Always a Bridesmaid

• Designer: Jimic
• Publisher: Kado Games
• Players: 2-5
• Age: 10+
• Time: 20 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Always a Bridesmaid is a simultaneous card game about trying to shine just enough — but never too much. Over three rounds, each player plays accessory cards face down, then reveals them at the same time to build a visible total. The twist is that the highest total is not the best position: players score by timing their exit and aiming to be the most flattering runner-up rather than stealing the spotlight.

Each round, players may play their HOLD BACK card to stop playing for the round. The first players to hold back may secretly set aside one final accessory card, which is revealed during scoring and added to their total. Negative cards can help a player avoid the top position, but using them may flip that player to their WILD side, creating an end-game penalty.

After each round, scored cards are displayed and removed from future hands, while reserved cards enter the game between rounds. As the card pool changes, players must read each other’s timing, totals, and appetite for risk to finish in exactly the right place.

Each player gets a set of 11 Accessory cards, a Hold Back card and a Start/Wild card.  At the start of the game, each player chooses 5 of their Accessory cards to go into their reserve.  The remainder of the Accessories and the Hold Back card become their hand for the first round.  The Start card is placed on the table face up.

The first round begins.  Players secretly and simultaneously choose a card from their hand; when all have chosen, they are revealed.  The card is placed in a row to the right of the Start card.  If it is an Accessory card, its value will be added to that player’s total count for the Round.  If it is a Hold Back card, this signifies that you will not play any more cards this round.  However, if you are the first player(s) to play one, you also get to place one more hand card face down next to it.  This card will count towards the round total, BUT it remains a secret until the scoring.  If you play an Accessory with a negative value, you must then flip your Start card over to the Wild side.  

Continue playing until either everyone has played their Hold Back card or everyone but one player has done so.  At that point, the round ends.  Set aside cards (from the earliest Hold Back cards) are revealed, and players total their Accessory points.  Points are awarded based on rank – ties split the score for a rank, rounded down, and the next rank is NOT skipped.

For 5 players:

• Most accessories – 1 VP
• Second most – 3 VP
• Third most – 2 VP
• Fourth most – 1 VP
• Least – 0 VP

For each VP scored, choose one of their played accessory cards to put in their face-up score pile to denote their score.  If they won more VPs than cards played, they must then choose a card from their hand.   Each of these cards is worth 1VP, but they are out of the game.

At the start of the second round, players choose 3 of their reserve cards to add to their hand.  At the start of the third and final round, players take their last 2 reserve cards into their hand.

At the end of the game, players count the number of cards in their score pile.  If they have the Wild card showing, that is a -1VP penalty.  The player with the most points wins.  Ties broken in favor of the player who has been single the longest.

My thoughts on the game

Always a Bridesmaid takes an idea that I have long adored, and in fact have tried on multiple times to design a game around – that is, a game where the goal is to come in second place.   This task is not as easy as it looks, especially when everyone’s cards are face up for the most part.

The game ends up being an interesting mix of hand management, push-your-luck, bluffing, and a bit of memory.  At the start of the game, players are faced with an interesting decision of which cards to start in their hand and which to leave as reserve.  It’s not a simple decision as you honestly can’t predict which way the round will run until it happens – will everyone choose their 10 to start and the first round will have a high total?  What if everyone else chooses to end early and go low?  

Then, between rounds 1 and 2, you’ll again have the choice of what cards to add to your deck; though you’ll have seen some of the contents of everyone else’s hand at that point, and if you have a good memory, you’ll also remember which cards have been taken out of the game and converted into scoring cards.   This aspect of using the played cards as scoring cards is another interesting element of the hand management.  If you are successful in an early round, you become more limited in what you can do in the later rounds.  At least you might get to choose which cards to nerf out.

As the round plays out, there is also a little push-your-luck.  You are never quite sure how long a round will last because it ends when there are zero or one player left in.  Thus, you might have a longer strategy planned that would culminate in a negative card at the end to reduce your total; but if everyone else plays their “hold back” earlier than you expect, well, you’re hosed.  Also, you’re never quite sure what the target number is as the player(s) who Hold Back first play a face-down card that obfuscates things a bit.

As far as the scoring goes, I do wish that there was a player aid or an extra card with the scoring chart printed on it.  The chart is in the rules, but it takes awhile for people to memorize it – and it would have been super nice to have a reference on the table for everyone to see.  Also, because ties do not eliminate a position in the scoring chart; once a tie is locked in at the table, this guarantees that every non-tied player will score at least one point, and this can be a very valuable tip to eke something out of a hand that otherwise has gotten away from you.  The unfriendly tie situation also makes avoiding a tie paramount as the rounded-down payoffs stink.

Always A Bridesmaid is a clever game that uses one of my favorite game ideas and does a very good job of delivering on a short and tense game.  It has been a nice filler to start our game night.

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it!
• I like it.  Dale
• Neutral. John P
• Not for me…