Throne of the World is a simple card game by the designer of Attack on Monster.  Each turn you have a few options between h0w many cards you draw and how many you play; for example, you can draw 2 cards and play 3 cards, or just play 5 cards, etc.

Each card is either one of the 7 professions or an action card.  When you play profession cards, you place them in front of you and the more you have of a type, the more powerful they are when activated.

When you play action cards, you choose a profession to activate (although some action cards can not activate specific professions).  When activated, some professions earn cash, some attack other players (which remove cards/coins), and some steal cards from other players.  There are also some special skill cards which give powerful one-off effects.

After your turn, you must pay 1 coin for each profession card you have in front of you.  Also, each player has a specific race card which gives them a special ability too.

There are several victory conditions such as having 45 coins, having 15 coins and at least 1 card of each of the 7 professions.  However, you are automatically out of the game if you ever run out of coins.

Throne of the World seems like a simple card and quick card game but with some interesting decisions as you choose which profession cards to put into play and what to use your action cards for.  I like that you draw cards from 5 face-up cards (rather than blind from the deck), and you can also discard all the 5 face-up cards for 5 new ones before your turn (but you don’t get to draw any cards that tuen) so there may be potential to deny other players.

Elimination for having no coins is interesting as it means you need to balance having multiple profession cards and funding them.  With some attacking and card stealing there will be some interaction between players too.

You can see the designer’s Facebook using this shortlink: bga.me/throne

For more Spiel 2014 previews, check out my Spiel 2014 Previews page which lists the games on my radar with links to their previews too.

James.