One for all and all for nothing

Thursday games 15th March: We have recently been listing some of the unplayed (or underplayed) games in our collections which we would like to get onto the table on a games night.

One of mine is the co-operative and highly thematic game Mousqetaires du Roy which is not normally a type we would play on a Thursday evening. When I bought it I knew this, and also that the old friends I play with on occasional Saturdays will not play co-operative games. I do like these "narrative" games though and I'm happy to own them as long as they allow the possibility of solo play as this one does.

I came across it by accident on Boardgamegeek at a good price and thought I remembered putting it on my wishlist at some time. I had, so sometime last year I acquired it. It was in very good condition (apart from the rules which had been heavily annotated) and some of the components were still sealed. I was well pleased with my bargain at the time but less sure when I tried to set up and play a few turns solo. The rule book proved horrendously difficult to get my brain round and when I felt I had at least got the gist of the way the
 game worked I put it away again.

Last week it was suggested that we might give it a try and I had some work to do to try again to understand the game well-enough to teach. I watched a couple of videos (which agreed with me about the rule book), printed some player aids and, after trying to force myself through a second re-edited copy of the rules, I felt I had grasped it.


When Ma, the Prof and Crabro arrived it quickly became apparent that I wasn't master of the material and we had a lot of re-reading to do. Nevertheless for me, and I think for some if not all of the others, it was a really fun evening as Dumas' theme worked its magic. With the addition of a miniature from another game it would have been possible to play this as a six-player game but it was perhaps fortunate that mrwendell and Petra Pan had cried off on this occasion and our learning game consisted of MaOldie as Porthos, ProfMudlark as Athos and Crabro as Aramis (the eponymous three musketeers). I took on the role of Richeliu's wicked catspaw Milady de Winter, partly because it meant I didn't have another set of rules and set up to explain to the "evil" player.

The game looks as though it was designed to be adaptable to other plots but the one in question is the classic one of obtaining the necklace, without which the Queen's reputation will be undone and the Cardinal's power over the King increased. This unfolds over a series of four sides of quests at the top of the board. Milady's task is to prevent this happening in time by direct intervention or by meddling elsewhere to distract the gallant musketeers from their task.

Other areas on the board, Paris, the siege of La Rochelle, the Louvre contain ongoing action which can end the game in Milady's favour if left unchecked. Milady can interfere by popping up in these areas and others causing the musketeers to fight her henchman Rochefort, by "perfidy" (playing treachery cards) and by placing other adverseries or traps in the path of our heroes.

The game was somewhat chaotic as a result of all the rule referencing and was certainly played wrong in some respects. Nevertheless it reached a very satisfying knife-edge conclusion at which time Milady was looking as though she might succeed in her evil machinations. The game hinged on the success or failure of a final action by Athos I think, although Aramis was by his side at the final quest (Porthos had been tricked into a stay in the Bastille by Milady). The battle was won and the Queen's reputation (perhaps undeservedly, given her dalliance with her English Duke) was unstained.

In theory, the role of Milady de Winter should have been the least pleasant to play, given the downtime while the rest of the group discussed and played their four actions each, but I thoroughly enjoyed my plotting. The game might feel slower for the Richelieu side once it is better known and the downtime not needed for rule reading though.