Calvin's Corner - Capital Lux Review

Political machinations meet mechanical bite: Capital Lux is beautifully intense all the way through.

Capital Lux is a small box card game with one deck of cards and a fistful of tokens that nevertheless remains one of the most ruthlessly political games I’ve ever played. The Capital calls. Will you answer?

Colin the Board Game Bear wants you to play Capital Lux.

The game is incredibly simple: before each of its three rounds, players will draw a hand of profession cards. Two of them will be kept, and the others passed around the table. From this new hand, you choose four to keep (not necessarily including the two you originally kept) and pass the remainder.

The lavish illustrations of Capital Lux: scholars, merchants, agents, and clerics.

Hand so sculpted, on your turn you simply play one card into your hometown in front of you, or into the capital in the center of the table.

Cards in your hometown score points at the end of the game, so you'll obviously want to ratchet those totals up as high as possible, BUT... if any of the four professions in any hometown ever outshine the same professions in the Capital at the end of any round, all those cards are permanently removed. If this happens right at the very end of the third and final round…

Barely squeaking through - fourteen in the hometown, fourteen in the capital.

From these two decisions you get a spiral of brinksmanship, mutual annihilation, and political backstabbing - all amplified by the abilities.

Each profession has an ability that's triggered when played into the Capital; merchants earn gold which is used to bribe the Capital into ignoring your excess hometown talent; scholars draw an additional card, easing the very limited options in your hand while allowing yourself some much needed stalling; charismatic clerics convert the lowest Capital card of any other color to your side; and the lethal agents can manipulate the final Capital totals leading to wipeouts when you least expect it.

With these simple rules, Capital Lux then challenges you to strike the balance between a) increasing your final score b) getting use out of the abilities c) not allowing your opponents to get free scoring potential from your actions d) sacrificing your own scoring to eliminate an opponent’s high value set e) remembering which cards you passed to the left f) anticipating what your opponents are likely to do g) remembering who scored the bonuses in each round to try and calculate how far you can push it.

I cannot overstate how elegant and thematic the mechanics are. You can’t overshadow the capital because you'll upset the status quo and the powers that be will wipe you out... Unless you bribe them. Agents in the darkness, forcing the issue at the point of a ray gun. Scholars give you a greater understanding of the lay of the land while clerics convert the most vulnerable members of society. It all fits.

The capacity for skilful play is tremendous, and the way it eases you into a mindset of cutthroat realpolitik without you even realizing it is honestly a little startling. You're not explicitly trying to destroy anyone, you're just looking out for yourself and playing within the rules of the system - the fact that people die is a mere side effect of your success.

Seduced by the cleric’s guild, Colin turns to the dark side.

Brutal and beautiful, tense and thematic, Capital Lux is one of the best small box games I've played.

Highly recommended.