Coup was by far one of my favourite games to play with my friends at work during our lunch break because it was so quick and easy to set up and play a few good games before we all had to go back to, well, work. It remains one of my favourites to this day.
Coup is a card game for x-y number of players in which you start with two character cards dealt at random and each character card has a different ability. A key aspect of the game though is that no one else sees your cards so you could bluff and perform an action of a different character card (i.e. Not one of those in your hand) – however, if someone calls your bluff and they’re proven right, you lose that card and given that your cards are your life, you also lose a life in the process so it’s risky business!
Coup game rules / How do you play the game Coup?
You set-up by dealing each player two character cards at random and make sure no one sees each others’ cards. The remaining cards are placed in the centre of the players as they may be drawn from later, this is referred to as The Court Deck. These cards are very important as they’re also your lives (so each player starts with two lives), if you lose a card, you lose a life! If you lose both cards, you’re out of the game.
You also deal each player three coins, and again place the remaining coins in the middle.
Players then take it in turns to perform an action based on the cards in their hands (description below of what each character card can do), however, given that nobody has seen each others’ cards, players can choose to perform an action not performed by a character in their hand (for example, a layer may say they’re drawing three coins as The Duke but really they have an Assassin and a Contessa in their hand) – whilst this is a very fun strategy it can also be dangerous because if any other player calls your bluff, you have to show them the card, if you can’t, you lose a life! However, if they claim you don’t have the correct card and you can prove that you do, they must lose a card instead! If you have to show a card to prove that you were in fact telling the truth, you put that card to the bottom of the pile and draw another.
Below are the descriptions of what action you can do each turn.
There are some actions you can do regardless of which cards you’re holding:
Income – take 1 coin.
Foreign Aid – take 2 coins (bear in mind that anyone with The Duke can block this action) .
Coup – Pay 7 coins and choose a player which must then lose a card (and therefore a life!), a Coup cannot be blocked by any card. If you reach 14 coins, you must perform a Coup.
The following are Actions performed by the character cards. There are 3 cards of each character so bear that in mind if you think someone might be bluffing!
The Contessa – The Contessa can block an Assassination (the action carried out by the Assassin).
The Assassin – Pay 3 coins and assassinate a player of your choice – if they don’t block it with The Contessa, they must lose a card of their choice (and hence, lose a life).
The Duke – Draw 3 coins from the pile of coins you’ve left in the middle.
The Ambassador – Draw 2 cards from the Court Deck (the pile of cards you left in the middle at setup), choose which to keep and put 2 back at the bottom of the Court Deck. The Ambassador also blocks a Stealing attempt from the Captain so if someone tries to steal coins from you as The Captain you can block it with the Ambassador.
The Captain – Steal 2 coins from another player. The Captain also blocks Stealing (i.e. If another player claims to have The Captain you can block it with The Captain).
Don’t worry, you don’t need to remember all of these, each player is given one of these handy little cards which sets out the different actions and what each card can do.
You continue taking it in turns to perform actions, call bluffs, assassinate and Coup until there is only one player left holding a card (or two if they’re really good at the game…or lucky!)
How to win Coup?
The aim of the game is to be the last player left after all other players have lost both their lives (cards). You can eliminate other players by reducing the cards in their hands in a number of ways:
Use The Assassin to remove a card from a chosen player (just be prepared for them to claim they’ve got a Contessa or even claim that you don’t have an Assassin!)
Stage a Coup by paying 7 coins and selecting a player who must then lose a card (this can’t be blocked by any card or action)
If you think someone doesn’t have a card that they claim to be playing you can call them out on it and if you’re right, they must lose a card…but be careful, if they were telling the truth, you lose a card instead!
Remember though, the aim of the game is to be the last person holding a card (or cards) at the end of the game so whilst you will need to work on reducing the number of cards in the other players’ hands you also need to protect your own. Because of this, I find that The Contessa coupled with either The Captain or The Duke can be a very powerful combination!
Answer: The aim of the game is to be the last player left after all other players have lost both their lives (cards). You can eliminate other players by reducing the cards in their hands in a number of ways: · Use The Assassin to remove a card from a chosen player (just be prepared for them to claim they've got a Contessa or even claim that you don't have an Assassin!) · Stage a Coup by paying 7 coins and selecting a player who must then lose a card (this can't be blocked by any card or action)· If you think someone doesn't have a card that they claim to be playing you can call them out on it and if you're right, they must lose a card...but be careful, if they were telling the truth, you lose a card instead! Remember though, the aim of the game is to be the last person holding a card (or cards) at the end of the game so whilst you will need to work on reducing the number of cards in the other players' hands you also need to protect your own. Because of this, I find that The Contessa coupled with either The Captain or The Duke can be a very powerful combination!
What's my favourite card?
Answer: I personally love The Contessa - so many times this card has got me out a sticky situation and often won me the game. The beauty of it is that if you hold The Contessa, the only way someone can eliminate one of your lives is by staging a coup, you can't be assassinated and if you play with same people regularly and they know you'll try and hold The Contessa when you can, they often won't call your bluff on those rare occasions when you don't actually have one.
Who would like Coup?
Answer: Anyone who enjoys bluffing games - for example, if you like poker, you’ll probably enjoy Coup! It’s a great one to play during a lunch break because it’s quick and can be played over and over - a true testament to this was when The Good Gamers were filming the How to Play and Let’s Play videos for Coup: we’d been playing for hours, the video equipment was running out of batteries and memory, it was much later than we’d anticipated playing until and yet, even after midnight, there was still the echoes of “just one more game” at the suggestion of calling it a night.
Where to buy Coup?
Answer: Coup can be bought from games retailers, such as The Games Den: https://thegamesden.co.uk/coup-game
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