The Card Game Guillotine takes place over three days of the French Revolution. All the known icons such as King Louis XIV, Marie Antionnette, Robespierre and even the Piss Boy (for fans of History of the World: Part 1) are included.
The gist of this card game is to set up the guillotine (which they provide you), line up 12 nobles to be decapitated and at the end of each players turn, the person at the front of the line loses their head, which goes into that players score pile. Each head has a point value associated with it and sometimes a point (i.e. all blue nobles are worth one extra point) or action modifier (i.e. add one new noble to the end of the line.) Each turn a player can use one or zero action cards to do things like 'Move any noble forward four places in line,' so you can manipulate things to your advantage.
The days isn't done until all the heads have been lopped off and the line is empty. At which point the new day begins by lining up 12 more nobles to potentially meet their doom. After three days of bloody beheadings the game is over and the cranial points are counted and the player with the highest score wins.
So Let's See What Happened in This Game
The first day started by lining up 12 nobles to loose their head! The poor General was stuck at the front of the line and I swear I could hear the stout man quivering in his boots.
Unfortunately for him, he was the highest point card out there at 4, so I didn't play ANY action cards (my starting hand sort of sucked anyway) and so we said to the General, "OFF WITH HIS HEAD!" His decapitated cap rolled its way into my score pile, the 11 nobles in line took one step forward with the poor, loved Martyr (hence her -1 points) there at the chopping block.
The people boo'd and hissed at the thought of this beloved woman loosing her life.
Lucky for her
played the "Tis a Far Better Thing" card where the courageous Bad Nun valiantly stepped forward 3 places to the front of the line, sparing the Martyr for at least another turn.Again we yelled "OFF WITH HER HEAD!" and the Nun's noggin neatly landed into the score pile of my opponent.
The first day continued and all the remaining nobles lost their heads. I was slightly ahead in scoring at this point, but
had some Palace Guards that could be a concern later on. The Second Day
The second day started with a bang! (pun intended) My first turn sped things up a little bit with the "Double Feature" card, letting me collect TWO noble heads instead of one.
The guillotine made quick work of the Sheriff and the Lady, and you can see
responding by giving me the finger! Muuuaahaha!After another couple nobles were disposed of, I used an Action card I'd been saving to move Robespierre to the front of the line! As you can see when this guy loses his head the day is over, so there was much rejoicing when the remaining nobles who were to meet their doom were instead spared. We heard much rejoicing from them as they ran off into the distance!
We checked the score and I was down by 1 point!! 1 Freaking Point! The final day started, the last line of nobles were in place to feed the guillotine and it was my turn! I looked at the board, the best head I could acquire was only worth one point and I truly felt I would be defeated if I let this day go on.
Saved from the Woes of Defeat
Realizing there was no hope of victory, I played the powerful "Scarlet Pimpernel" card which ends the day, and in this case the game, at the end of my turn.
I collected the head of the lowly piss boy, ended the game, and reveled in my HARD FOUGHT TIE! I've never been to excited to NOT win!
I do highly recommend this quick and rather cheap (Under $15 usually) card game. It's usually around 20 minutes to complete, rather simple to learn, but complex enough to keep it interesting...especially with more than two players.
Image Sources:
Guillotine
All the remaining images were taken with my phone.