ORIFLAMME



OBJECTIVE OF ORIFLAMME: The objective of Oriflamme is to scheme against other families to gain more influence and win the throne.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 3 to 5

MATERIALS:

  • 50 cards (10 per family)
  • 1 tile First player
  • 1 tile Resolution
  • 70 Influence tokens (50 tokens of value 1, 20 tokens of value 5)
  • 5 Game aid cards

TYPE OF GAME: hidden card placement game

AUDIENCE: teen, adult


OVERVIEW OF ORIFLAMME

Oriflamme is a game of trickery, conspiracy and low blow. Each player is at the head of an influential family and tries to impose himself to take over the kingdom, whose king has just died. To do this, they must place their characters and actions in the right places and reveal them at the right time, counting on a little luck to lead to victory.

SETUP

At the beginning of the game, each player

  • takes the 10 cards in his colour
  • secretly and randomly discards 3 of them definitively
  • takes 1 influence token

Then the first player (who is the older player) takes the first player tile and places the Resolution tile (in the shape of a banner) in the middle of the table, pointing in one direction, which should not be changed.

Example of a 3 player game setup

GAMEPLAY

The first player places one of his cards face down.

Then the 2nd player also places one of his cards face down to the right or left of the card already placed. All players continue in this way. It is not allowed to place a card between two cards that have already been laid down. A new card is always placed at one end of the row of cards.

Then, following the order imposed by the Oriflamme, each player decides whether or not to reveal his card: if he decides not to turn over his card, a 1 influence token is placed on it from the reserve. If he decides to turn it over, the power of the revealed card is immediately and compulsorily applied.

The powers are as follows:

  • The Archer: eliminates the first or last card in the line and gains 1 influence.
  • The Soldier: discards an adjacent card and gains 1 influence.
  • The Heir: gains 2 influences if he is the only Heir, face up, in the line.
  • The Spy: Steals 1 influence from a player whose card is adjacent to the spy.
  • The Assassin: Removes any card from the queue and gains 1 influence. The Assassin is then discarded.
  • Royal Decree: allows you to move any card in the queue. The Royal Decree is then discarded.
  • The Lord: Allows you to gain 1 influence and 1 more influence for each card in your family adjacent to it.
  • The Shape-shifter: Allows copying the power of an adjacent card (but not its name). Important: A shape-shifter directly adjacent to 2 other shapes has no effect.
  • Ambush: if this card is eliminated by an opponent, it gives 4 influence to its owner and eliminates the attacker. If it is revealed in the classic way, it pays 1 influence. The Ambush is then discarded.
  • Conspiracy: Once revealed, the Conspiracy yields double the influence placed on it and is then discarded.

Cards that have not been eliminated or discarded remain in their place on the line. The following rules are then added for the next 5 rounds:

  • The First Player tile passes clockwise to the next player
  • It is now possible to put your card on one of your cards already in play. This allows you to free yourself from the usual placement rule and – above all – to protect a card already in play. A protected card has no influence and cannot be targeted or activate its power.
  • If a player decides to reveal a card placed in a previous turn, he takes the influence token(s) placed on it.
  • Cards already revealed that are still in the queue during the following turns remain revealed, and their power is applied again.

During this turn,

  • the black player played the Royal Decree to far right
  • the red player played a card to the far left (that remained unrevealed)
  • the green player played also a card to the far left (a Soldier, which he did not reveal)

During the resolution,

  • the green player did not reveal his card (Soldier) and placed an influence on it
  • the red player did not reveal his card and placed an influence on it
  • the red player revealed his second card (a Soldier) and targeted the card to the right of the player. However that card was an Ambush, which discarded the red Soldier and granted 4 influences to the black player
  • the black player’s Ambush being revealed, and discarded, it allowed him to activate his Archer, with which he targeted the unrevealed red card to the far left, which revealed to be a Soldier
  • the green player revealed his Shapeshifter and copied the black Archer to kill the black card to his right, which revealed to be a Royal Decree

Note: The last card in hand is never played.

END OF GAME

The player with the most influence at the end of the 6th turn wins the game. The influence remaining on the cards in the row do not count.

During the last turn, both green and black player reached seven influence, but the last card, a red Spy, allowed the red player to determine the winner. The red player holding a grudge against the black player, his Spy stole one influence to him. Green player wins!

Enjoy! 😊

Nakoa Davis
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