Council of Serpents: a new deduction game being funded on Gamefound

Council of Serpents is the new game from Wulfhorn Games, currently in the funding phase on Gamefound. It's already caught our attention at KLEFF for its political intrigue setting, its very personal art, and mechanics that perfectly match the theme. In this post, we'll tell you what it's about, how it's played, and why it's convinced us so much that we're already bringing it to our demo nights.

Introduction to the Game

Council of Serpents is a game of political intrigue and manipulation for 1 to 4 players designed by Joeri Hessels and Wouter Moons, with very distinctive art by Joost Das, and illustrated and published by Wulfhorn Games, a small Dutch studio founded by Ruud Nederpelt. You can find all the information and project updates on its Gamefound page, where the game is currently being funded, as well as on its BoardGameGeek entry.

The setting places us in a fantasy court where three noble Houses compete for power. But in Council of Serpents, we don't embody any of them: we are members of the Council of Serpents itself, a shadowy faction pulling strings from the outside. Each player secretly receives an assignment to guide a specific House to either Triumph or Collapse, and as soon as one of the attributes of any House reaches one of these two extremes, the game ends immediately.

To achieve this, we will play Influence cards from our hand, which alter the Houses' attributes and also provide additional effects that can completely change the course of the game. A detail that we find very clever is that these cards are not used to directly attack other players: the conflict lies in manipulating the Houses and their relationships with each other, not in facing each other head-on, which softens the feeling of playing "against" someone without reducing any of the tension.

How to Play

Without going into full rule detail, the central idea of Council of Serpents is simple to explain: each player receives a secret objective indicating which House they want to favor and towards which extreme (Triumph or Collapse) they want to push it. In each turn, Influence cards are played from hand to move the indicators of the three Houses along their respective attribute tracks, and many of these cards also include effects that modify relationships between Houses or condition their future plans.

This is where the deduction part comes in: since no one knows the others' objectives, players must observe what cards each player plays and which Houses they are trying to move to get an idea of who to help and who to hinder. The game ends abruptly as soon as an attribute reaches its limit, so the pace is quick (games of about 30 minutes) and requires careful timing to prevent another player from completing their objective before us.

Our Opinion

We've been able to play a few games of Council of Serpents and, honestly, we've liked it quite a lot. Here's why:

• Very personal and distinctive art: Joost Das's style gives the game its own visual identity, very far from the generic fantasy we sometimes see in these types of games.

• Mechanics that fit the theme: hand management combined with deduction about which House each player wants to favor is very interesting and reinforces that feeling of courtly intrigue where no one shows their cards.

• Works very well with 3-4 players: this is where the game truly shines, with more secret objectives intertwining and more uncertainty about who to help or harm.

• At two players it loses some of its charm: it can be played, but we wouldn't recommend it as a first option, as much of the fun lies in deduction among multiple secret objectives. That said, the game includes a solo mode that we still have to try but seems very interesting.

It also reminded us quite a bit of Hidden Leaders, a game we have available in our ludoteca. They share that track mechanic and the desire to favor certain factions or Houses using the cards in hand, although Council of Serpents gives it its own twist with its courtly espionage setting.

Precisely because it has convinced us so much, during our game nights we are organizing demo sessions where we explain the rules and guide the game step by step, as we did last Wednesday, July 22. The next demo session will be on Wednesday, July 29, we look forward to seeing you so you can discover Council of Serpents firsthand!

Has your curiosity been piqued? You can follow the campaign closely on Gamefound and, if you want to try it in person, check our activities agenda to sign up for the next game night. See you at the table!