The Duke

Play as feudal commanders who deploy and maneuver double-sided wooden tiles representing troops with changing postures. Each side of a tile shows its available actions (moves, jumps, slides, strikes and special abilities); after a piece moves or uses an ability it is flipped to its other side, altering future options. On a turn a player either moves a single tile or draws a new troop from the bag, then uses positioning and captures to remove enemy pieces by landing on their squares. The initial setup places a central leader and two footmen per side, and optional terrain and alternate scenarios add varied objectives and board effects.

Players: 2
Playing time: 30 min
Age: 13+
Complexity: 2.5 / 5

3.5 on LudoyaAbstract StrategyGrid MovementTile PlacementPattern Movement

Play it with Ludoya Where to buy it

Where to buy it

Shop prices and second-hand copies, checked every day.

Compare all prices in Ludoya

Dragons LairOut of stock 199 kr
SpelexpertenCheck stock 215 kr
AlphaspelIn stock 219 kr

On Ludoya's tables

Full stats in Ludoya

23
Plays logged: 15
Players: 14m 36s
Average play: 9
In collections: 4
On wishlists

3.5/10

from 6 Ludoya reviews

evilangel7.5
Pte.
Evan1.6
This is a chess like game, but rather than start with a board of pieces, you start with only a few pieces. Then on your turn, you can draw a random new piece from the bag. Each piece has not only it's own movement rules, but those rules change after you use the tile, as you flip the tile over after the action. This creates a high barrier of entry, and gives the game a lot of luck in terms of which tile comes out when. It's also very likely for you to make some careless mistakes as there isn't a set number of types of movement for your pieces you can remember. It's not like this is a bad idea for a game, but it feels stressful and isn't that much fun. :nostar: Art, Iconography and components functional :star: Clever or interesting mechanisms :star: Reasonably low downtime between turns with mildly AP players :star: Multiple plays stay interesting :nostar: Low or mitigatable luck elements :nostar::nostar::nostar::nostar::nostar: Raw enjoyment