David Hoffman
United States
Briarcliff Manor
New York
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The Short, Short Version:
Does the upcoming Revolution! expansion, The Palace, improve the experience of playing the original game in almost every way?
Yes, yes it does.
Wait – The Palace isn’t out until November, right?
Twitter. Good for telling people what you had for lunch. Good for making news come to you. Also, a new category (for me): good for getting the expansion to one of my gaming group’s favorite games.
A couple weeks ago, Steve Jackson Games tweeted:
Quote: The contest: Tell us which #ThePalace character is best & why. Best 1-tweet answer wins a copy! pkc
To which I responded, after a quick look at the rules:
Quote: @SJGames Messenger is best -- Support + strategic movement on the board is powerful, flexible and allows for surprising actions. #thepalace
And then, totally missed when they tweeted, a few days later:
Quote: And the winner is . . . @ohbalto for an excellent analysis of the Messenger. Please DM us your contact info! pkc
But I didn’t miss it when they private messaged me through Twitter. Sent my mailing address and a few days later, there it was, The Palace.
We got it on the table last night.
Our 5-player game.
So, What’s It All About?
The Palace is a lot of bang for your buck. Here’s what you get:
* 2 New Player Screens – Orange and Purple
* 2 New Sets of Player Cubes – Orange and Purple
* 6 New Player Boards – now expanded to Four rows from Three rows in the original game
* 1 The Palace overlay – a new area which fits over the park at the center of the original board
* 1 Punchboard with more Gold, Blackmail, Force and Scoring Tokens
* 1 Sheet of Rules – duh. They’re rules
Image from pdubarry
Setting up The Palace with the original Revolution! couldn’t be easier. Put out the gameboard, lay The Palace atop the park in the center, give everyone the new Player Boards, point and laugh at the old Player Boards (you’ll never, ever use them again), divvy up Player Cubes and Screens. Give everyone their starting Gold, Blackmail and Force, pick a Player One and you’re off to the races.
What The Palace offers is improvement over an already excellent game (if you have no idea how to play Revolution! I’m not going to go into it so-very-much here. Essentially, it’s a blind-bidding game and, depending on who wins the favor of each of the originally-twelve-now-sixteen characters in the game, you can spread influence on the main board, gain Support (victory points) and gain special abilities you can use that round only.
When the board’s full, the game is over – count of Support and see who’s the winner.
New Player Boards, You Say?
Yup. This is one of the ways The Palace really changes Revolution! There are four new people you can influence, The Viceroy, the Messenger, the Mayor and the Constable.
Image from pdubarry
The Viceroy allows you to Influence (read: place a cube in) the new Palace location. The Viceroy also allows you to Occupy a lone space connected to but not associated with The Palace, The Guardhouse. Occupying the Guardhouse means none of the other players can use Character abilities to move any of your cubes (you can still move them, if you like, however).
The new Palace and Guardhouse location.
The Messenger awards three Support and allows you to move two of your cubes already on the board to two empty spaces elsewhere on the board.
The Mayor allows you to Influence any open space on the board.
The Constable awards five Support and one Blackmail token.
So, what you’ve got there is two new characters which offer the ability to either change the board up or to “break” the rules about placing Influence.
The Viceroy is especially interesting as The Guardhouse will change hands several times in a game – a player who’s controlling several areas as game end is nearing will want to pay special attention to The Guardhouse.
Don’t discount the Constable, though; offering five Support and another way to get a Blackmail token makes him no one to be trifled with.
Okay. How’s It All Come Together, Then?
Well, here’s the thing. We all really love Revolution! but the simple, sad fact is one or two people in our group always dominate at the game. It’s not that we don’t have fun – we do – but we’re usually all competing for second or even third place.
No longer.
We played with five and the game was COMPLETELY different. First off, you’ve got five or six players now – and, for whatever it’s worth, I don’t think I’ll ever play Revolution! with less than five players again. The board becomes so much tighter, competition for the characters on the boards so much more interesting.
Revolution! was a great game – with The Palace it becomes sublime.
Most of the new characters fit in more with the latter half of the game. Getting those five Support and that Blackmail token. Keeping your cubes from being moved and removed. Using the Mayor to grab a heavily contested spot under everyone’s radar. With the addition of just four characters, the whole dynamic of the game becomes so much deeper.
Endgame with 5 players -- Yellow destroyed us all.
Plus, as I mentioned above, the board is so much tighter. We played with five and it was amazing. Typically, in a four player game, once one or two players go after an area, everyone else stays away. Maybe that’s groupthink – and certainly I’ve seen someone come in at the end of the game and shuffle things around – but with five (and, one assumes, even moreso with six), we saw three, four and even five people all duking it out for a single area.
The game became much more interactive and competitive. I think there were only two regions of the board that weren’t hotly contested by at least three people right to the end of the game.
Okay, Tie it All Together For Me
It’s very simple, really. If you enjoy Revolution! then The Palace is a must-buy. If you’ve never played Revolution! I’d suggest you hot foot over and check out some reviews of the game, then come back and read this again (though why you went through the trouble of reading this when you haven’t played the main game is beyond me – I’m simply not that amusing).
