Last year I backed a Kickstarter campaign for a set of four small box games. The two that I was really interested in were Chomp (dinosaurs, need I say more?) and Sail (a two player cooperative game about sailing and navigation). I could have just pledged for those two, but the price was only a little bit more for all four games. Couture, a fashion themed card game, was the one I was probably the least interested in, but it has turned out to be my favorite in the set, and I've played it more than any of the others.
Couture is an auction game in which each player starts with a hand of four cards: two basic cards with a value of one each, an "iconic pose" worth two, a "signature walk" that's worth three. Each round begins with a spread of nine cards from the main deck, in columns of three separated by tiles indicating which fashion-forward city they are in: New York, Paris, or Tokyo. Players will bid cards from their hand for each of the three cities, with the winner taking their choice of card, then the second place bidder, and so on. Of course, there are a few catches that keep the bidding interesting.
Cards from the main deck fall into two broad categories: bid cards and scoring cards. Bid cards are added to the player’s hand, sometimes at the expense of discarding a hand card. They tend to have higher values for future bids, but sometimes they carry a cost, for example, the Agent card has a bidding value of four, but causes the player to lose two points if they still have it at the end of the game. An Assistant card, on the other hand, is worth zero for bidding but adds one victory point. Part of the strategy of the game is to control when to retain and when to discard certain hand cards.
Scoring cards do just that, score victory points. These are worth points on their own, but some score more when collected in particular sets. Streetwear cards each have a matching card, with an immediate bonus given to the first player with a matching set, and a lesser bonus for the next players to do the same. Ready to Wear and Haute Couture cards award extra points at the end of the game to whoever has collected the biggest variety of brands and largest sets of individual symbols.
But beware the dreaded Flop cards, which subtract points for the players with the most, next most, and so on. How would you end up with a Flop? That’s one of the key points players need to figure out when deciding how much to bid in each city. Bidding is a single round and simultaneous, with players arranging their hand cards separated by city cards so that it’s clear which cards have been used in which city, without revealing how many cards have been bid for each. It is allowed to bid zero cards.
When bids are revealed, the player who bid highest gets the first choice for that city. Then the next highest bidder chooses, and so one. There are three cards for each city; if there are fewer than three bidders in a city, the winning bidder takes the remaining cards, and if there is only one bidder that player takes all three. So if there is even one Flop in a particular city, you have to be thoughtful in how you bid, as it’s often better to come in second or not bid at all.
While the theme isn’t something I’m particularly interested in, it doesn’t overwhelm the game, and the fashion design style illustrations are quite nice. I imagine players who are enthusiastic about high fashion will find it even more engaging, and in any case the more “grown-up” theme and relatively straightforward game play could make this a hit with non-gamer friends and relatives.
