FIEF-UH
I got the package on Friday and we busted it out for a game day we had on Saturday. We had five people. I don't know that I've ever laughed harder playing a board game than I did while playing this. There were massive swings of fortune, intense politicking and bickering. Most of all, the emergent storytelling that came out of gameplay really wowed me. I also really like how each player gets three diplomacy tokens, and at any time you can spend one to have a private 3 minute conversation with any players of your choice. There were quite a few hushed meetings in the back room that added so much tension to the game.
(If you're not familiar, you can either win the game by yourself by having three points at the end of a round, or you can team up with someone by marrying one of your family members to someone else's to forge an alliance, and if an alliance collectively has four points at the end of a round, you both win).
My first Lord, Lord Charles, was brutally attacked by my neighbor to the south on the very first turn of the game. He lost the battle, lost his army, and was captured. Thankfully I had a secret passage card that allowed him to escape. That put me back on my heels for a good long while as I recouped strength. I tried to ally with my neighbor to the north, but he betrayed me when he was supposed to give me support. Hilariously, he was also affected by the plague in his bishopric that turn, which decimated the huge army stack he was going to use to backstab me. Even more hilariously, he was the only player willing to draw disaster cards from the deck each turn, and almost every time the roll to see what area of the board they affected landed on him. I joked he had built some bad karma by betraying me.
Anyway, I was able to make Charles the bishop of the western bishopric, and then immediately made him a Cardinal, which allowed me to get some sway when we voted for Pope and King. Eventually, I helped make the player not he far end of the map King, and in return (after a conversation in the back room), he offered to make me Pope if we allied together. At this point we had 3 of the 4 points we needed to win, and I had a massive army ready to take back the territory stolen from me on turn one and get the title to the western fief on the map (which would have given us the final one). Lowly Charles became Pope of the church and married his daughter to the King (making her the Queen and giving me some much-needed income every turn). However, on the last turn, the black player, who had heretofore not been a threat, launched a massive offensive against my ally the King, and succeeded in sieging his capital, taking the city and capturing his family. More importantly, it gave him his third point and he stole the game.
It was an amazing experience. I can't wait to play it again. Some photos (I got the Kickstarter plastic building pieces, and I really like the way they make the board pop; windmills give you bonus income each turn and fortified towers make villages harder to capture by your opponent):
My family mid-game. Charles has just become Cardinal. Guinevre is still unmarried (and despite my best pleas and her general hotness, nobody wanted to marry her for fear of letting me back into the game). I didn't know it yet, but Beaudoin (who I deemed Charles' brother) would be the game's most brilliant general; he was never defeated in battle and led me to victory in the final turns on three separate occasions.
Newly elected Pope Charles. +1VP
After turn one, my capital city was under constant threat from the green player's armies (I was white).
The situation in the east, early on. The pink player would ultimately go on to ally with me after he became King, and we were so close to victory... He just couldn't hold on against the black player who attacked him from the north.
The blue player massing up to attack me again on the final rounds of the game.
My family at the end of the game.
tl;dr version - Fief: France 1429 is basically Crusader Kings 2: The Board Game
