Architects of the West Kingdom

The Game

Architects of the West Kingdom is a popular game. It is a successful game and is now one of three independent games in the West Kingdom series. Recently when I visited Allen, he encouraged me to borrow some games to play with my daughters. I picked Architects of the West Kingdom because I was curious to see what it was like. Allen has many unplayed games so sometimes I do homework for him, reading the rules and then teaching him to play. Or I just play with my children so at least he feels better that the games don't stay unplayed. 

This is a worker placement game. Everybody starts with a large team of workers, many more than the typical worker placement game. There is a reason for this. Similar to other games, when you place a worker at a specific location, you gain some benefit associated with that location. However, workers generally do not block other players. You can send workers to occupied locations. In fact, you can even send workers to locations where you already have workers. When you do this, the action of your most recent worker becomes more powerful. The more colleagues they have, the more powerful the action. This is an interesting aspect of the game.

Another interesting aspect is how you can capture your opponents' workers. You hold them on your player board and can later send them to prison to earn a reward. Of course your opponents can do the same to you. You will have to visit the prison to release your workers. You can capture your own workers too. In this case it is just for show. They simply come back to your player board to wait for their next assignment. When you see an opponent having many workers at the same location, you'll have to seriously consider capturing them, because otherwise their action will become more and more powerful. When captured, your opponent will need to start accumulating workers all over again. In this game there is no concept of an end of round when all workers are released from all locations. It is up to the players when they want to capture workers and when they want to collect them from the prison.

The progress of the game is based on the construction of buildings and the cathedral. These building cards above are collected by players and built by paying the resources depicted. Buildings provide special abilities and victory points. The cathedral is a joint project. It is never completed, but each player is able to contribute at most five times throughout the game. Those who contribute earlier will get to enjoy some benefit. You also score points when you contribute. Slots are limited so if you are late you may not be able to contribute. The game ends after a specific number of construction actions are performed.

These are apprentices you can recruit. Some buildings require apprentices with specific skills. Apprentices have various abilities, for example gathering extra resources when you visit a certain location. They augment your abilities and encourage you to use specific locations more.  

This above is another unique aspect of the game. This is the virtue track. Every player has a marker here. Some things you do in the game increase or decrease your virtue. At the end of the game you may gain or lose victory points depending on your standing. When your virtue is above a certain level, you may no longer visit the black market. You are a reputable person now so you cannot be caught doing something shady like this. When your virtue is below a certain level, you may not contribute to building the cathedral. The bishop does not welcome you. However there is a benefit to being a scoundrel. When performing certain actions, you may openly avoid tax. Instead of paying the tax collector, you save your cash. 

The resources are marble, brick, gold, wood, and stone. 

The is the prison. When you send workers here to use this location, you may deliver your opponents' workers for a reward, you may release your own workers, you may pay money to release your workers from another player's player board, and you may repay your debts. If you end the game in debt, you will lose points. 

This on the left is the guild hall. Whenever you want to build, place a worker here. This worker will be permanently locked. The game ends when all the available slots are filled. The cathedral is on the right. Every player may contribute at most 5 times, but the slots at every level of contribution are limited. This is on a first come first served basis. 

This on the left is the tax stand. Whenever players need to pay tax for performing an action the tax goes here. One action you can do is to come here to steal all the money. As the pile of coins grows, this becomes more and more tempting. However if you do come to steal, your virtue drops by two levels as indicated by the two broken banner icons.

The Play

Although I would categorise Architects of the West Kingdom as a worker placement game and a resource collection and conversion game, it is not at all like the average Eurogame. It offers several interesting mechanisms. Capturing workers is an interesting dynamic. You don't want to let your opponents take too powerful actions. You need to manage your pool of workers carefully. Capturing your opponents' workers can disrupt their tempo. I did a two player game with younger daughter Chen Rui, and she made good use of the worker capture mechanism. She locked up many of my minions and gave my HR girl a tough time. Once I had to spend a large sum of money to directly save my workers from her player board. I could not wait for her to deliver them to the prison, where I could have rescued them for free.  

If your buildings and apprentices combo well, it helps. I recruited several apprentices which gave me bonuses whenever I visited the black market. Naturally I visited the black market often and my virtue went down the drain. For a long time I could not contribute to building the cathedral. Only after mid game I started to work on improving my virtue. I eventually became a respected citizen, but it took conscious effort and dedication. Since I missed out on many opportunities to build the cathedral, I could not catch up to Chen Rui at all. I basically gave up on the cathedral. The points weren't much, but the bonuses were good. Having low virtue is not so much about tax evasion. I find that the more important benefit is the flexibility to take some (in-game) morally questionable actions. For example I recruited some unsavoury characters. I find this virtue mechanism funny and at the same time sobering. We mostly don't set out to be a bad person. Turning bad is about small everyday decisions, when we condone bending some rules here and there. We turn bad without realising it is happening. There is a moral to the story here. 

My first building and my first three apprentices all made me lose virtue (the broken banner icon). Only by my last apprentice I recruited someone who could help me improve my virtue (banner icon). 

The Thoughts

Architects of the West Kingdom is a worker placement game that has something fresh to offer, and it has an interesting player dynamic. The capturing of workers, the subsequent workers being more powerful, and the virtue concept all create an interesting play experience. This is a strategy game I'd heartily recommend.