Osprey Games The King is Dead (2nd Ed.)

Fantastic games with a unique mechanics. Game duration is also just perfect.

The King is Dead is possibly my favorite board game of all time. It has a tight, minimalist approach to the mechanic of area control, that engages both veterans and newbies - veterans because the game is highly strategic and almost free of all randomness, and newbies because it's very quick and easy to teach and play.The change in art style is overall good, and goes out of its way to look like it actually belongs in the Arthurian time period, which I love. That said, the boardstate is less readable in this version than the original, as it's a little loud and bright, instead of muted and dull, like it used to be. I appreciate the attempt at spicing the colors up, and it is good, but it didn't turn out perfectly.This version has replaced the Mordred variant with the Cunning variant, to convince people who already have the game to buy it again for new content. I did, so it worked. That said, I think Mordred is by far the better variant. It gave players the opportunity to end the game early but use normal scoring conditions regardless, resulting in long term planning becoming dangerous unless you're also willing to police Mordred's followers to avoid that endstate. Meanwhile, it gave players who feel like they're losing momentum an opportunity to end things before the other players progress past them. This variant worked because it took the existing puzzle and gave it an extra layer of complexity for everyone to interact with.This new Cunning variant involves an element of significant randomness being added to the game, which is a weird idea in a game that's all about razor sharp balance, and kind of goes against the spirit of it all. Also, since each player gets their own special, different cards in this variant, all with different rules, that's more things to remember, in a game that values simplicity and being easy to teach. I technically have no problems with Cunning existing, since I'm just glad people get to enjoy the game in one more way, but the fact that they took Mordred out to replace it with this is sad.Finally, the box. The box is far, far larger than it needed to be. This was already a little bit of a problem with the original, which had very few components but kiiiinda arguably needed the space for the map, and even then, made the box very shallow to make sure they weren't using too much vertical space as well. The old box also folded open like a book, and had a cute little molded plastic insert, both of which were nice touches. This box, in comparison, opens regularly, has much more vertical height that goes entirely unused, and has a mediocre cheap paper insert. This is honestly my biggest disappointment - this is a really small game when you aren't counting anything other than the actual pieces, and in this remake, they made the unnecessary space even bigger! What a waste.Overall, though, even with the oversized box and lack of Mordred, this game is still a 10/10. It would be if it were printed on a cereal box, the game is that good, but that's not giving this printing enough credit - it's good in its own right, as it adds new art and new content, and generally helps add a second viewpoint to something I love. I definitely recommend buying it. Or the original, if you can find it. Both are good.

Great game, simple rules, beautiful production... my wife and daughter love the game and they aren’t usually keen on the “strategic” types of games. Plays best with 2 or 3 players, at 4 the game is OK.Would highly recommend this one to ANYONE.