Inheritors game review

In the dark of the night, whispers spread throughout the court: “The King is dead!”

Inheritors is a 2-4 player card game where you will seek influence among five clans, spy on your competitors, and tip the courts in your favor to win your rightful place on the throne.

Inheritors

What is it?

Thematically, Inheritors wants to have you feel like you are in the show Game of Thrones. Stop me if you’ve heard this or similar: “In the dark of the night, whispers spread throughout the court: “The King is dead!”

As an “Inheritor”, you will use your Advocates and Influence Cards to sway the Five Realms and gain victory. Seek influence among five clans, spy on your competitors, tip the courts in your favor, and win your rightful place on the throne. Let the games begin!” Now while I did end up playing a delightful card game, I didn’t ever feel like I was vying for the throne – “Iron” or otherwise.

Inheritors is a hand-management game that has me thinking that Lost Cities smashed into Rummy. You’ll be carefully playing cards in numerical sequence out of your hand, while taking opportunities to pick up card(s) from three communal discard piles in the middle. Ultimately your scoring will largely be determined by how far you were able to get your numerical sequences to go – but there are some additional points you can grab by “completing quests” or “claiming honor”

The core gameplay of Inheritors revolves around a diverse array of cards, each serving a specific purpose. Players must carefully manage their hand, deciding when to play their cards for maximum impact. The game features various card types, including Advocates, Influence Cards, tomes, relics, spies, conspirators, quest cards, honors, and clan cards, each offering unique abilities and advantages. Players will also have a chance to claim a particular faction or “house”. (More Game of Thrones?) Each house an an asymmetric power that you can attempt to leverage to score more points.

The art is this game is some of the best I’ve seen. I’m rarely struck by artwork – but these cards definitely caught my eye. They have a sense of regency with them that play right into that de facto Game of Thrones theme.

What a Turn is Like

The game play is very straightforward and helped along by a good player aid each player will have. On your turn each player will do 1 of 5 different actions:

1. Play an Influence Card
2. Discard 1 card to draw 2 from the deck
3. Discard 1 card to take ALL other cards from one other card of the Market (cards must match color or rank)
4. Discard 3 cards of the same color to claim a Quest and draw one card
5. Play an Advocate card, using its ability

Players find themselves in a balance between getting Influence cards out of their hand onto their player tableau and trying to find the right times to pick up cards either from the shared discard pile or draw deck. Cards played to your tableau remind me of how Lost Cities is played, forcing you to play cards in sequence. The higher the rank, the fewer cards are available of that rank to be played.

The card market, or discard piles, serves as a focal point of the game, where players maneuver to pick up valuable cards. The ever-changing nature of the market adds an element of uncertainty, forcing players to adapt their strategies as key cards they need will quickly appear and just as quickly disappear from the market. Players need to pay attention to what their opponents are playing and carefully choose what they will discard or, conversely, pick cards out of the market to deny their opponents.

Finally there are the Advocate cards that will further push what players can do to secure the cards they are looking for. These cards allow you to manipulate how you play into your tableau, acquire cards from opponents, or take multiple actions.

Learning the Game

These cards also impact the scoring, adding an unnecessary complexity that doesn’t improve gameplay. One of the actions players take is completing quests, which always add at least one point to your score, and sometimes two. In close games, any points matter, but the quests themselves are completely random when picked up from the middle. You can then see what the actual quest is, usually affecting the game state at the end of the final scoring. Sometimes you already have it and would be set to get your two points, but other times, it never felt worth upsetting the rest of my gameplay for the sake of one extra point.

The rest of the learning curve is pretty easy to navigate, especially if you’ve played Lost Cities which this game seems to be heavily influenced by.

Another Opinion

“…it was taught to be by a friend and I really enjoyed it he was hyping it up and it lived up the the hype for sure…”

Naveen – Before You Play

Conclusion

Inheritors offers engaging gameplay, with strategic decisions unfolding over multiple plays. While some mechanics may feel awkward initially, the game’s depth becomes apparent with experience. With its quick gameplay and tight scoring, Inheritors is a worthy addition to any game collection.