Watch the Tudors series. Henry VIII is very convincing and it has a star cast of actors

Dave Dogge when you come away with epic storylines like this, you know it’s a great game.

Did a 3 player game as England and Protestants. There wasn't much politics but I managed to execute Thomas Moore, no debates in England, intrigue the pope into focusing his attacks into fighting the Ottomans and then converted England in one turn. The respect from the table was warmer then my eventual victory. Just love it

I believe this video was taken on my Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge.

It's called All Present And Accounted For, by Clark Kelley Price

neeleyfolk the painting is called all present and accounted for by Clark Kelley Price, the game is well worth the investment and time learning with lots of players

Hahahaha. Yes. Paul Koenig's Market-Garden: Eindhoven Bridge and Here I Stand are very similar in complexity! I'd love to try it with them as I would love to see them try to tear our hearts out with alliances. Probably never going to happen but we can hope!

I thought we made that very clear. We would love to do another review after a play of 5 but we’ll have to find that opportunity.

It's actually fitting. Getting this game on the table as intended is incredibly difficult. My group has done it 4 times in about 8 years, not from a lack of wanting. 10ish hours of play and we only play the tournament scenario. Amazing game, and just those 4 plays stand out for me more than any other experience in thousands of hours of board gaming

I've often looked at getting it (but wanted to play this one first). I've heard it's not as good, or it's even more complex - would you be able to comment?

I love it but that's my personal view. As for complexity if you can crack "Here I Stand" I don't feel it is such a big step up to this as many of the basic mechanics are the same. It rates highly still as a war game on the BGG but again that is subjective. You are right about one thing though to get the true potential out of these games you need the maximum number of players anything short of that is a missed opportunity for a great game. A bit like Twilight Imperium IV maximum players and the diplomacy and machinations begin. Love the channel guys keep it up. (wallet hates you though)

I've played both titles just shy of 20 times each. I don't think Virgin Queen is more complex, but there are more subsystems than in Here I Stand. You still have religious and political rules, but also marriages, *two* piracy systems (one for Europe, one for the World Map), patronage of artists and scientists, espionage, an "investment" system (so to speak) for winning the right to activate minor powers, New World treasures that let you extend your impulses, and so on. In very broad terms, in my experience there is less direct military conflict. It's quite resource intensive to build sufficiently large forces, declare wars, and go traipsing around the map on campaigns, so you and an adversary might spend a turn knocking the daylights out each other while the rest of the players play in relative peace and pursue the many non-violent sources of VPs. It's not uncommon to see a player's score rocket up by 5 or more VPs at the end of a turn if they've married off some royals, circumnavigated, and/or seen some art/science rolls go their way. Once espionage actions become available on Turn 3, the game can get quite stabby as you see your military leaders assassinated, cards forcibly discarded from your hand, etc. The system by which religious influence spreads is markedly different from Here I Stand and some players have a strong preference for one over the other. If you felt a little lost from the outset of Here I Stand regarding which were the best paths to pursue in search of victory--the stuff that only reveals itself upon multiple plays--you'll have it as bad or worse in Virgin Queen. The deck is bigger, there are more Response cards (just greater interactivity overall), and there are so many really impactful cards and situations you won't know about from the outset. To hint at just a few: Drake the piracy machine, temperamental Scottish lords, Henry III the bullet magnet, that dang Army Mutiny card, 2VP landed in my lap for being crowned King of Poland when I didn't even know I was a contender, and holy crap does France NOT want the Catholic League to form. Finally, I think VQ is a much better 4 and 5 player game experience than HIS is at those player counts due to the activated major power system.

Nice comparison Joel!

I prefer Virgin Queen. The religious conversion component is much quicker in VQ and can bog the game down in HIS, especially with six players.

There are a lot of exceptions to rules in HIS. Thanks for pointing that out. I need to give the rules one more read over before we try our massive 6 player game in the near future, if I can convince my group.