Thrones of Valeria Review

boardgamequest.com:

We review Thrones of Valeria, a trick taking game published by Daily Magic Games. Thrones of Valeria takes some of the more common elements of trick taking games and turns them on their head.

Trick-taking games are having quite a renaissance (a Trickaissance, if you will). In the past few years, we’ve been graced with The Crew, Cat in the Box, Brian Boru, and very soon, Cole Werhle will release his new space 4x game based on a central trick-taking mechanic, Arcs. Even the 2022 Spiel des Jahres winner, Scout, while actually a ladder-climbing card game, still feels ensconced in the firmament of trick-taking. It’s in this context that we get the latest game in the Valeria series from designer Matt Jacobs and Daily Magic Games, Thrones of Valeria, a 2-6 player trick-taking card game that plays in about 20-30 minutes. Does Thrones add enough of a wrinkle to the increasingly crowded trick-taking field to make a ripple?

Let’s get the flavor out of the way. Thrones is meant to be a Valerian in-universe card game (think Gwent in Witcher or Tak from the Kingkiller saga) played in taverns by weary adventurers trying to win a few silver coins. The suits in the game are meant to represent the powerful houses in the Valerian setting, and the constantly shifting hierarchy of these suits are meant to represent the houses’ power struggles. This leads us to one of the first unique elements Thrones brings to the classic trick-taking mechanics we’ve grown accustomed to.

First and foremost, there is no static trump among the 5 suits, but rather a hierarchy, so, for example, the second highest suit would still beat the third highest suit, etc. This is represented by a central board with 5 tiles ordered from highest rank to lowest rank. The