Coup - The Review

Coup is a quick fun game our family loves to play, our family has a hard time bluffing in fact Andrew is the only one who consistently does. You might think with a family that does not bluff the game would be rather dull. That is not the case our family loves playing this game, probably no one more than Nathaniel (the 11 year old).

If you want a quick game to play as a family our with your game group, this is a game to include in your repertoire. It is the perfect game to play while you wait for people to arrive, another game to finish or as the last game of the night.

Watch our videos and you will be playing in under 10 minutes.
Quick Game Play
How to Play


Game: Coup
Players: 2 - 6
Time to play: < 15min (in our experience)
Time to Learn: < 10 min

The Review

Cindy's Review 

• Easy to learn - 5
• Setup - 5
• Strategy - 2
• Fun - 4
• Family appropriate - 4
• Difficulty -1
• Overall - 4

Cindy loves that you don't have to bluff to win, you can play the game strait and win.

Andrew's Review 

• Easy to learn - 5
• Setup - 5
• Strategy - 1
• Fun - 4
• Family appropriate - 4
• Difficulty -1
• Overall - 4

Andrew likes the game as it is quick to play, doesn't take hours to learn and you don't have to think a lot to play.

Rose's Review (14 year old)

• Easy to learn - 4
• Setup - 5
• Strategy - 3 
• Fun - 4
• Family appropriate - 3
• Difficulty - 2
• Overall - 4

Rose enjoys the game, especially since it doesn't take long to play.

Nathaniel's Review (11 year old)

• Easy to learn - 5
• Setup - 5
• Strategy - 4
• Fun - 5
• Family appropriate - 3
• Difficulty -2
• Overall - 5

Nathaniel thinks the game is wonderful and one that should be played as often as possible.

The Oregon Trail Card Game - The Review

The Oregon trail card game has been out for about four months at this point. There are some of you who just do not like the game (as played by the official rules). Keep in mind the developers of the game really meant it to be a game about how you will die on the Oregon Trail (See Pressman Toys video). We even had one person leave a comment stating: "Roll down window on freeway and toss this game out."

Personally our family liked the game. This game isn't one we are going to break out on a regular basis, but it is one the functions as a game to play while waiting for people to arrive and as an introduction to games for people who have not moved beyond Monopoly if they have played Catan they are ready for other games.  The rules are relatively easy to explain, game play is quick, has a strong nostalgia value for those who grew up playing the game in middle school, and you can easily adjust the rules to make the game play more to your liking (just do it before the game starts, no one likes to play a game with Calvinball rules.).

To help you with questions you may have, we have created some videos to help explain what to do when certain cards are played, as they are areas where people have gotten stuck and asked for help (see Below). If you have additional questions please feel free to ask in the comments below.

Pressman Toys has also changed some of the rules post release so be sure to check them out at -  Official Rule Updates

Our Oregon Trail card Game Review Matrix

Cindi's Review

• Easy to learn - 4 (fairly easy to learn)
• Setup - 5 (easy set up)
• Strategy - 1 (no strategy)
• Fun - 2.5 (moderately fun)
• Family appropriate - 3 
• Difficulty - 4 (very hard win if luck is not on your side)
• Overall - 1  

Andrews Review

• Easy to learn - 4 (fairly easy to learn)
• Setup - 5 (easy set up)
• Strategy - 2 (no strategy)
• Fun -3(moderately fun)
• Family appropriate - 4 (appropriate for kids over 8ish) 
• Difficulty - 4 
• Overall - 3

Nathaniel' Review (11 year old boy)

• Easy to learn - 4 (fairly easy to learn)
• Setup - 5 (easy set up)
• Strategy - 1 (lots of strategy like letting people die or choosing to save them)
• Fun - 3 
• Family appropriate - 3
• Difficulty - 5 
• Overall - 4  

Rose's Review (14 year old Girl)

• Easy to learn - 5
• Setup - 4
• Strategy - 2 
• Fun - 2
• Family appropriate - 3 
• Difficulty - 4 
• Overall - 2  

Family Game Tips Oregon Trail Card Game Videos

Game Setup
How To Play
Ford the River Card Calamity Explained
Bad Water Calamity Card Explained
Inadequate Grass Calamity Card Explained
How to get more supply cards
Adaptations and variations

Oregon Trail Card Game - Adaptations

After having played by the official rules a number of times and looking at the critiques we and others have of the game, we decided to come up with some adaptations that might help improve game play and the odds of winning (if that is your goal, if you are trying to see how you will die on the Oregon Trail play the game according to the official rules chance are good you will succeed ... at dieing).

• When a Town or Fort trail card is played everyone gets a supply card of their choosing instead of one person only per the official rules. 
• Go Hunting in the original computer game you could decide to go hunting, skip a turn and draw a food or clothing supply card. 

These are just a few of the adaptations we came up with. To see more check out our video

Oregon Trail Card Game - How to Get More Supply Card.

One of the more frustrating issues with traveling the Oregon Trail is the limited amount of supply cards your have. Depending on the number of players you will start with 3-5 supply cards (which isn't much).  Certainly on our last trip to the Willamette Valley we found that almost all of the supply cards for the four travelers ended up in the river because we can't roll an even number and of course we died before we made it. So how do you get more? A few ways include fort cards, town cards, and dead players. To learn more watch our video.

Oregon Trail Card Game - Inadequate Grass Calamity Card Explained

The most frequently asked about calamity card has to be the inadequate grass. Often people feel the need to play an oxen as soon as the first card is revealed. Remember it takes two of the cards for the effect to take place and there are only two in the game. So you now have a choice do you use an oxen card or perhaps a town card to clear a calamity that has no effect at this point or do you wait for the second one and hope you have the resource to clear it then. Watch our video to learn more about the strategy and what we recommend.

Watch the video.

Oregon Trail Card Game - Bad Water Calamity Card Explained

There are several calamity cards in the Oregon Trail Card Game that can be a tad bit confusing, the Bad Water Card is certainly one of those.

The card Reads " Your oxen drank bad water. Flush away bad water with 1 clean water card. If 2 Bad water Cards are collected then two oxen die. One round of play without an Oxen Card and everyone in your party had DIED."

There are several important things to keep track of the first is in the deck of calamity cards there are only two Bad Water Cards. The second detail is that no oxen die unless the second Bad Water Card is played. Lastly if the second Bad Water Card is played you have one round to play an oxen card or everyone dies. For tips on how to handle this card watch our video.

Oregon Trail Card Game - Ford the River Card Explained

Recently Pressman Toys released an updated to the official game rules. One of the new rules changes the interpretation of the Ford the River card. Specifically the river must be successfully crossed before another trail card is played. For more details watch our video.