Rococo Deluxe Review - Tailor-Made Gaming Bliss

goodness hello everybody ooo happy new year  let's see what kind of a year 2021 one moment i think i need to hold this  down can you give me a minute   i think given the circumstances it's time we broke  out the big gowns here's the skinny on thi- on   this bloater rococo deluxe is an absolutely  fabulous board game and after this review   it's going straight in my collection this is a new  edition of rococo a critically acclaimed 2013 game   where players run tailoring businesses competing  to stitch up as many nobles as possible before an   epic party the game was out of print  for years until publishers eagle griffin   recently kickstarted this mouth-watering new  edition rococo deluxe with art by the marvellous   ian o'toole rococo deluxe also includes the original  game's expansion rococo jewelry box and it has a   new one player mode and some promotional extras  all stuffed in here like a pair of feet into   a single expensive stocking where the original  rococo was maybe $40 and the expansion was another   $25 the cheapest i could find rococo deluxe including shipping was $120 now when dealing with the game as ridiculously  expensive as this the question we always seek   to answer is is it offering an experience you  can't get anywhere else and in the case of this   game it's not this is a normal ass board game in  expensive new clothes so if you just care about   great mid-weight management games you could buy  two or three equally great games and still have   money left over for a bite to eat oh no god no  don't do that rococo deluxe then is a game for   you if you want to spoil yourselves it's a game  for people who want to live luxuriously and if   i learned one thing from 2015 movie the witch it's  that there's absolutely nothing wrong with that so   without further ado please step into my fitting  room allow me to roguishly toss my measuring tape   over my shoulder and we'll see if this game suits  you when a game of rococo deluxe starts king louis   the 15th yeah there he is is about to host a grand  ball and you and your fellow competing tailors   have just seven rounds of play to get everybody  dressed and sort the musicians and the fireworks   and the catering but somehow you'll all manage and  in just an hour or two nice and quick this game   you'll all be looking out across a palace  overflowing with beautifully dressed nobles   flouncing around in syrupy ignorance that in just  a few decades they'll all be playing a starring   role in the french revolution this actually takes  some of the sting out of losing the one player   game of rococo in which you take on an ai version  of madame du barry yes she beat you by five points   again but she will eventually be  denounced by her own bengali slave and   dragged to the guillotine so in a way you  have the last laugh but candidly the end of   a game of rococo is really exciting because  only then do you start to add up the points   and see how you did while everyone gets points for  each of their outfits and decorations at the party   the end of the game is also where the dust  settles and you can finally see the victors of a   long fought area control game points are awarded  to whoever got the most of their pieces into   each of the game's five halls points are also  awarded to whoever funded the most fireworks   and each firework you pay for earns you a slot  so you can send a noble from the king's hall up   to the balcony letting that outfit be admired  again by all and sundry you did remember to put   a really nice piece in the king's hall right oh  not one of those horrid pink frock coats oh no   so a game of rococo is basically a race for all  the players to dress up as much as possible but   like the very best race board games it's one  where you're never quite sure who's in first   place and you're never beaten over the head with  the knowledge that you're losing and so a sense   of breathless tightness sits under rococo like  a whalebone corset incidentally players running   competing tailoring businesses was a cool original  theme already in the first edition of rococo   but the deluxe edition warms this theme up  into a chilly heat wave gorgeous colors and   fancy embellishments are ever-present but never  gauche the character art is pleasingly diverse and   welcoming to a modern audience and i adore how  the designs you taylor go from pencil sketches   to little puffed pastel people i am struggling  to think of a game that begs to be touched and   picked up and explored and played more than this  one which is obviously great news when it comes   to getting your friends excited to learn how to  play speaking of which how do you play rococo well   i'm glad you asked and i'm happy to say that it  involves the best six words in tabletop gaming   easy to learn hard to master unfortunately  also includes two other words rococo is   fairly easy to learn and it's fairly hard to  master at the start of the game you're going to   receive five employees a mouthful of thread and  a fistful of lace a bank balance which is going   to vanish almost immediately and a plastic stand  that's clearly escaped from a game of scrabble   hoping for a better life and from your first  turn on the first round you're going to face   some very interesting decisions and they won't  stop coming for the entire game so on each of   the game's seven rounds you're first going to  look at all of your available employees and pick   three of them who you're going to kind of bring into  the round with you and those employees you pick   won't be available again until you've used every  other employee now when it comes to your turn in   the round you are going to pick one of those three  employees you selected earlier and you're going to   select what job you want them to do so the job on  the board gets done and also your employee will do   whatever minor miracle or recurring disappointment  that they're known for the point is that learning   to play rococo is honestly as simple as learning  the different jobs on the board that you can send   employees to do for example did you know that  in order to make clothes you first need fabric   i had no idea on your turn you might send an  employee to buy fabric for you grabbing one tile   from this market before any other player can get  it and either storing it for its bolts of silk or   discarding it for some lace or thread once