This crown isn’t worth fighting for
QUEEN BY MIDNIGHT
Designer: Kyle Shire, Alexandre Uboldi | Publisher: Darrington Press
As the clock strikes midnight, one princess stands victorious, her rivals defeated in a trial by combat. A deckbuilding battle-royale from the makers of Critical Role, Queen by Midnight’s style reminds me of Villainous meets edgy YA fantasy. The first thing you’ll notice is the game’s ostentatious production. Large player boards show off the artwork of these nefarious nepo-babies while six unique decks express their special talents.
The game’s centrepiece is a large cardboard clocktower with a geared mechanism that shows the current round and acts as a dice tower. This sits atop a lazy susan that holds the card market allowing the hold assembly to be rotated to face each player in turn. Assembling all of this I was determined not to be dazzled by this elaborate piece of cardboard but I have to admit, being able to rotate the card market during play is delightful and I now want a lazy susan for other deckbuilders.