Viscounts of the West Kingdom Review - with Tom Vasel 

Was looking forward to Discounts of the West Kingdom.

Tom I think after all these years, your explanations still continue to get better. Third or so vid I’ve watched for this game and it’s all so much clearer to me now. Bravo!

Out of the three, we have already played Viscounts the most. Over 10 games in one week and we are loving it. Our first game, 2 player was a bit meh. Like you said, each time you play it, it just gets better ! Architects feels a lighter and funnier, depending on how you play. Paladins still feels heavier than Viscounts. This one just seems to click. Loving it.

You’re not alone, Tom. I’m 47 and also didn’t know how to pronounce “viscounts” until I became acquainted with this game. 😂

Glad I got all three and Tomesaga

been waiting for this one Tom glad it made it in this year!

I love the first two, so really looking forward to getting this one, along with the Tomesaga.

FYI, the Pastor shown at 4:25 is one of the designers, SJ McDonald.

Love the first two and this one looks fantastic. Can’t wait to try it.

We love this game! The castle is so clever.

I actually love the central castle mechanism. And the truth is, pushing corruption is not that punishing, it’s designed to be balanced to be able to go corrupt or virtuous, which is why there is that end game system with both endings, debt or deed scoring.

I think for player interaction it is Architects, Viscounts, then Paladins.

I have played it 3 times in solo since I got it (a week), it's my favorite solo from Shem. Super light maintenance, super cool mechanics, I love it. And the automa is SUPER difficult to beat ! Now Raiders of Scythia is on the way... I'm hooked

These point salad mid-complexity games need your kind of reviews to help make them more accessible: Thank you for a professional and helpful over-view.

Hi Tom, do you feel that by now you would change the rating?

We love Architects and Paladins, but have yet to try Viscounts.... CAN'T WAIT, sorry for yelling, LOL

Played it 3 times and enjoyed them all but it’s definitely better the more you explore it. The deck building is very integral but not obviously so, which is why I think the criminal cards are worth taking the debts but you need an engine for flipping them, which then could distract you from your engine for points. It’s finding the balance between deck management and engine management which is where I think this game will shine. That said, I think I’m in agreement in how the games rank in the trilogy, but it’s a very good trilogy. Small point in the video but you referred to property deeds, I think they’re meant to be deeds as in good deeds, or feats.

Can you guys review the tomesaga expansion. As far as I know I’ve never heard of an expansion that makes a campaign by playing three different games. I wanna know if it’s cool and fun or if it’s bloated and doesn’t really tie together thematically.

I’m curious to know how many times you have played it so far Tom? That said your comments are insightful. I have only played it solo; 6 times in the last week. It’s my favourite of the 3 so far, although it may be for me that the NEW is exciting and perhaps I’m over- rating it. I look forward to seeing how it plays with real opponents. There will be more interaction than with Paladins. As has already been said I think each game in this series really would benefit from a more comprehensive icon - explanation sheet as while learning them it is a frequent occurrence to flick back and forth to find the meaning of some icons. All three are in my top 30 games of all time.

This game is just incredible. I found the way all the elements mixed together very engaging and original. I’m going to play it again tomorrow!! Haha! So good!

Great review. Like you used an Archeeeetect

4:00 - You are saying "buy this card" which might be misunderstood. If you dismiss a card then it's completly removed from the game and a new top card is revealed. Then after you finish your action you can buy a card (and put it on your discard pile) but this will be a different card than the one you dismissed earlier. In shorter words, if you want to both dismiss a card and later buy one in the same turn, then you never know what card will be offerd for purchase.

I enjoyed playing Viscounts, yet I really had a hard time liking the player board. I felt icons and sections on the player board needed to be rearranged to facilitate the flow of your turn.

I really liked it / I think the castle game in the middle is thematic, representing court ascension. It’s a cool thing. - also I learned this games key designer is Sam McFarlane not Shem, Shem contributed to Sam’s design.

Really enjoying this one. It's the best solo of the series for sure. Still just prefer paladins but viscounts is better for 3-4 player.

Architects is my favorite game ever. I skipped Paladins, it looked too busy for me. I have this on my wishlist, but I think it may also be too much for my table. Great looking game though

Interesting - although this mostly makes me want to check out Paladins.

Paladins was way too much of a solitaire for my liking. Architects is by far the lightest of the three. I would say it's a fine gateway game to the hobby. Viscounts seems to me like it's heavier mix of Paladins and Architects. Not as solitaire, has more player interaction, and is heavier game. Overall this is the best of the trilogy for me.

