Coup de Card
Coup de Card is a deck of cards based wargame that involves potentially hundreds of dice.
Each player must have their own deck of cards. This is their draw pile. You should also have a lot of dice in handy. I haven’t actually tested the game yet, but I reckon both players could have up to 100 dice in play at the same time. it might be useful to use some counter of how many dice you have if you don’t have enough - for example if you have a set of dice you can use the d20 and d100 to count how many dice a general has instead of actually having that many dice.
The table involves some regions of control with some connectivity. I think 5 should be enough, but this is a number I’ll tweak through testing.
There are three types of card: recruitment cards, generals, and augments. Number cards are recruitment cards, face cards are generals, and aces and jokers are augments. The game works in phases:
- Move
- Draw
- Play
- Battle
Players start with 8 cards
Move
During the move phase, you can move any general from a region to a connected region while losing 1d6% (rounding down) of their army to attrition. More interesting boards might have affects for paths between two regions, but in a basic board nothing’s new. You cannot move a general of a suit to a region where there is a general of the same suit.
Draw
During the draw phase, you draw two cards. If you have ran out of cards to draw, shuffle the discard pile and continue drawing.
Play
During the play phase, you may play up to three cards. Every card has its own effect.
When playing a general, put that card in the region you want to play them in. This region cannot already contain a general of that suit. This general now “commands” and army in that region. This constraint of no two generals of the same suit in a region is independent for both players. Both players may have a general of the same suit as their enemy in the same region, but they cannot share a suit with an ally general.
When playing a recruitment card, put that number of dice on a general of the same suit as the recruitment card. You can’t distribute a recruitment card between several generals, all of the recruitment must be on one general. Once you have played a recruitment card, discard it.
Aces attach to generals, lowering the score they need to hit by one - more on this later. You must attach the ace to a general of the same suit,. If all generals of an ace’s suit are dead, you can put that ace on any suit. Jokers attach to enemy generals, keep track of these so you can keep your deck in tact! They increase an enemy general’s chance to hit by one, and you can move them to any connected region incurring attrition and subject to the constraint that the region can’t contain a general of the same suit. When a general with an augment card on it dies, the card goes to its player’s discard pile.
Play Bonuses
If your play meets these conditions, you get a little bonus.
| Type | Description | Bonus |
|---|---|---|
| Three of a kind | Three of the same value card | +3 dice to any general |
| Flush | Three cards in the same suit | Generals of the suit get +1 to hit if you battle on this turn |
| Straight | Three sequential cards, aces are 1s, jacks are 11, queens are 12, and kings are 13. | Reroll 1s on the battle this turn, stacks with spades to reroll 1s twice |
| Pair | Two cards are the same value | Draw a card or move a general without attrition. |
| Three numbers | Play three recruit cards | Choose two generals to get an extra dice |
| Three Generals | Play three general cards | Generals start with 5 dice |
| Triple even / triple odd | Three even bumber cards or three odd number cards are played. No aces or kings/queens | Enemy rerolls 6s this turn’s battle. |
| General pair | Play two general cards | The generals start with 2 dice |
| Ace and a face | Play an ace and a general | Draw 2 |
| Colour pair | Play two cards of the same colour | Draw 1 |
Battle
You may choose one region to have a battle in.
During a battle, both player’s armies roll all their d6s, counting how many hits they got. Hits depend on the general:
Jack - 5+ to hit Queen - 4+ to hit King - 3+ to hit
Certain special effects can change this, such as the augment cards.
Players choose which general attack which enemy generals. A single general cannot attack several generals. Each enemy general in the region must be attacked by another general if possible, but if there are more generals on one side that side gets to pick which generals their extra generals attack.
Once both players have rolled their general’s hits, the attacked general loses that many dice. If an attacked general has no more dice, and it’s got some incoming hits, the general dies. When a general dies, it does not go into the discard pile. It exits the game entirely.
Suits
The four suits represent different factions helping your scry for power. They have unique effects.
- Spades: Reroll 1s
- Hearts: 6s negate enemy hits
- Diamonds: +1 dice for recruitment cards worth 6 or less
- Clubs: Clubs generals make their hits before the enemy makes theirs. Two clubs generals make their hits at the same time.
Winning
A player wins the game when either they control the entire board or their enemy has no generals left in their deck.
Theme
The theme of the game is some military coup. Players, taking hold of their own deck, are a competitor for the throne or for control of the nation. Dice are soldiers given to generals to try get control for the region.
The suits are different aspects of your faction.
- The spades are the military.
- The hearts are the nobility, or the court.
- The diamonds are the tradespeople or quartermasters.
- The clubs are irregulars.