King Arthur's Knights

King Arthur's Knights is a 1978 Arthurian board game, designed by Greg Stafford, and published by Chaosium.

Cover by Luise Perenne.

Gameplay

King Arthur's Knights is a game for 2-5 players in which each player is a knight of King Arthur's court, travelling around Arthurian Britain in quest of holy objects, money, fair damsels in distress and tyrannical monsters to slay.[1]

Players first choose to be a knight errant, a knight at arms, or a great knight; the latter two classes face greater obligations and higher victory points but with greater rewards for success. Once everyone has chosen their knight, a magical treasure and a magical guardian are placed facedown on the map, and all knights set out from Camelot.[2]

The game comes with a paper map, a 16-page rulebook, eleven decks of encounter cards, and five cardstock knights — which must be affixed to some sort of base in order to be used — packaged in a zip-lock bag.[2]

Reception

Jacek Gabrielczyk reviewed King Arthur's Knights for White Dwarf #15, giving it an overall rating of 7 out of 10, and stated that "On the whole the game is simple to understand. The rules are printed clearly in easy-to-read steps in a 16 page booklet with the three combat tables printed on the back cover. The physical quality of the game is quite good, the map especially . The only drawbacks are that no dice or reasonable counters are provided and the combat system depends too much on luck for a good result."[3]

In the November 1978 edition of Dragon (Issue 21), S. List admired the map and counters, but thought the knights printed on cardstock were poor, pointing out that the rulebook even suggests that players should substitute miniature figurines for them. List found the game "not very complicated and moves quickly" but overall believed it was designed more as a family game than one for hardcore gamers.[2]

In the inaugural edition of Ares Magazine, Greg Costikyan gave King Arthur's Knights an average rating of 6 out of 9, questioning its replayability. ""King Arthur's Knights is an enjoyable game for an evening's entertainment; it is not particularly sophisticated and palls after a few playings, but after all, so do most other games.".[1]

References
  1. Costikyan, Greg (March 1980). "A Galaxy of Games". Ares Magazine. Simulations Publications, Inc. (1): 33.
  2. List, S. (November 1978). "Review: Olympica". Dragon. TSR, Inc. (21): 22.
  3. Gabrielczyk, Jacek (October–November 1979). "Open Box". White Dwarf. Games Workshop (Issue 15): 20–21.
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