From Concordia to Hansa Teutonica, board games about being a merchant are in no short supply. Council of 4 takes this mercantile premise and adds in a crunchy extra layer of political scheming and intrigue. This game of nobles, merchants, and underhanded deals is currently on sale on Amazon at a 50% discount.
Council of Four is a hand-management game, in which you exchange cards for influence. The board is divided into three regions, and each region is governed by a different council. Each council has four members, and each of these councilors is represented by a randomly assigned miniature of a different color.
Do these colors represent the differing political ideologies of the councilors, or are they all just wearing eccentric, colorful outfits? Whatever they might mean, you need to discard cards from your hand that match the colors of these councilors in order to curry favor with them and gain business permits that help you collect points, build structures, and perform a variety of other actions.
At times, in a strange way, the game feels like Ticket To Ride. As you exchange colorful cards from your hand to place pieces onto the board. Except rather than connecting the world with railroads, you're slamming down emporiums and assistants in order to build up your business empire.
Here at Wargamer, we may not have a sprawling network of spies, nobles, and schemers, but we have a Discord Server instead, where people are always chatting about board games. It's much more fun, and significantly less sinister.
If you're looking for more tactical titles, where you can scheme and plot your way to victory, here's our list of the best strategy board games. Or, if you're more of a fan of stabbing people in the front than in the back, here's our list of the best war games.