Sometimes you can tell a board game is going to be great just based on the names of its components. Queen of Spies contains, amongst a selection of other cards, tokens, and counters: five pigeon markers, a success bag, and something called an "escape plan card". All of these peculiarly named pieces come together in a strategic solo card game, designed to tell the story of World War One's underground Belgian spy network.
This espionage-based adventure is the latest solitaire experience from Salt & Pepper Games. Salt & Pepper is a Spanish publisher with a track record of bringing out history-based single-player card games. In 2022, they released Resist!, a gunslinging game of guerrilla war, focused on Spanish rebels resisting fascism. Then in 2o23 came Witchcraft!, which tells the story of the infamous Salem trials from the perspective of the witches.
In Queen of Spies, you train up an underground network of operatives. Agents can be deployed to various locations, where they will employ their insight, ability to manipulate, and their tech skills to undertake missions. Whether you end up completing your objectives or failing is determined by pulling tokens from the aforementioned success bag.
You can also train birds to assist in your spying efforts. This is the objective of the first of the game's three scenarios, and it's where those pigeon markers come in. As for the escape plan card, you can collect that after spending enough time skulking in the church cellar, planning out your next big move.
Queen of Spies is currently in the early days of its crowdfunding campaign. It has, at the time I write this, raised €22,611 ($26,328), surpassing its funding goals by 323%.
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Have a look at our list of the best card games if you're hoping to shuffle up some more tabletop adventures.