MeepleMates notes for Richelieu

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Richelieu is available as a public board game page on MeepleMates for group planning and collection tracking.
Best with 4 player according to player poll data.
BoardGameGeek average rating 6.68 and BGG rank #11654.
Groups use this page to connect Bluffing, Political metadata with real play history, ratings and game night notes.

Paris, XVIIth century. Cardinal Richelieu is centralizing power in the name of King Louis XIII and defends France against those he considers its enemies: the English, the protestants, the Habsburgs and French nobles scheming against him and the crown. Will you side with the cardinal, or will you be seduced by the promise of wealth and power from the queen and foreign nations? Be warned that the cardinal will hinder too ambitious intrigants. Become an influent noble in the court by accumulating prestige and favors. The player most helpful to each faction is also rewarded at the end of the game. Richelieu is a tactical game with a lot of bluff and interaction, with intrigue everywhere. Every instance of intrigue will pit Cardinal Richelieu against his enemies. The players are nobles taking sides in these intrigues by placing agents with secret values and thus influencing the intrigues. Will you choose to side with Richelieu or the conspirators - or perhaps even help both? You can keep your support secret or make it directly known to others when placing your agents at the intrigues. It costs money to place agents, but the winning faction gives higher rewards for the players that helped them the most. The Cardinal's mood is influenced by his success or failures, and he will become intolerant against too influential nobles (i.e. the players), who will have one fewer action to spend during a turn as a result. There are many possibilities and opportunities to score points for the player who foresees and thwarts the plans of other players. During the game, you will constantly have to choose your side: Will you side with the Cardinal, or will you be seduced by the promise of wealth and power from the Queen and from foreign nations? Winner of Plateau d'or 2009!

Mechanics

Area Majority / Influence

Best with how many players

Not rec.

Best

Not rec.

Community votes from BoardGameGeek

Language dependence

No necessary in-game text(2 of 3 votes)

Sub-rankings

Strategy Game Rank#2760

Videos

Video language

YouTube1

Instructional1

Spirits of the Forest AKA Richelieu — How to Play 🎲 and Is It a Gem? 💎
YouTube · Board Gems
English

External data

No Wikidata data is stored for this game yet. If the scheduled enrichment has run recently, Wikidata probably has no BGG mapping for it.

Latest Wikidata run: ok · 09/23/2026.

Owned by

Local copies

Richelieu