The Palace raises up an already great game into something truly special. Discussing the changes after our game last night, everyone at the table agreed the expansion had surpassed all our expectations for it.
Ignore that Revolution! has sat out many a night at our gaming group when we didn’t have the makings of a four player game (too many people and we don’t want to leave folks out). Yes, now you can play it with six and that’s lovely – but the game you’re playing with six, with the new player boards, with the Palace and the Guardhouse . . . is an improved game in almost every way.
Should you get it? If you like Revolution! you absolutely should get it. I think our group is going to play Revolution! a lot more and we're never going to play without The Palace and the new Player Boards.
Most recommended. Plus, now I’ve got something to hold up as justification for keeping that Twitter window open. You know, besides telling folks what I had for lunch.
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Dan Rubado
United States
Tarrytown
New York
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I find myself torn... while I'm glad your tweet gave us the opportunity to try The Palace early, I think I'm forced to disagree with its content. While the Messenger makes for some interesting plays in the early game, the Viceroy and his guardtower are just crucial at endgame. Or it least it seemed that way to me. Not at all in an unbalancing way... but as the player suspected of being closest to winning (I still say you were all way off), I found myself having to balance each bid against the importance of protecting my cubes with the guardtower at the expense of furthering my own strategy. Made for a very tense last few turns for me, in a good way.
I will certainly second your conclusion, however.
Revolution! = Great
Revolution! + The Palace = Exceptional
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David Hoffman
United States
Briarcliff Manor
New York
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I would agree, having now played the game, that the Viceroy is the most powerful of the new characters. However, the Viceroy's true strength lies in protecting a player in the lead (or, perceived as being in the lead).
The Messenger, conversely, can be very powerful both for a leading player looking to cement a lead in a region and and for a player looking to swipe a region right out from under a leader.
The Guardhouse changes the endgame completely. The Messenger gives a player the ability to alter the board almost from the first round.
/neener
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Paul Chapman
United States
Texas
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Zafrod wrote: Not at all in an unbalancing way... but as the player suspected of being closest to winning (I still say you were all way off), I found myself having to balance each bid against the importance of protecting my cubes with the guardtower at the expense of furthering my own strategy. Made for a very tense last few turns for me, in a good way.
Good! That's how we'd hoped the Viceroy would be used -- ratchet up the tension for the leader.
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Philip duBarry
United States
Cincinnati
Ohio
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Great review! I completely agree, of course. Keep in mind that you can use the new boards with 4 players, too!
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The Doctor
Netherlands
Utrecht
Utrecht
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pdubarry wrote: Great review! I completely agree, of course. Keep in mind that you can use the new boards with 4 players, too!
Agreed, but not with less.
We tried a 3 player game, and that just left too much uncontested space, so we reverted to the old 12 character board for the next game.
By the way: I like (basic) Revolution! as a 2 player game as well.
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Steven Bunnell
United States
Eugene
Oregon
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dok33 wrote: [q="pdubarry"]
By the way: I like (basic) Revolution! as a 2 player game as well.
I enjoy playing 2 player as well.
My variant:
Each player plays 2 colors. Keep each boards 'hand' separate. Play per normal rules. Your score is the lowest of your two colors.
You have to balance getting support for both colors, while not bouncing yourself.
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My copy arrived a little while ago, hoping to debut it at the thrice-annual gaming cottage.
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Daniel W.
United States
Portland
OR
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I agree completely with this review. The other day, I was thinking about how deep the strategy is once a player has had a game or two and understand the complexity. For instance, take an area like the fortress. New players think that they have to repeatedly win the General to claim that area. Meanwhile, I can use the apothecary, spy, messenger, and mayor to move away two cubes of his cubes from the fortress and add five of my own in a single turn.
I will say that the one negative I encountered was in teaching new players. The added roles seem to barely cross that line in making a very simple game to teach into a game with a lot going on that leaves the newbies feeling a little lost as to what strategy they are supposed to employ.
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Chiming in half a year too late, but we just got the 6 player expansion.
It is an excellent extension to what is possibly my favourite game in my collection. However, I am not a big fan of the messenger, I feel it is unbalanced. Perhaps SJ Games felt it was necessary given how quickly zones fill up with a rainbow of cubes: instead of contesting a zone against 2 or more players, get your lost cubes out of two dead spaces and put them somewhere more useful.
My issue is that I do not feel the messenger is balanced. There's a natural balance, arguably, in a game like this: anyone can pull the same move as you. But the Messenger is too situational, and breaks this balance.
With every other cube-influence square, there is a value to counter-bidding (and therefore establishing a "market" rate) and opponent: if you stop another player from getting the Town Hall, YOU get a square in the Town Hall. If you lose, your opponent gets the equal advantage over you. Furthermore, you can react by bidding on the Town Hall next turn, or responding in kind with the Spy or Apothecary.