you've  got some fabric you might spend your turn sending   an employee to make one of these available designs  and actually there's a cocketish little decision   tucked up in here too because whenever you make a  piece you have to decide whether to sell it which   brings in a shocking payday of cash or whether  to rent it to someone going to the party which is   how you actually win the game another way to spend  your turn is to send an employee scurrying off with   a bulging pouch full of coins to fund one of the  party's decorations funding catering will actually   bring in more income each round funding the  statues will offer potentially huge point scoring   bonuses for each set of nobles you've dressed in  all four colours and by funding musicians you're   going to get some victory points but also you're  going to break ties for dominance in that hall   presumably by the musicians playing the music of  an oom-pah band whenever your pieces walk around the final two orders you can give  employees on your turn relate to rococo's   genuinely hilarious staff management so  each round you're going to see four new   increasingly talented potential hires sauntering onto the  board now you desperately want to hire them   not just because their powers are better than  the staff you already have but because when you   pay for a new hire they actually go into your  hand granting you an extra turn for that round   however you're gonna quickly identify a  problem here which is you have all these   cool new employees but you can't use them until  you've used all of the other employees you've got   first and so the employees you start the game with  this shower of books will act as untalented grit   in your glitzy machine but don't worry because on  your turn when you play an employee from your hand   you can rather than give them a job instead order  them to hand in their tailor's measuring tape and   tailor's gun because they're fired but wonderfully  when you fire people you do get their power   one last time so i had one great game where  i hired this woman whose special power is   firing people i played her and she fired people  and then i informed her that she was in fact   fired so that's basically rococo you're trying to  ace the management of your deck and your money and   your materials while trying not to be outplayed  by your opponents when it comes to besieging this   palace with bunting and petticoats now when i  say that rococo is a great game there are a few   very obvious reasons why that is first off it's  very quick to set up it's pretty easy to teach and   after that the game starts with the immediacy of a  starting pistol and a scavenger hunt you're going   to want to run in all these directions at once but  which obviously and most importantly maybe you're   going to want your pick of the new employees but  while you do that someone's gonna be hoovering up   the best silks and if you're playing with me you  better believe that action one turn one i'm gonna   be funding the catering department because i adore  that between rounds it gives you a little drip of   income but over the course of the game steadily  increases to a gushing geyser of money rococo   is also good at an unusually wide range of player  counts i would happily play it with two three four   or even a full five players and i'll talk a little  bit more about the one player mode later in this   review i can't say enough good things either about  how fast rococo is it starts great the middle's   great the ending is great and then it ends without  the sense that you wanted it to go on more long or   less long this game if you and your friends have  just even a passing familiarity with designer   board games it's just such a safe pair of hands  and in that respect it reminds me of uh the quest   for el dorado or istanbul really a game of rococo  presents you with three equally exciting systems   to get lost in the first of which is hiring new  exciting employees and taking the time to fire the   rubbish ones the second system is just handling  the balance sheet of fabric you've got coming in   and money and lace and thread and then ensuring  it all gets used efficiently by the end of the   game but then also you've got the board itself and  the territory you're trying to claim and while   it would be easy and simple to just build up a  good deck and get a lot of money and then apply   all of it to the board that's not how this game  works instead you've got good places that should   be taken immediately and so this little business  you're running these systems you are fiddling with   are going to be pushed to the  very limit because if you don't   another player will and then by the time you get  to the board all the good spots will be taken   it's just so fun and so satisfying and every game  will see you handling problems that are the result   of decisions you made when it came to deciding  how to play the game and if this was still just   a forty dollar game that would be the end of the  review wang a nice shut up and sit down recommend   seal on it do some kind of funny skit where i  get thrown out of my own review for failing the   dress code because i was wearing trainers job done  however the only version of rococo you can now buy   doesn't cost forty dollars it costs more than $100  so please sit back relax and watch me fretfully   paw through the rest of the stuff you get in this  box to see if it could possibly still be worth   your money however side note if you happen to  own a copy of vinhos deluxe from the same   publishers it definitely is worth the money  because you can put the copy of this game   next to that game and then have a sense that all  is right with the world but for the rest of you   i guess i have to do my job so as i mentioned  earlier rococo deluxe includes the expansion   rococo jewelry box get the contractors in  because we're adding a new wing to this palace   now jewelry box adds two things the first  thing it adds are jewelers you can pay for   your tailors to have a jeweler and then when  you rent outfits you can rent jewels with them   granting you a bit of points and money  and if the outfit color matches the jewels   a free bolt of silk which in a game about efficiency  is embarrassingly exciting the other thing that   jewelry box adds is the thing that we've all  been asking for in our games it adds exams shut up how this works is that all  of those