Heads of State

About this board game

Heads of State is a board game for 2–5 players, with games lasting about 120 minutes, in which nobles compete for power across the provinces and royal courts of 16th–18th-century Europe.

Players collect sets of cards to raise nobles in England, France, Spain, and the German States. Gold, troops, dueling skills, titles, castles, and bishops all contribute to building a line of nobles and competing for the most valuable positions.

A hierarchy of nobles shapes the struggle for influence. Players aim to place the best nobles in each area while pursuing several different routes to victory:

• Be the first to place a noble in as many provinces as possible.
• Dominate a country.
• Place a noble in every province and the capital of a country.
• Be first to collect the full set of seven different nobles.
• Have the most nobles of each rank at the end of the game.

Influence can change suddenly through treachery cards. These cards remove opponents’ nobles and replace them with nobles from your own line, using methods such as the guillotine, the Spanish Inquisition, the axeman, the gallows, and assassinations.

With multiple objectives and direct competition for provinces, countries, and noble ranks, Heads of State presents a contest for status in which collecting the right cards and placing nobles effectively are central to success.