While at Gen Con last year, I was one of the lucky few who purchased Queen by Midnight at Darrington Press’s booth. I think what drew me to the game originally was the concept and the art of each of the princesses competing for the chance to be a queen. A few weekends ago, I finally played Queen by Midnight and I’m so glad I own a copy of the game. Queen by Midnight is a solid, deck-building game with a few interesting rules that make it stand out.

Queen by Midnight is a game where players play as princesses who fight each other to the death to become the Queen by Midnight. This is a deck-building game meaning that each princess has their own deck of cards they play out of. Throughout the rounds, princesses can purchase cards from the market to add to their deck which helps make their decks more powerful as the rounds progress. The game ends when one princess is left standing or when the clock hits midnight.

For my first play-through, I picked Rosaline, The Oneiromancer. Rosaline’s strategy is to recruit resources by going into trances. If she completes her trance, she receives rewards, but if she goes into a trance, she can’t play cards to protect herself if she’s targeted by other players. I liked being able to control when Rosaline could trance at what time and the rewards from completing a trance. There were quite a few different princesses to pick from which helped in increasing the likelihood that I would replay Queen by Midnight. It will take a few games before I figure out each princess’s overall strategy to win.

I liked the game design and it was clear that Darrington Press thought a lot about how this game could come together. The clock was stunning! There’s a clock that keeps the time between rounds and it’s a cardboard cut-out that needs to be put together. At first, it was a little finicky to put the pieces in place, but once the clock was built, the game box had a devoted spot for the clock, so you didn’t have to break down the pieces every single time. This is such a subtle feature, but when a game has components that don’t fit into the box well, it’s a little annoying.

In most board games, once your character dies, you’re out of the game. Queen by Midnight does things a little differently. At a certain point in the game, each princess picks a card that represents which princess they devote themselves to in case they lose their health. You can still win the game even if you’re dead as long as the princess you devoted yourself to wins the game. I thought that this worked out well for players because it made the game a lot more engaging.

Queen by Midnight was one of the best deck-building games that I have played. The game design was gorgeous, the rules had a few twists to them and I think our gaming group had fun learning how to play this game together. I would love to see more expansions whether that be more princesses to play or cards to add to the market deck. I can see this game becoming a staple in my board game collection. I’d rate Queen by Midnight 5/5.