Rogue tokens remain hidden in value until a Standoff occurs.
Variable powers take effect through the use of Plot cards, and these disrupt the natural state of things. The status quo gets an update on the News Feed as these cards stir up conflict and harder-hitting turns.
And then you’ve obviously got the area control elements in the game where neighborhood control is an essential part of every player’s strategy as they resist any intrusion by their opponents. The permanent Renown gain at the square will certainly be necessary, but it’s usually one to three neighborhoods being controlled by one player that will decide the game.
Understanding how Standoffs work and how best to counter whatever other players do is important for winning a game of The Court of Miracles.
Why You Might Like It
If you’re a fan of area control games, then The Court of Miracles is interesting because it can facilitate up to five players and still finish in less than an hour. That’s a tough ask for many of its area-control peers, so this can be a welcoming foray into those types of strategy games while remaining accessible for a wide player base.
The combination of neighborhood control, special action Plot cards, interchangeable hidden workers, and coin-based permanent control markers is an intriguing one. The puzzle is light enough for newer players to enjoy but variable enough to give more veteran players something to think about.
Why You Might Not
The gameplay experience is considerably weaker with just two players, as there isn’t enough movement on the board and it’s easier to program out your moves. With three players, it’s better. But on the high end, with five, it’s likely that the board state would change so much between player turns that strategy and planning would be difficult. So there are significant changes to the experience depending on player count.
At the end of the day, the choices in The Court of Miracles are interesting for a few games, but I’m not sure there is enough variability and interesting card or token choices to keep some players engaged over more plays.
Final Thoughts
The Court of Miracles makes some compelling design decisions that are usually immediate attractors for me. Worker placement with hidden power values on the tokens. Area control mechanics tied to locations on the board with variable powers. A coin-based system for players to attain permanent control points on the board. Single-use cards with abilities to mix things up at any given turn.
All of that sounds exciting on a theoretical level, but I feel like the game stumbled in its execution somewhat. The cumulative effect of those mechanisms doesn’t quite capture what I imagined they would. And part of that might be the result of the wrong player count for the game. The game felt anemic at two and just fine at three. I never got to play the game at the two higher player counts, but I’m less inclined to now.
Instead of an exciting turbulent storm of player versus player interactions, the gameplay was placid for the most part. There were glimmers of the swirling winds on the perimeter, but it never quite got picked up in the tempest.
It’s possible that The Court of Miracles is a fantastic 4- or 5-player game for other players, but I’m not sure that I’m going to be one of them. With the “Release the river!” level of games that are coming out nowadays, I think this is a solid game. Just not a great game, for me.
The Plot cards feel imbalanced as some cards are almost always useful while others are situational. The token upgrades that can be acquired from the bag function similarly, with certain Rogue tokens offering much more usability than others. And the hidden information was never as troubling as one would expect, leaving relatively simple decisions for players to make on their turn. All of that didn’t coalesce for me. It didn’t really feel as riveting as I’d hope.
If you really like area control games or are wanting something different for family or friends at a larger player count, then this does support five players, which is nice. It will just be a matter of determining if the collision of mechanics meshes well with your play preferences.
If you want to check out The Court of Miracles, you can learn more about Lucky Duck Games or read what the community thinks on BoardGameGeek.
The Court of Miracles promises area control in a short span of time. That’s a rare thing in this genre so it’s interesting to see how that works out depending on the player count. Do you know of any other area control games that play quickly?
Let us know in the comments and give a recommendation for other games of which to share our first impressions.