Living it large. Showing off your prestige and assets to your peers. Becoming the envy of the elite social sphere. These are your goals in High Society, a classic auction game for 3-5 players from legendary designer, Dr Reiner Knizia. The question is, should you put your hand up and bid for this addition to your board game collection?
Doing the Game’s Bidding.
High Society knows what it is. This is a game about pure, open auctions, one after the other, until all cards have been won. Players then add up the prestige on their won cards and whoever has the highest total is the winner.
However, there are a couple of twists and it is in these that the genius of High Society lies.
First, if you have spent the most money when the game ends, you automatically lose. You have bankrupt yourself and are cast out of society.
The beauty of this rule is that each game develops its own sense of economy. If most players are being cautious and you have made a few large purchases, all the prestige in the world won’t save you come the end of the game. Conversely, some bold bidding may encourage others to do the same, knowing that they have a bit of room to work with before becoming the biggest spender.
All winning bids are placed face down in front of the players. It is possible to get a sense of what has been paid as the game goes on, but you cannot check these piles. High Society challenges players to develop a good sense of value for each prestige card in the context of that particular game.
Secondly, there are cards that negatively impact the player that takes them. One causes the player to discard a previously won prestige card (or their next one, if they are yet to win an auction). Another is a flat -5 prestige added to the player’s score. A third causes their total prestige to be halved at the end of the game.
Obviously, no one wants these cards, so how does the auction work?
Players bid to avoid taking the card. The first player to pass, takes it and any bid they played back into their hand. All of the remaining players must place their bids onto their discard. Thus someone will get the negative effect, but, with good timing, they could be in a position to have an economic advantage in future auction rounds. It’s a lovely touch and one that further elevates High Society.
A Classic Game in a Nouveau Package.
High Society is a simple package. A series of tarot sized cards that are auctioned off, one at a time and 5 sets of money cards in player colours. That’s it.
The components may be minimalist, but the art throughout is beautiful. It does a wonderful job in evoking the period, providing more than a dusting of theme onto what is otherwise an abstract auction game.
Everything is clear, and you can see what you need to know (ie other players’ prestige count) at a glance.
Finishing on a High.
I have quickly fallen in love with High Society. The auctions flow quickly and smoothly and there is some surprising depth here. Ultimately, it is about being able to assess the true value of any item up for auction at that moment in that particular game.
The risk of overcommitting is ever present, yet play too cautiously and you will struggle to win any auctions and secure the points needed for a win.
High Society is easy to explain and easily understood. Auctioning as a game mechanism is something almost all of us are familiar with, whether it’s from real life or online auctions, or from playing Monopoly and this means High Society has the potential for universal appeal.
I think it plays better at the 4 or 5 player counts than it does at 3; more players make it harder to assess who is in line for spending the most money.
High Society provides a quick (my last 5 player game took 16 minutes!), fun, auctioning experience. Best of all, it is one where I feel I am constantly thinking, assessing and reassessing value.
Do I want to win this? Do I bid aggressively to scare off the opposition? Do I bid here to drive the price up? Can I afford a 5 point deduction? The decisions presented are addictive and make me want to keep coming back to the game. An impressive feat for High Society, a game which, despite the title, has low barriers to entry in terms of price and rules overhead.
We may not all be members of High Society, but there’s no reason we can’t all be playing it.
