A review of the competitive card game 'Serviam' in which players send gifts and threatening letters to the kingdom's powerful while outdoing others to become the best merchants
Serviam | Domina Games
https://www.dominagames.com/serviam
The Serviam package looks like this. The illustrator is Sena and the game designer is Antony Wyatt .
The game is suitable for 1-4 players, has a play time of 20-60 minutes, and is intended for ages 12 and up.
The contents include one instruction manual, three influence boards, and one summary card.
In the world of Serviam, 'a tyrant has fallen ill and a power struggle is raging.' The three influence boards show the characters and influence of the military kingdom army (blue), the Midra Cult (green), a new religion that threatens the existing church, and the Kingdom Assembly (red), which is made up of aristocrats who are responsible for national politics. Each faction has three powerful people, and the characters are ranked from top to bottom, with 3 stars, 2 stars, and 1 star. In addition, next to each character is a scale showing their influence: '-3, 0, 0, 1, 1, 2, 2, 5.'
The game also includes 36 authority cards (top left), 36 tribute cards (bottom left), 4 devil cards (top center), 4 bribe cards (bottom center), 4 victory point count cards (top right), and 5 enemy merchant cards (bottom right).
Influence markers corresponding to the colors of the three factions, plus white and black victory point markers.
To play with four people, prepare the game. First, place the influence markers corresponding to each color on the three influence boards, on the '0' on the left side of the scale.
Next, deal victory point count cards and authority cards to each player. There are 9 authority cards in 4 types, and the cards in the same color as the victory point count cards are used as a set.
Shuffle the nine power cards, place five of them face down, and place the remaining cards to the right. Turn the two cards on either side of the five cards face up. These five cards represent the 'connections' that your merchant family can rely on.
Next, shuffle the 36 tribute cards to create a deck, and each player draws two cards. However, if a 'threatening letter' card appears, you must draw again.
You will also receive one Devil card and one Bribe card, for a total of four cards in your hand.
The game is now ready.
The goal of Serviam is to earn victory points by sending tributes to those in power during the seven turns, and ultimately win as the best merchant house by earning more victory points than the other players. The player who has recently received money becomes the starting player, and players take turns clockwise.
During your turn, you will process the following in this order: Offering Phase, Conspiracy Phase, Networking Phase, Reward Phase, and End of Turn Phase.
In the ' Offering Phase ,' you play an Offering card from your hand under the Powerful Person card you have lined up in front of you. For example, below is an example of offering a 'Fairy Figurine' to Lord Victoria. The Offering card states 'how offering the Offering will change the Powerful Person's influence.' In the case of this 'Fairy Figurine,' the effect is '+1 influence to the Powerful Person who offered it, +1 influence to Lord Victoria, and if Lord Victoria is in your network, -2 influence to Powerful Persons with a 3-star ranking.'
Therefore, move Lady Victoria's influence marker on the Power Board two spaces to the side.
In addition, they will lower the influence of three-star rulers. The active De Medina family said that 'separation of church and state is important,' and lowered the influence of Bishop Matthias of the Church of Midra, a new religious organization.
After the Offering Phase, the next phase is the Intrigue Phase, which will
In the ' Reward Phase ', you can get victory points according to the influence of the powerful person to whom you offered a tribute this turn. Looking at the influence board, if you are Lord Victoria who offered a tribute this time, you can get 1 point, so add 1 point to the victory point count marker.
During the ' end of turn phase ', you draw one card from your deck and your turn ends.
The Bazzi-Betti family offered a 'bribe' to Kurt, commander of the Imperial Guard Division, who is ranked as a 2-star in the military, while uttering some nasty lines such as 'After all, it's best to give it to a soldier.' The 'bribe' can increase the influence of the person who gave it and any other person by 1.
This time, we increased the influence of Commander of the Royal Guard Division Kurt by 2.
And in the upper right corner of the 'Bribery' card, there was a 'conspiracy icon' that looked like a secret society. If you present a card with this conspiracy icon, you can execute the ' conspiracy phase '.
During the conspiracy phase, the 'EFFETTO ORDINE' effect, a unique skill of the power holder who made the offering, is activated. Kurt's 'Concealment' allows you to get victory points based on the influence of Kurt after replacing one of the offering cards placed on the field with your hand.
The effect of this Imperial Guard Commander Kurt is that you can exchange the 'Bribery' you just played for a tribute card in your hand. Please note that the effect of the new tribute card will not be activated, but once you have offered something, it will never come back to your hand, so being able to return a card you have already played to your hand is a very powerful effect.