crappy apprentices that you   ordinarily try and eject from your business  as fast as possible can now be set to work   hitting these little achievements like send an  apprentice to buy a pink fabric or a red fabric or   hang a decoration or buy some lace and if you  do all of that then you unlock the ability to   pay for an exam but that is i mean i'm being  facetious but it's actually pretty good you   remove the apprentice from your deck  and you replace them with a more trained   person or as i like to think of it a combination  hiring and firing in one round and if you do all   that you also unlock the ability to do it all  again at the top of this board now look i'm not   you might tell the tone of my voice it's changed  slightly i don't think jewelry box is a bad   expansion but i do not think the mechanics in  it are as good as those in the base game if this   is imported chinese silk this is like velvet from  cornwall and what i mean by that is that it's   rougher and less satisfying look taking silk and  then turning that into an outfit and then that   outfit arriving at the party and you stamping  your mark on it feels exciting and satisfying   selling jewelry to go with that outfit it's  like selling chewing gum to a customer who's   approaching the cashier it's like an impulse buy and  the fact that any jewelry that you rent out sits   in front of you rather than adding to this  firework display of colors on the main board that   is so not rococo but if the jewel mechanic is just  a little forgettable compared to the rest of rococo the training stuff is sometimes the best  feeling in the world if you have a good strategy   that just so happens to pop all the achievements  and you get a free upgrade of your stuff that   feels amazing however imagine if you were to for  example painstakingly have a sub-optimal plan so   that you hit those achievements only to discover  as you pick up your hand for the next round   you don't have an apprentice to sit the exam i  don't want to exaggerate here but that is the   most excruciating feeling i have ever experienced  i'm kidding - well what why have we changed the camera   angle to this now i need to get on the floor  again i am mostly kidding i like the jewelry   box expansion fine and i will happily play with  it every time i've got a table of players who have   passing familiarity with the base game and want  something a little more taxing i like it i like   it but my point is that it's not the enormous  value-add that you and i are looking for   when it comes to justifying this box's outrageous  price tag i feel similarly warm but no hotter than   that about the new one player mode the good thing  about taking on madame du barry is her turns are   lickety-split fast you just take a card pop it  down do what it says done unfortunately because   as you might imagine these cards come out entirely  at random she plays entirely at random so it's   like being set into a boxing match against  a basket full of bats it is challenging but   it's not really what this this is supposed to be  ideally rococo feels like a perfumed rule where   you're looking at your friends and wondering  whether you have time to take that next round   or no you should definitely take that space you  want now madame du barry is brain dead um and   for that i really did quite enjoy playing against  her but again not amazing as much as i'd like to   end this review on a positive i actually have  to end it with a warning there are in fact   two versions of rococo deluxe on sale at the minute  there's rococo deluxe which i would recommend you   buy and rococo deluxe plus which is more expensive  and has some extra features that you do not need   there is a marvelously demented statue included  in rococo deluxe plus but because the statue just   replaces this token obviously you don't really  need that also rococo deluxe plus comes with some   extra additional fabrics and outfits but  candidly they have so little impact on the   game that if you burgled them from my copy  of rococo i don't know if i would notice   and i'm very sad to say this i filmed this whole  review before just checking something online   turns out the metal coins that i've been  showing on camera are not included in this   game but are in fact an optional extra  that you pay for from eagle griffin so   i'm torn you guys i really really like this game  and at the same time it's i i really love what   they've done with this there's not a cut corner  in sight they literally do not make boards or   cards or bags nicer than the ones in rococo deluxe and it's a great game it's a great game   and yet i hate that it's not a choice between  rococo deluxe or regular rococo i hate that   eagle griffin have priced a lot of people out  of ever playing rococo with this new addition so   i'm going to give you a couple of possible  conclusions and you can choose whichever of them   you prefer the sound of first you would  have to be nuts to buy this instead of   several other board games if you're on a  budget it's good it is simply not that good   alternatively conclusion number two if you don't  get to host board game nights as often as you'd   like if you're still trying to really impress  your friends and if when your friends leave   you're just hoping they had an amazing time  maybe it is an eminently sensible financial   decision to pay a little bit of extra money for  an experience that is simply a little bit extra   a little bit more lavish a little bit more likely  to blow your friends away especially if as i said   before they are giant fops like me i can't tell  you that i would have definitely spent my money   on rococo deluxe i can only tell you that i  didn't spend any of my money on rococo deluxe   and actually my big new year's present  to myself was something very different it's here just look what i bought yes oh yes  if you've enjoyed this video i've got news for   you shut up and sit down is on a quest to review  literally some of the board games that come out every   year some three or four thousand board games come  out every year it's too many it's too many we like to   review some of them and by subscribing you will be  on that journey with us i think we all know where   i can put this old bed now that's right you  can just look it's right in there don't get too   jealous everybody i'll see you in another couple  of weeks ooo it's the best day it's the best day

