High Society

High Society is an easy game to introduce having a simple bidding mechanic but with unique twists. Large cards with different values are revealed representing aspects of 'high society' such as 'au de parfum' and 'joie de vivre'. Players bid for these points with identical sets of money cards of various values, and can continue to add to their bid until all but one have dropped out. The winning bidder pays their money to the bank and takes the card but all others can return their money to their hands. The twists are that players cannot swap the money bid, only adding to the cards laid down. So deciding which values to lay down and when is a tactical part of the game. Also there are penalty cards like 'faux pas'. These are bid for but go to the first player to withdraw from the auction. All other players pay the money bid and the 'winning' bidder gets to retain their bid. Finally another major twist is that the player with the lowest amount of money left at the end of the game is eliminated; even if they have the most points they are not considered a member of high society as they are not wealthy enough! So points and money have to be balanced. There are powerful bonus cards that can double a player's score. Four of the bonus/penalty cards have dark borders and when the fourth of these is revealed the game ends immediately, giving the game a random duration. Fantastic artwork and card quality add to a great production from Osprey Games. This is an older Reiner Knizia game which has stood the test of time. He's arguably the master of using auction mechanics in games. One caveat is that auction games are difficult to judge on first play as players won't fully understand the value of what they are bidding for. For example, in our first game one player spent way too much money and another player ended up with a negative score. There was one clear winner out of four players but expect subsequent games to be much tighter. Some people might find the idea of auction games to be a bit dry but High Society has enough theme, choices and tension to remain very interesting.

This is a great game with clever but very simple rules and pretty quick to play. Your aim is to try to use your limited money (all players start with the same amount of money) to buy ‘prestige’ and avoid scandal! At the end of the game, before adding up points, the player with the least amount of money is immediately eliminated, which is an excellent and clever mechanic that really adds strategy. Beware, though! This game requires cunning and a lot of stitching up of other players!! Great fun and very social (unless you are super competitive!!!). Highly, highly recommended.

This is a great little auction game. Easy to teach but with a good deal of skill and strategy involved. I own 50+ board games and this has been played more than any other as it works well with casual and hardcore gamers alike. Most people I have played it with have loved it and quite a few have gone on to buy their own copy. The best bit is the twist - that the player with the least money at the end of the game instantly loses, regardless of how well they have done with the bidding. This keeps a constant tension between buying the points you need but not spending too much, while also trying to prevent other players from getting points too cheaply.

Fun game, relatively limited replayability in a single session (no more than 3-4 rounds) but you can get it out relatively frequently and have fun

This is a wonderful game. The game design is extremely simple: you bid for 16 luxury items using 11 different banknotes. Yet despite its simplicity, the game delivers an incredible amount of tension, dilemma, and excitement. There were several moments where the last player’s single card decided the outcome. It’s almost impressive how much thrill and suspense can come out of such a streamlined system. The design and artwork are beautiful, and the compact size makes it easy to carry around.

This has become a favourite at our board game club. I am convinced there is no game plan that works! It's so hard to win more than once and the temptation to get into bidding wars is too much! The only improvement I would say is that you could do with a bit more money to start. Even without spending a lot, quite a few games have ended with rounds and rounds of people getting free cards because nobody can spend their last card!

We loved this game the first few times we played it and the cards are beautifully designed ... but there isn't enough variety to stop it getting stale quite quickly. You basically auction for the most points... it's that simple. One thing we found spiced it up was randomly giving the money out after a Shuffle and saying the poorest at the end of the game couldn't win. That way you don't know how much each player starts with or how much you should spend!

Great little travel card game for 3 or more players, highly recommend for anyone that plays modern board games (or is prepared to try them out)

It’s a good game to play between two long board game sessions. I liked how the game is designed and the game play is pretty smooth too.

ルールも複雑でなく簡単な競りゲームとしてとても面白かったです

Really easy to explain, can get really tense and as it finish as soon as a 4th green card appears, you never know when is going to end. The twist of the poorest player gets immediately disqualified even if it has the more points id brilliant too. Plays fast and as it's extremely easy to set up you can play a few rounds in a row

Great knizia auction game with nice art and clever mechanics

Es un juego estilo filler. La duracion es de 30 minutos aprox y es hasta 5 jugadores. La mecanica es muy sencilla y el arte y diseño de las cartas es precioso. Muy recomendable. Esta en inglés eso si, pero pueden jugar todos los publicos y el idioma no es un impedimento una vez que sabes de que va el juego. PD: si quieres enfundar vas a necestar dos tipos de fundas: "Asia" 57.5x89mm para las pequeñas; y "Dixit" 80x120mm para las grandes.