Comments such as, 'Is it okay to bribe someone in power and then take that bribe back?' fly across the table.
There is also a card called 'Blackmail' among the offering cards. Blackmail cards have a conspiracy icon on them, so if you send them to an authority figure, you can execute the conspiracy phase, but it has the effect of lowering the influence of the authority figure who sent it, and the disadvantage is that you will not be able to offer offerings to the authority figure who sent the blackmail letter. Even if you are a merchant, it may be natural that you will lose your precious connections once you have blackmailed an authority figure.
The following scene shows the La Fortina family finally sending threatening letters to three powerful people. The surrounding players were in an uproar, saying things like, 'This guy... he's a merchant, but he's threatening the powerful...' and 'Isn't there anything he's scared of?'
General Wilhelm, who received a threatening letter, has the EFFETTO ORDINE effect, which is to 'uniformly increase or decrease the influence markers of all powerful people belonging to the specified organization by +2 or -2.'
House La Fortina gives all Royal Councils an influence of +2, which brings Lady Victoria's influence to its maximum.
The La Fortina family's goal was to maximize Lady Victoria's influence and get 5 victory points.
However, at this point, the Bazzi-Betti family sent a threatening letter to Eleonora, whose EFFETTO ORDINE effect was to 'switch the influence of two people belonging to the same organization.'
'Of course, Lady Victoria will keep quiet!' said the Bazzi-Betti family, swapping the influence of Chancellor Balthasar and Lady Victoria.
Another player sent a 'demon' with a conspiracy icon to Chancellor Balthasar. Chancellor Balthasar had the EFFETTO ORDINE effect of 'removing the designated authority from all players' networks and drawing new authority cards.'
The Kerschbauni family responded, 'Losing Lady Victoria from our network... that's terrible!' In fact, it seems that the Kerschbauni family had learned that the La Fortina family was gaining influence, and since Lady Victoria was also in their own network, they were hoping to get some of the benefits.
Instead, it was Commander Kurt of the Royal Guard who came to the Kelschbauni family's network. The power and tribute cards have icons based on the three power factions in the upper left corner. At the end of the game, there is a 'demand match bonus' that says 'If there is a combination of the same icon on the tribute card and the power card to which it was given, you get 2 points for each combination.' The Kelschbauni family was aiming for a total of 6 additional points by offering three tribute cards with red icons, but when Lord Victoria with the red icon left and Kurt with the blue icon became Commander Kurt of the Royal Guard, the additional points that were supposed to be given disappeared.
The game ends when all players have completed 7 turns. Since players must offer one Offering card per turn, you can keep track of the number of turns by counting the number of Offering cards in play.
Finally, the points are calculated by adding the demand match bonus to the current victory points, and the player with the most points wins as the best merchant.
The La Fortina family, who had been sending threatening letters, had succeeded in giving tribute cards with conspiracy icons to all five of the powerful people in their network. If you can give tribute cards with conspiracy icons to all five people, you can get 10 points in the 'Dark Influence Bonus'.
The first time, we had to understand the rules, so it took about an hour and a half to play one round. Next, we played with three people, but this time the number of people was reduced and everyone's understanding of the rules had improved, so the play time was about 40 minutes.
Serviam is a game in which you manipulate the influence of those in power to ultimately benefit yourself the most, but since the influence of those in power is shared by everyone, I often saw situations where increasing the influence of those in power in your network would benefit other players as well. Therefore, while it is important to 'act in a way that benefits you while at the same time hindering the other player,' I felt that the key to victory was to 'match the other player's movements and at the same time get a share of the sweet juice.' It's a game where you can casually experience the messiness of a power struggle, where you 'use the other person as much as you can and then betray them in the end.'
Each authority has its own unique skill, the EFFETTO ORDINE effect, and the game's development will change greatly depending on how you deal with bribes, demons, and threatening letters with conspiracy icons. Therefore, it is fun to think about which authority to support and which authority to bring down. The network of people to whom you can offer gifts changes every time you play, so it has high replay value.
In addition to multiplayer battles, there is also a solo mode where you can fight against the Bazzi-Betti family. Therefore, it is a nice point that you can play even if you can't find an opponent.
Although the game itself is simple, you will need to understand the rules, how to progress through the phases, and the tricks of the game, so it is recommended that you play slowly the first time to understand the rules and flow of the game.
Serviam is available for purchase at Amazon.co.jp for 3,520 yen including tax.
Amazon | Domina Games Serviam (1-4 players, 20-60 minutes, ages 12 and up) Board Games | Board Games | Toys
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