Mini Review: King's Ransom

From BoardGameGeek:

King’s Ransom is a 2-player strategy game pitting royal rivals against each other. Using the basic mechanics of chess, there’s an additional layer of strategy due to each card entering play hidden from the opposing player’s view. If you can set traps and lure your opponent into making mistakes, you might be able to snatch their King and ransom him for control of the kingdom!
Turn Order:
- Flip a face-down card so it is face up
- Move a face-up card
- Announce check, if applicable
- Place a new card face down
- Draw a card from your deck
The cards are set up in a 3x6 rectangle. On your turn, you can place your new card face down anywhere on your 3x3 half of the rectangle. This is where I think the game could use a tweak. I'm not sure if the developers tried it with only being allowed to put new cards in your first two rows only, but I think that would help balance the game a bit. As it was, the game I played went pretty quickly because that third row starts out extremely close to the opposing king.

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