Channel: Shut Up & Sit Down

Views: 145,814

Keywords: Shut Up and Sit Down, SUSD, SU&SD, Board Game Review, Review, Board Games, Board Gaming, Boardgame, Board Game, Gaming, Tabletop, Fun Games, Quintin Smith, Rococo Deluxe, Rococo

Id: to8pohUw9s0

Length: 19min 41sec (1181 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 13 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/nakedmeeple]

Review is spot on, and I'm glad they emphasized the price. Rococo is a wonderful game. It's not the best game ever made. It's not even Matthias Cramer's best game. It's a solid game. I own the original (sans expansion) and I'm happy with it. I like the production, including Michael Menzel's art. It doesn't come to the table regularly, but when it does, I'm always content to play it.

I love Ian O'Toole's art and what EGG did with the Deluxe edition. It's beautiful. However, I'm not going to drop $140 on it. I say this, however, as someone who owns the original. If I didn't, I might be tempted... and that would be somewhat tragic, because despite having almost nothing bad to say about the game, I don't think it's worth $140. I really like Macao too, but not enough to drop a C-note on some fancy edition of it.

[u/QuantumFeline]

Damn, Quinns has a great view from his apartment!

[u/Tranquili5]

Call me a old-fashioned, but is this game really .. fairly.. easy to teach?

