Second Look—Allegiance

Allegiance is a web published card game from Digital Capricorn Studios by designer David Thompson. The game hasn’t been released yet, but is undergoing blind playtests.

The rules of Allegiance are pretty simple, but the game requires planning, bluffing, and clever use of available card actions. Each card in the game provides infulence to either the Temple or the Thieves Guild. Players try to raise the influence of their chosen side and also make sure they have enough of the same influence in their hands at the end of the game. The player with the most allegiance to the faction with the most influence is the winner.

You can view the current rules of the game here. It shouldn’t take you more than 5 minutes to go through it and have a pretty good idea on how to play the game, and the various actions that can be performed during play.

The beginning of the game sees you pumping influence into the faction of your choice, while later in the game you want to make sure to keep your allegiance number in your hand up, while trying to  find out where your opponent’s allegiance lies, and destroy it.

It’s a very simple, quick playing, satisfying game. It’s a step above a filler game, yet is still something you can get in a few plays of each time it hits the table.

In the end I’d say it’s a worthy game to own. I know playtesting is still going on, but I can’t see much changing with the exception of some card balancing.

A preview copy of Allegiance was provided free by Digital Capricorn Studios.