The Messenger is only useful about once per game, per player (if that). The number of free squares that are useful to move your cubes to diminishes very quickly with 6 players, so somewhere in mid game, you strike with the Messenger to recover 2 lost cubes. By mid game, most zones will be full with an injection of 2-3 cubes in one turn, so the value of the Messenger tends to be a one-shot thing. Once I've moved my guys into the Cathedral, you can't Messenger your cubes in (it's full, or nearly so).
This is where the problem is created: the Messenger has no counter-balance. How can I counter-bid you on the messenger? Even if I win, I have no use for it, so there is only defensive value in bidding - I gain nothing if I win, unlike the other squares.
Thus the Messenger has become this one-shot move: time it right, and you instantly make up for some early cube placements, and put yourself TWO turns ahead of the opposition. WORSE, to counter your move, your opponents must go to the Apothecary or Spy, squares that ARE valuable to many players, and thus are frequently bid up.
In the end, the Messenger is used asynchronously. The odds of 2 players using it on the same term is almost nil, and blocking it every turn is economically impossible. Thus it becomes too cheap to use, and very expensive to counter.
My fellow games have caught on to it's value, but the fundamental problem remains: it's only useful to bid on, not against, so we all end up with a single shot re-assignment (if it's useful). I can understand if it is a necessary to correction to cubes lost early (due to rainbow barf, especially on large zones), but it ends up being the one square that does not work anything like the others.
Everything else is awesome. Buy this game and the expansion before you even finish your coffee. DO IT.
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Philip duBarry
United States
Cincinnati
Ohio
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Miles: I'm glad you like the game! I'm sorry the Messenger is not more to your liking. Your analysis is pretty accurate. However, this situation happens with other spaces sometimes. If I have 5 cubes in the Townhall and you have only 1, is it really worth it for you or another player to try to stop me from getting the Magistrate again for cheap? You don't really get much if you win.
With so many spaces to bid on, I'm okay with one of them being a little different. It may only get used a few times, but using it at the right time is important. There should be some competition for this space mid-game, if everyone is aware of its use.
I also like to use the space on the very first turn. You can go for an all-out Palace grab and start with a nice lead. Anyway, thanks for your thoughts. Feel free to change it around and house-rule it as you see fit. Let us know if you find a really good "fix" for the space!
Philip
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Nomadic Gamer
United States
Palatine
Illinois
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'In the end, the Messenger is used asynchronously. The odds of 2 players using it on the same term is almost nil, and blocking it every turn is economically impossible. Thus it becomes too cheap to use, and very expensive to counter.'
If really so- add another Messenger! 
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David Hoffman
United States
Briarcliff Manor
New York
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Mmmiles wrote: In the end, the Messenger is used asynchronously. The odds of 2 players using it on the same term is almost nil, and blocking it every turn is economically impossible. Thus it becomes too cheap to use, and very expensive to counter.
My fellow games have caught on to it's value, but the fundamental problem remains: it's only useful to bid on, not against, so we all end up with a single shot re-assignment (if it's useful). I can understand if it is a necessary to correction to cubes lost early (due to rainbow barf, especially on large zones), but it ends up being the one square that does not work anything like the others.
For whatever it's worth -- and it might just be the way our group plays (we've got three incredibly aggressive people, one turtler and two cautious expanders) -- the Messenger sees a LOT of play in our games.
It is not uncommon for a player in our games to go big in a particular zone the first turn or two and then find themselves losing out to another player in that zone. Okay -- those cubes are gone now, right? No, sir -- use the Messenger and you can move them around.
Also, don't discount the three Support the Messenger awards -- ESPECIALLY on a crowded board nearing end-game. Maybe you can't move both of your "wasted" cubes to good locations but you can potentially screw someone else's plans up. And if everyone else thinks the Messenger is a waste for them, you can get those three Support for a song.
What else? How about using the "move two cubes" action to pull a rope-a-dope? Say you've put cubes out onto the board in a low-scoring area on the cheap. Nobody's chasing that area yet so you're walking away with it. Buy the Messenger once or twice and suddenly your "cheap" cubes are threatening another player's dominance in a big-scoring area.
In short: the Messenger is VERY powerful and not to be ignored. And not only because he's the one who got me the expansion in the first place. 
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Philip Reed
United States
Kyle
Texas
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ohbalto wrote: In short: the Messenger is VERY powerful and not to be ignored.
Shhhhhh. You're giving away one of the tricks I use. Next you'll share the whole "spy on turn one" trick.
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David Hoffman
United States
Briarcliff Manor
New York
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Oh, I just remembered another way we've seen the Messenger get used: make like you're going big in an area during the early game and get one of the aggressive players to decide, "well, we can't let that happen!"
Then you switch gears around the third to fifth turn, withdrawing your cubes from that zone and suddenly establishing a solid presence in one or two other zones.
If you time it right you can create a sudden and unexpected majority where no one expects you to (possibly in TWO areas) AND leave an aggressive player fighting with themselves for control of your old area.
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