AH King Maker

[Melmouth]

Does anyone out there play King Maker (KM) by Avalon Hill? I prefer the board game to the lame DOS game AH published in 1995.

It's a wonderful game with a unique mix of skill diplomacy and luck.



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-Melmouth the Conqueror

 

[Algernon Pondlife]

Kingmaker. Invented by Andrew McNeil and published by Philmar. Presumably bought up by AH sometime later. They went through a phase of buying up British designed games; another one was called Civilization.

I have played the game off and on since the mid seventies. I never quite got the hang of it in he sense that things seemed to stalemate with no reasonable risks available for anyone. But it was still fun for a while and the whole family played.

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Nothing is too wonderful to be true

 

[Melmouth]

We have been playing 4 times a year for 15 years with a group from college. What we find breaks the stalemates is that people (usually without an heir) ally and dice for the heir if they are victorious. This stops the constable from camping impregnable in London with an heir until the other guy bites the dust.

We also have a parlimentary victory where if all the heir have been claimed, a player with a plurality of Lords and Majority of commons is declared the winner.

Even so, the average game takes 1 hr/player, with a very high standard deviation. The longest 5 player game took 16 hours, the shortest 1 hour.

Interested in a PBEM attempt?

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-Melmouth the Conqueror

 

[Flatlander Fox]

Played it, and wished that I had it now...

It was one of those rare multi-player games that didn't take FOREVER, but was riveting until the last turn.

Only problem was that the damn plague would always wipe out my armies.

Or better yet, my monarch to be would be waiting in some highly defensible position and all of his protection would get called away to other wars.

No good

.

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I'm so tired of being tired... Sure as night will follow day... Most things I worry about, never happen anyway...

 

[Alcibiaties of Athenae]

Ah, many fine memories of this game!

So many times my fine group of nobels would be a turn from victory, only to be called to some petty peasant revolt, or to have "Bad weather delays attack"!

I down-loaded the PC version from a abonded ware site, but it crashes after a few turns, plus it's game play wasn't much, it was actually confusing.

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[Lefty Scaevola]

Been many years since I have played it. It was not one of my favorites. The cut throats

in my game group rapidly mastered the dipomatic, alliance, and military rules, and each games became much the same a few turns of aquisition, tow alliances formed (no survival for independants) one big battle resulting in hopeless codintion for the losers, the winners stick together and elect an heir king in parliment. The earlier games where we did not know what we were doing were much more fun.

 

[Melmouth]

Luckily we avoided some of those perils. We established a house rule prohibiting permanent alliances or alliances with a specific quantifiable purpose. No joint victories were allow unless by the unanimous consent of all the players.

Diplomacy is still an important part of our game though, but it is for finite purposes.

"Let's ally and get that bastard Constable sitting in the tower of london with 2 yorkists heirs. We can dice to see who gets the senior heir - the looser gets the junior plus the city. 1 turn non-agression pact after."

To speed up game play, we ruled that you cold not trade cards on your turn (unless you needed a "Kings Pardon".

Also, all deals were subject to the approval of the moral majority as to conforming to the spirit of the "house rules" game"

I once proposed that we remove all the "Bad Weather delays attack" cards, but was overwhelmingly outvoted 4-1 by the house rule making regulars. I believe their comment was "Why should we make it easier for you to beat us?".

Also my proposal for road construction in Wales and Cornwall was turned down. I didn't even try to suggest that we should build a tunnel to Calais.<grin>

It still remains my all time favorite game. The AH dos version was pathetic.

If we could figure out a way to play over the internet or by email, are there any others out who would be interested in participating?

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-Melmouth the Conqueror