This definitely a great game. For me, I had a tough time grasping it in the first few games, then it clicked. Paladins I grasped pretty quickly. I don't think it will overtake paladins as my favorite but it's pretty close. Table real estate isn't bad as compared to Paladins but it may be a little easier to set-up. Paladins > Viscounts >> Architects.

One thing that is not true is that it is not difficult to fit everything in the box. Yes you can not throw it randomly in the box and expect it to fit but you will not have a box with half of it empty either which is good. Also the the designer, i feel, is relying too much on people that played his previous games because it is hard to figure out symbology in the solo mode game. every player board has an alternate backside that has an AI player. not every board is clear how to do the AI when looking at symbols. An extra page in the rulebook with the solo mode symbols and how to interpret them would be welcome. That also slips through to the regular game that i had to look up some of the symbols of the scrolls that were on the board for end game scoring. Beside that i would say that this is an amazing game.

In-DEED, Tom won!

I have this on pre-order. I hope it's meatier than paladins and architects. Both solid titles but I didn't need to own them. I also revelry purged Raiders. I think these games are just too light for me.

Have played three times and it keeps getting better. Still behind Architects for me though.

I literally paused the video and googled how to pronounce Viscount. Unpause to find out it wasn't just me

Oof all this talk of Viscounts is is making it difficult to resist the round mint chocolate biscuits I have in the cupboard.

Paladins > Viscounts > Architects for me. Although I need to play Architects more often. Maybe with the Tomesaga campaign that will happen.

I like Viscounts. There is so many things going on within a turn. Bumping people off the castle is my most favourite part. Tom is wrong.

Lots of deckbuilders with a twist, this year? I really hadn't noticed. Which ones?

Absolutely loving this game, but I'm not a fan any more of Paladins, but love Architects. This one just felt more interesting in terms of mechanics and the smoothness of turns then Paladins did. Architects > Viscounts >>>> Paladins

I can't keep up... 3rd game of the 2nd trilogy?! So I'm 6 games behind? Mann looks like this might turn out to be a negative comment, but seems like I need to purchase a few more games 😓

This game was the biggest dud I've played in years. The group I played with was a group of veteran gamers, and have played every kind of game. After three turns, I'd seen all I needed to see and offered to tag out with a late arriving player who had previously played (and liked) the game with the person teaching the game. When I made that offer, EVERY other player quickly chimed in that they also desperately wanted to tap out of the game. It still took us five minutes to convince the teacher that we indeed hated this game, and it wasn't just that we didn't understand it. There was just TOO MUCH going on. Super heavy and I think only for people who love heavy, complex, icon-explosion sorts of games. Every action you take needs to be with the long term goal in mind. Unless you know what everything means the endgame, every action you take feels like a total random guess. So frustrating. There's never been a game I've played where the group was happier to bail on it. If you know you don't like this kind of game, feel confident in avoiding this one. For fans of heavy heavy games only.

Am i the only one thats really annoyed that you place buildings you built in the water on the outside of the board?

Loved Architects, thought Paladins was okay, hate Viscounts.

I so love the graphic design of all of these games in the series; maybe among the most attractive of all designs out there right now. But I am not engaged by the gameplay at all which is down to personal taste. What's frustrating is that I so appreciate all the work that goes into the beautiful packages but don't love the play. Guess that's just part of playing; sometimes you love great games with poor graphic design (e.g., original "10 Days" series) and sometimes the beautiful wrappers just don't hit. Glad they've found a solid repeat audience because this is all solid work. Everything just isn't for everybody. I'm totally cool with that.

I have liked the game a lot so far, but I have been playing it 2 players and ran into an issue. The game can be hard to end if you need it to end. Since it's not turn based you have to get all the deeds/debt but I had a game where one person really don't care about that and is running round getting everything. So I was "forced' to either do that and try and keep up or try to shorten the game, which isn't easy. I didn't really have cards to get them so I had to take actions to move the good/evil disc to get them, which takes a lot of time.

Unpaid debts are bad, m'kay?

Worst of the series by far. Veeery fiddly w/ weird corner rules plus the whole meeple dance on the castle. Castle is too small, main board is too small, you can't see the details with all meeples and cards there and player boards are made of paper (all this because they are obsessed with that box size). The deck building mechanism is also quite unnecessary, feels like it was shoved it. Overall, I dont quite see what I am doing in this game. Very disappointed.