Love Letter: Premium Edition

I think at this stage, Love Letter is a classic. You’re trying to be the one to get a love letter to the Princess (in the wake of the arrest of her mother but that really doesn’t come into play in the game). You win by either being the last player standing or by having the highest ranked card by the end of the game. It’s so easy to teach and play, you can basically start right away. You have one card, you draw another, you play one and that’s your go. The cleverness of Love Letter is that the limited options work in its favour. Counting cards is viable in this game in a way that most people can be bothered with. The base game absolutely stands on its own and is a great game to quickly blitz through some rounds to get a games night going. But how does Love Letter Premium stack up?

A colourful cast of characters

A key difference with the premium version of Love Letter is that you can now play with up to 8 players rather than the usual 4. In the base game, there are only 8 characters with really easy to understand abilities. If you discard the Princess you’re out, the guards can eliminate people if they’ve guessed correctly, the Priest can see other people’s cards. The premium version includes all the cards from the base game. These cards are now a bit bigger and are better quality. The box also comes with sleeves and larger wooden affection tokens. Is this necessary? Probably not, but it’s a nice touch, if you’re going to do a Premium version of a game you might as well have the nice little add-ons.

But the reason you can now play with 8 players is that there are another 9 characters that you add into games with 5-8 players. The new characters include:

● The Bishop – He has a value of 9, but doesn’t beat the Princess. He lets you gain an extra affection token if you correctly guess someone else’s character rank

● The Dowager Queen – She’s like the reverse Baron, where the higher number is eliminated

● The Constable – If the Constable is in your discard pile (after being knocked out) you get an affection token

● The Count – The Count is another player that has an effect if in a discard pile. If you’re still in the game and comparing cards, the Count adds an extra point, this ability also stacks if you have multiple Counts in your discard pile.

● The Sycophant – They choose a character and for the next round all attacks etc. default to them

● The Baroness – A combination between the Baron and the Priest where you’re able to look at two people’s hands

● The Cardinal – They can make two characters swap hands

● The Jester – He has a value of 0 and when played they choose a character they think is going to win the round, if correct the Jester gains an affection token

● The Assassin – He also has a value of 0. If a guard targets you, they are immediately knocked out regardless of the number they choose to guess. After that the Assassin must be discarded and a new card drawn.

The core gameplay is exactly the same as the base game but adds an extra dimension of thinking about the cards you discard and being more considered about the characters you target. The game is fun regardless and it’s still one of the easiest games to teach and start playing.

Who’s the fairest of them all (in HD)

I’ve made it clear that I think Love Letter is a great game and if you really love it you should get the premium version (and give the regular version to someone else who’ll appreciate it). You know yourself if the additional characters sound appealing to you and add an extra dimension to the game or if you’re not that fussed and the base game is enough. Though it’s really nice to be able to accommodate for extra players, and Love Letter is the kind of game where it can accommodate for extra players without the game getting super bloated. Though some might find 8 players a bit much when you just want to be throwing your cards down. A lot of the new characters allow you to gain affection tokens even when you’re knocked out, so it can speed up the game for more players. Though it might be arbitrary and luck-based for some. But this is Love Letter, it’s not really a high strategy game.

Everyone should play Love Letter as it’s so easy to pick up and play, the Premium version just adds that little bit extra for people who really love it.