Coup Game
Posted By admin On 14/04/22OBJECTIVE OF COUP: The objective of Coup
NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 2 to 8
MATERIALS:
The Coup Game is a fun way to spend some time with friends. The goal is to outmaneuver your opponents and erode their influence. If you're the last player with Influence Cards left, then you win. The Coup Game is a fun way to spend some time with friends. The goal is to outmaneuver your opponents and erode their influence. If you're the last player with Influence Cards left, then you win. Coup's Dystopian Universe setting makes the game more immersive and engaging. As mentioned previously, Coup is the type of game that you can’t just stop at one play. Since it plays so quickly, involves knocking people out (and getting knocked out), and is full of bluffing, things change over several plays. Watching how a player plays in one game will affect how you approach that player in a subsequent game.
- 6 characters in 4 copies each (from 3 to 6 players, only 3 copies of each character are used)
- 8 game aids (1 per player)
- 24 silver coins, 6 gold coins (1in = 5 silver coins)
TYPE OF GAME: secret roles guessing game
AUDIENCE: teen, adult
OVERVIEW OF COUP
In this video, we're going to learn how to play Coup! If you have any comments or questions, please do not hesitate to post them in the YouTube comments bel.
Coup (also called ‘Complots’ in French) is a hidden role-playing game where each player tries to guess the characters of his opponents in order to eliminate them, while bluffing to avoid revealing his own characters.
SETUP
In each game, only 5 characters are used: you have to choose between the Ambassador and the Inquisitor.
The Ambassador is advised for the first games.
Deal the 15 cards (3 copies of each character): 2 cards per player placed face down in front of them.
Players can look at their own cards at any time, without showing them to others.
The remaining cards are placed face down in the center and constitute the Court.
Give 2 coins to each player. The players’ money should always be visible.
GAMEPLAY
Clockwise
Actions (one per turn)
A player during his turn must choose ONE of the following 4 actions:
A) Income: take 1 treasure coin (the action cannot be countered)
B) Foreign aid: take 2 coins (can be countered by the Duchess)
C) Coup: Pay 7 coins and kill an opposing character (the action cannot be countered)
If a character starts his turn with 10 coins, he must make a Coup (action C).
D) Using a character power: Here is the list of powers associated with each character.
- Duchess: takes 3 coins (cannot be opposed except with a challenge)
- Assassin: pays 3 coins and assassinates an opposing character (countered by the Countess)
- Captain: takes 2 coins from an opponent. (Countered by a Captain, Ambassador or Inquisitor)
- Ambassador: draws 2 cards in the Court and puts 2 of his choice back in the Court. The deck is then shuffled.
- The inquisitor: can be used in only 1 of the following 2 ways:
- a) draw a card in the Court, then discard a card in the Court, face down. The cards in the Court are shuffled.
- b) allows to look at an opponent’s character card. The targeted opponent chooses which card to show, then the Inquisitor chooses either to return it or to have it discarded (in which case the card is shuffled in the Court and the targeted player draws a new card).
Questioning a character
When a player uses a character’s power, an opponent may question it, i.e. question the fact that the player actually owns the character’s card. If more than one player wants to question it, the fastest player who has spoken will be able to do so.
The challenge is then solved:
a) If there was a bluff, the character chooses one of his characters and turns him face up, the latter is dead. The power effect is also cancelled.
b) If there was no bluff, the player owns the character, shows it, then mixes it with the Court and takes a new one. The power of the character is applied, and the player who had doubted loses the challenge: he chooses one of his characters and reveals it – this character is dead.
Countering a character (with another character)
To counter a character, all you have to do is announce that you have the right character. This can be true or bluff, and it is possible to question a character who counters. Any player can question a character who counters another (not just the player whose character is being countered). If the counter succeeds, the action automatically fails.
Characters who can counter:
- Duchess: counters the action Foreign Aid
- Countess: counters the Assassin. The action fails, but the coins are lost anyway.
- Captain/Ambassador/Inquisitor: they all counter the Captain, thus preventing him from stealing 2 coins.
END OF GAME
When there is only one player left with unrevealed character(s) in front of him/her, that player wins the game.
Enjoy! 😊
VARIATIONS
Rules for 7 or 8 players
The rules are the same except that 4 copies of each of the 5 chosen characters are used (instead of 3 copies).
