Product Description

The revolutionary card game where you win by getting a head. This irreverent and humorous card game takes place during the French Revolution. Players represent rival guillotine operators ving for the best collection of noble heads over three rounds. Each round, twelve nobles are lined up for the guillotine. The nobles are worth varying points, depending on their notoriety. During your turn, you play action cards to change the order of the line so you can collect the best nobles. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins. Will you be skillful enough to bribe the guards to collect Marie Antoinette? Or will you lose points for beheading the Hero of the People? Heads are going to roll!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21437 in Toys & Games
• Brand: Avalon Hill
• Model: 305348
• Dimensions: .90" h x 5.00" w x 7.00" l, .60 pounds

Features

• Ages 12 and up
• 2 to 5 players
• 30 minutes
• 110 playing cards, rules

Customer Reviews

Great for all ages
Guillotine is great family game, although some parents may find the premise a bit gruesome for young kids. The characters (from the French Revolution) on the cards are all drawn tastefully, and other than the premise that they are all waiting in line to be beheaded, there is no overt blood or gore invovled. I noticed that the recommended age is 12 and up, but my 8 year old has no trouble understanding the fairly simple rules and strategy to play this game. Another advantage of this game is the short playing time. For two people a game takes about 10-15 mintues, and gets about 5 minutes longer for each additional player.

Let them eat cake! Whack...but less morbid than it sounds.
In the game Guillotine players are competing executioners in revolutionary France that vie to see how many heads they can collect. Sound gritty? It's not that bad.

Game play proceeds like this. The game is divided into 3 "days." A "day" consists of 12 cards (nobles) laid out, face up, in a row. At one end of the row is a cardboard piece representing the guillotine. Players then take turns using action cards they hold in their hands to manipulate the order of the line of nobles, or increasing their chances of tallying the highest number of points by benefitting themselves or by slamming an opponent. Once an action card's effect has been determined the player takes the noble at the front of the line and play progresses to the next player. Play continues in this fashion until all of the nobles in line are collected, and a day ends. Three such "days" make up one game. At the end of the game each player counts up their point total, and the high score wins.

We have a closet full of games, and Guillotine is chosen frequently by our crew (children ages 17, 15, 13, and 8) to play as a family or with friends. The game does not require heavy duty strategic thinking or lots of negotiation. No trivia questions are involved, and play proceeds quickly.

Guilloting works well as a 2-player game, and though the rules indicate that up to 5 people can play, I've played successfully and happily with as many as 7. Admittedly though, play proceeds more smoothly and the fun factor is higher with 5 or fewer players.

All in all this is a great little game. The cardboard guillotine piece is not very durable - its support tends to bend easily, but that's a minor issue. The fun cartoonish drawings on the noble cards and action cards keep things light and fun. When we first got this game a number of years ago we bought several copies and shared them with family and friends.

Though our 8-yr old has played this game, it's probably a better seller with players 12 and older. Teenagers especially seem to like Guillotine!

From a long-time gamer...5 stars all the way for family fun!

GREAT GAME FOR ALL AGES, 6-99
What a great game! What I love about Guillotine is that it can be played by people of different ages at different levels. It is my 6-year-old son's favorite game and the two of us play it often (good for problem solving and teaching strategy). I also enjoy playing it with adults when it can become a bit more cut-throat, especially if there are three or more players. It is small - just two decks of cards in a flat box - so we end up taking it everywhere (we just put a rubber band around the box).