Rose King

The struggle between farmers and cattle ranchers is fairly abstract. A single pawn moves on a square grid. Each player has a hand of face-up cards, each showing a direction and a distance. A player can either draw a card and add it to their hand or play a card. If a card is played, the pawn moves the corresponding distance to an empty space, and the player places one of their markers. Each player also has judge symbols that can be used only once. The judge lets you move onto a previously placed opposing marker and flip it over. Players score points for each connected area equal to the square of the number of markers. If a player is not careful, such a move can be forced, as there is a maximum number of cards a player may hold.

Includes rules for playing with 4 (in two partnerships of two players).

Later republished in 1999 as Rosenknig by Kosmos, as part of its series of games for two players. The reissue also gave the game a new theme. The setting changed from Texas to England, and the factions changed from farmers and ranchers to the factions of the Plantagenet family in the Wars of the Roses (1455-1485) – the Lancaster faction (red rose) and the York faction (white rose), in a similarly abstract way.