- BGG rating
- 6.1
Statecraft: The Political Card Game – Assets & Agents
- 2–6 players
- 45–60 min
- 2016
- BGG rank
- BGG #30,832
- BGG rating
- 5.2
Statecraft: The Political Card Game
2017
Rules assistance for Statecraft: The Political Card Game
Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.
- 2–6 players
- 20–60 min
- 14+
- Complexity 2.3/5
Rules assistant for Statecraft: The Political Card Game
What would you like to know?
Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.
Statecraft: The Political Card Game is a board game released in 2017 for 2–6 players, 20–60 minutes per game, and ages 14 and up. It was designed by Peter Blenkharn and its main mechanics are Variable Player Powers, Hand Management, and Take That.
Expansions
- BGG rating
- 6.1
Statecraft: The Political Card Game – Extreme Policies Pack
- 2–4 players
- 30–90 min
- 2016
- BGG rating
- 6.2
Statecraft: The Political Card Game – Extreme Supporters Pack
- 2–6 players
- 30–90 min
- 2016
- BGG rating
- 6.6
Statecraft: The Political Card Game – National Politics Expansion (UK & USA)
- 2–4 players
- 20–60 min
- Complexity 1.0/5
- 2016
- BGG rating
- 6.3
Statecraft: The Political Card Game – The Supranational Union
- 2–6 players
- 900–1200 min
- 2017
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About the game
Statecraft is a game about politics. Build a political party in a familiar but fictional world, recruiting politicians to your cause, developing your manifesto of support winning ideas, campaigning for the support of the public and firing off slavos of slander and sabotage at your cunning rivals, and surviving catastrophic events that shake up the nation you’re playing the game of politics in. Every game of Statecraft is different, with more than 150,000 different starting set ups, with different voters, leaders, scenarios, politicians each game, as well as different policies, actions, events and emergencies coming to the fore during the game. Each game of Statecraft starts off with selecting a scenario, which represents the current events of a fictional nation, and with players selecting their political party’s leader, who’ll form the central character of your party’s team. Players then manage their cards to carry out a series of political ‘manoeuvers’ during their turn, whether spending cards recruiting new politicians to their party, using cards announcing new policies with their newly minted team members, campaigning for the support of a key demographic or dialing their favourite cable news network to divulge some damaging slander about their opponent.
Designers
Publishers
- Inside the Box Board Games LLP (ITB)
Questions and answers
Statecraft: The Political Card Game supports 2–6 players according to the catalogue. This range comes from the publisher’s listed player count, so the game can be set up for any group size within it. Some setups, rules and scoring details may still vary by player count, so check your edition’s rulebook for the exact configuration.
The listed playing time for Statecraft: The Political Card Game is 20–60 minutes. This is the publisher’s estimate for a full game. The actual duration depends on the group, the player count and familiarity with the rules: first sessions usually run longer, while experienced groups often finish faster. Setup and teaching time are not included in this estimate.
The catalogue lists Statecraft: The Political Card Game for ages 14 and up. This is the publisher’s recommendation and reflects reading demands, rule complexity and small components rather than theme alone. Younger players can often join with help from an adult, so check the age guidance on your edition and consider your group’s experience with board games.
Statecraft: The Political Card Game has a complexity rating of 2.3 out of 5 from BoardGameGeek players, which makes it a medium-light game. The rating reflects how much rules knowledge, planning and decision-making a typical game demands. Expect a longer first teach for heavier games, and use a preparation guide before game night.
Statecraft: The Political Card Game belongs to these categories: Card Game, Economic, and Print & Play. Its main mechanics are Variable Player Powers, Hand Management, and Take That. Categories describe the theme and setting of a game, while mechanics describe what players actually do on their turns. Each mechanic links to a catalogue hub with similar games, which helps when you want something comparable.
The credited designers of Statecraft: The Political Card Game are: Peter Blenkharn. These credits come from the published game data and name the people responsible for the game’s design, not its illustrators or publishers. Designer pages on MeepleRules collect other titles by the same designers, which helps when you enjoy a game and want to find similar ones.
The catalogue lists Statecraft: The Political Card Game as a base game. It can be played on its own with the components in the box and does not require any other title. Expansions, if any exist, add new content or rules on top of it and are listed separately in the catalogue with a link back to this base game.