Rules for 2 players
The rules are the same with the following setup changes, after selection of the 5 characters:
- Separate the cards into 3 piles containing one copy of each character.
- After shuffling one of these piles, deal a character card from that pile to each player, face down, and place the other three cards in the middle to make up the Court
- Once players have looked at their cards, they each take a remaining pile and can then choose another character. The remaining 4 cards from each pile are not used.
- Players now have two starting characters and can start playing
- TWO PARTY GAMES THAT ARE NOT CARDS AGAINST HUMANITY - January 22, 2021
- GREAT GAMES FOR SMALL FRIEND GROUPS - December 23, 2020
- BEST GAMES TO PLAY THIS HOLIDAY SEASON - December 23, 2020
Most of the games we cover have a deep and rich history; some so old their exact origins are undecipherable beyond theorizing. You’ll be glad to know that Coup is not one of them. This game isn’t very old at all, although its immense popularity has already spurred an abundance of sequels.
The only question that’s hard to answer is whether it should be categorized as a card game, or a board game? It’s played with cards. There is no actual board. And yet most notations describe it as the “Coup board game”. The only additional game pieces are coins, cut from cardboard, and the instruction cards that help each players keep up with their influential identities.
So which is it? I say it’s a card game. But who cares what I think? Let’s get on with what you came here for, a literary depiction of Coup history as we know it…
History of Coup Card Game (Board Game)
The original Coup game was a multi-year development project undertaken by Rikki Tahti and his entire family in the early 2000s. The Tahtis are the founding members of La Mame Games—the company from which Coup was originally manufactured in 2012.
The Tahti family spent several summers working on the game before they felt it was ready for marketing. They chose to theme it around an Italian medieval city state, with the game’s original artwork designed by Rikki’s brother, a professional illustrator.
In an interview with Beth Heile of BoardGameGeek, the game’s inventor explained how, and why, his family created the game of Coup.
“We as a family love playing games, but after a lot of worker placement games, we felt we wanted something that’s a little bit more aggressive, a little more interactive, and that was short—and with a bit of bluffing!”
Coup Game Expansion
Mr. Tahti and the La Mame Games crew were debuting Coup at Spiel 2012 (aka Essen Games Fair) in Germany that day. “The game is essentially a kill or be killed game,” explained Tahti, where deception, bluffing, and blatant assassination meld into the game’s singular objective: “kill off the other players.”
While its description was incredibly intriguing, Coup garnered only a small following upon launch. The problem was that it lacked two main ingredients every successful card / board game should have—eye-catching graphics and a stellar marketing campaign.
Coup Game Amazon
Reinventing Coup for a Mass Market
Coup Game Target
A few months later, along came the perfect remedy by way of another games manufacturer, Indie Boards and Cards (IBC). Collaborating with Tahti and La Mame Games, IBC gave Coup a complete overhaul. The original rules were kept intact, but the cards received a dramatic face lift, and this new game became the backstory for an earlier creation of IBC known as The Resistance (which truly was a board game, btw!) Thus Coup: The Resistance was also born.
The image below shows the original packaging and artwork of Coup, compared to the slightly more recent, and much more successful, IBC edition.
Since then, the fandom surrounding Coup and The Resistance/Dystopian Universe has exploded. There are now multiple editions and expansion for the game; some imbued with various thematic power schemes, including (but not necessarily limited to):
Coup: The Resistance
Coup: Resistance Universe
Coup: Dystopian Universe
Coup: Rebellion G54
Coup: Reformation
Coup: Anarchy
Coup: Socialist
Coup Deluxe: Mobile Edition (not for mobile, btw)
Coup for Android
- Coup for iPhone / iPad
Now that you know the history of Coup, why not learn more about this popular Canadian card game (er, board game?) Browse the links below for more information.
Coup: Socialist Board Game BoardGameGeek
How to Play Coup
How to Play Coup with Standard Cards
Coup Strategy
Coup Game for Android
Coup Game for iOS
Alternate Coup Rules (to Encourage Treachery!)
Coup Resistance to Betting Money
Bored ? Try Popular Canadian Card Games Online
Royal Vegas Canada offers a good selection of games: everything from Texas Hold’em, video slots, Omaha, 7 card stud, to Limit Hold’em and blackjack. Safe, and fun.