Brian Boru: High King of Ireland Board Game Review
Trick-taking is a central part of so many playing card games that most people are familiar with it. The lead player starts by playing a card and the highest card of that suit wins the hand. Yet it’s not used that widely in hobby games, perhaps because it’s so commonplace, despite the fact it would make games easier to learn.
Enter Brian Boru: High King of Ireland, a game named after a renowned king of medieval Ireland (see it on Amazon). It uses that comfortable trick-taking concept but builds on it in two distinct ways. First, it removes much of the randomness by having players draft cards instead of a random deal. Second, it has the outcome of tricks determine your control of towns on a map of Ireland. Between them, these innovations transform the humble trick into something very new and interesting.
What’s In The Box
Brian Boru comes in a big, shallow box in order to accommodate a large board with some tracks and a map of Ireland with major towns marked and linked by roads. It’s a beautiful thing, painted in gentle tones to suggest an ancient chart and decorated with knotwork and Celtic fonts.
Indeed the artwork across the game is high quality. You can see the same effect on the cards which are big, tarot-sized affairs depicting people, places and items relevant to the era in classic knotwork borders in addition to their in-game information.
