The King is Dead: Second Edition(Second Edition) (2020)

Here is a game entirely without chance apart from its setup, and even in a short half hour it rewards more long-term thinking than most wargames.

You control no army of your own, instead you manipulate three rival factions across Britain and try to gain their favour. A brutal political battle where every action carries heavy weight.

Requiring forward thinking, card management and calculated risk taking, The King is Dead is a game that will leave you wanting to play again, if only to plumb the depths of options available to you in this deceptively deep strategy game set in Arthurian Britain.

“The King Is Dead makes you feel like a kingmaker having to bluff their way through court, with each action you take containing real consequences for both you and the opposition. Ruthless, strategic and really quick.”

The refinement of playing just eight cards offers a surprising amount of choice on your turn, but some might find it restrictive. However, me and my eldest son love it. I think Harrison has moved it into his top five games, I think it is certainly in my top ten, so that is a pretty good reason why it has jostled itself to being the game of the month for August!

“The King is Dead is definitely a game that will be staying on my shelf for a long time. It gives you the intrigue and backstabbing of something more epic like Game of Thrones: The Board Game, without the need for an equally epic player count or game time.”

“I enjoyed the second edition because it has all of the good things that they found in the previous edition which I already like very much, plus with more game modes, now with more replay value, with more variety. So definitely a positive endorsement for, from me.”(16:37)

So The King is Dead is a really deep, strategic game. You do need to plan ahead as much as possible, but there is also a lot of bluffing and forcing of hands.

The reviewers discussed the game on their podcast with positive sentiment, highlighting its accessible yet deeply strategic political power struggle.

“The "satisfaction to time" ratio of The King is Dead is probably as high as anything in my collection. I frankly don't get as excited about it as I do for some of my absolute favorites.”

“The best thing about The King is Dead though is that it’s a simple to learn, quick and utterly engaging area control game which has a ton of replayability in a brilliantly produced small box of delights.”

“It's, it's, it's, it's a fun game. I, it's a very, very interesting design. I don't know a lot of games often that have that sort of like it could end two completely different ways, but I, I enjoyed that and I thought this was, this was very good.”(12:02)