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From:FX Schmid USA
Cost: $11
Players: 2-4
Playing Time: 30-45 minutes
Type of game: Beer 'n' Pretzels
Skill level: 3
Complexity: 4
Reviewed by: Peter Sarrett, Issue 6.2 (22), January 2000
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Rarely has my needle wavered so wildly across the gauge. I quite liked Knights of the Rainbow when I first played it. Then I took it home and decided it was flawed, random, and pointless. One player in our group really liked it, though, and so it made its way back to the table enough times for strategies to surface. Nothing deep mind you- this is definitely beer & pretzels stuff- but enough to send the needle on a rebound out of the red zone. Barely.
Knights of the Rainbow is from FX Schmid USA, a company that desperately needs to hire a new rules editor and graphic designer. The box rates the game for 2-6, the rules rate it for 2-4, and the body of the rules refer to a maximum of five players. Sloppy, confusing, and inexcusable. I’d recommend staying within the 2-4 range (three seems ideal), otherwise the benefits of the honor cards (see below) are far too strong.
Players start with seven strength, two gold, and no cards. On each turn a player can flip one, two, or three cards from the deck, keeping one of them and discarding the rest. All of a player’s cards are kept face-up, stacked by type so everyone can see them.
Players win by knocking out all opponents or having the highest score after three passes through the deck. Most of the cards are distributed among five color-coded types: strength, force, gold, magic, and honor. The player with the most cards of each type gains an advantage, usually at the start of his turn. The simplest of these increase a player’s strength or gold, or decrease other players’ strength. The leader in magic can trade any of his cards for any card from the discard pile, or sacrifice any one of his own cards to destroy an opponent’s card.
Honor works differently. Shuffled into the deck are four “King’s Favor” cards. When one of these is turned up, the player with the most honor gets two gold, two strength, or the top card from the deck. Misfortune cards are the dark side of the same coin, forcing loss of gold, strength, or cards from all players. Many cards bear a rainbow icon, however, and the player showing the most rainbows at the top of their stacks is protected from Misfortune.
A player can spend gold at the end of his turn to buy another card from the deck, decrease an opponent’s strength, or trade cards with an opponent. A player losing his last strength is knocked out of the game. Anyone who survives to the third appearance of the Long Live the King card (which triggers a reshuffle) scores a point for each magic card, strength, and gold they have. The highest total wins.
Luck of the draw has a huge impact in this game. Having more cards to choose from helps mitigate the randomness. The choice of how many cards to flip therefore seems like a false one, and in fact players usually flip three. Sometimes, however, it’s better to flip a single card and slow down the pace. Players with the most honor want to speed passage through the deck, since they only benefit when King’s Favor cards appear. Other players should want to slow things down, since that means more turns for them and therefore more invocations of their special abilities. If you flip none of the five basic types, however, you’re screwed- you don’t get to keep any!To encourage drawing fewer than three cards, I suggest only counting the five basic card types towards a player’s draw. Likewise, let a player draw again if a special card turns up when a card is bought or a reward taken for the King’s Favor.
The protection offered by rainbows twists strategies in odd ways. Taking a card might give you a new benefit, but cover up a rainbow and make you vulnerable to Misfortune. The value of each benefit varies. Strength and gold are good throughout the game. Magic is weak early and strong late, while honor tends to work the other way around. Force is often hotly contested- if you’re the one with the gun, you don’t have to worry about getting shot yourself.
If you don’t flip the cards you need, you’ll be hard-pressed to survive much less win. This randomness is much of the game and players who prefer more control will be unhappy. Players content with chaos mitigated by strategic concerns could find a nice filler here. Any world in which Lunch Money succeeds should have a place for Knights of the Rainbow.