[u/SomewhatResentable]

As someone who owns the old version of Rococo, this is pretty spot on. When I saw the Deluxe version announcement I was briefly tempted because the new art is great (although TBH from a gameplay standpoint I find it a little overly ornate and harder to parse than the original...although that kind of fits with the theme I suppose), but the price of Eagle Gryphon's Deluxe editions are just outrageous. There's no reason for this to be a massive $150 (CAD) game. My only complaint about the production of the original edition was that it had point tokens in place of a score track around the perimeter of the board, which made final scoring a bit of a pain (we just started using pen and paper because it's faster than finding and collecting tokens).

It's really unfortunate, because Eagle Gryphon seems to be reviving a lot of great games with beautiful new coats of paint. I just wish they did it in a way that was more accessible - Roxley's handling of Brass is the gold standard for this IMO.

[u/Xonim]

Due to the price, I was back and forth for a few weeks during the pre-order period last year, but I ended up getting in on it. For probably the first time ever, I'm legitimately glad I skipped the "plus" part of the deluxe. It's absolutely unnecessary, and in fact causes storage issues with an otherwise good insert because of the extra tiles that you can't use all in the same game anyway. The "base" deluxe copy was $112 shipped during the pre-order period, so a little cheaper than it is now.

My wife and I have played once, and this is one of those rare SU&SD reviews where I actually agree. The first few rounds we didn't like it, by the end we thought it was pretty good, maybe even great, but not incredible. When we have more time for gaming, it'll be at the top of the list. It's fun.

Expansion-wise, fancy dresses is an easy thing to always include, doesn't change the game at all, just more stuff. Could take it or leave it. I haven't played with the Jewelry box expansion, but my impression after reading the rules was the same -- it seemed fine, but not something I NEEDED. Also haven't played solo (nor do I really care to), but it seemed like it would work okay ... though I agree with Quinns that such a big part of the game is seeing what your opponents might do, and a deck or cards just won't operate the same way and won't be as good.

Do I think it was worth it? Probably for us. There were enough Rococo videos to see the game I was buying. My wife and I really prefer this weight / length of gaming. I don't think it's a game that needed to be $100+ ... after all, it's not an extensive campaign game with hundreds of resin tokens ... but at the same time, I've backed EGG Kickstarters before, and I knew the quality of the production we were paying for.

Is it as good of a deal as The Gallerist was for $55 or whatever before MAPP's started being implemented? No. But I have no problem paying for premium components (inserts, tokens, etc) to enhance my play experience, and that's exactly what this is. The thread/lace tokens are upgraded. The wood discs are screen printed. The cards are great quality. Thick cardboard. Nice bags. The insert is well thought out (if you follow the BGG guide they posted for storage, it's not obvious until you see it). It's exactly what you would expect an EGG deluxe edition to be. I'm okay with what I paid for it.

[u/laxar2]

It’s interesting to compare this with Hansa Teutonica, both are highly acclaimed euros which were reprinted this year. I can definitely see why someone would want such a lavish update but the hansa teutonica big box is ridiculously better value than rococo delux. I picked up HT for 50 CAD and rococo is 150.

Caylus 1303 was another great reprint at a much better value.

[u/grandsuperior]

Jokes on them - this was sold out locally weeks ago!

I thought about getting it then (game looks absolutely gorgeous and the original got great reviews) but I simply do not have the space for any more EGG big boxes. Kanban EV is coming in on Friday and that'll be the last one.

[u/[deleted]]

Quickly filed this one under "grail game I have no realistic chance of ever playing or owning" and moved on with my life

[u/Tolio]

I still don't quite get the general hate for this games price.

It's the base game and expansion for 109 dollars.

Dinosaur Island is 60 + 40 dollar expansion - 100 bucs

Quacks of Quedlinburg 55 + 35 expansion - $90

Everdell 60 + 50 (pearlbrook) - 110

3 very popular games that gamers seem to have no problem shelling out 100 dollars for yet this one comes out for 100 dollars and people cry foul? I don't really see how a game that is deluxified as much as this one is with the expansion content included is really that outrageously priced It seems right in line with non budget priced games.

The biggest difference is you're forced to buy the expansion at the same time, you don't get to buy just the base game at a reduced price.