Love Letter - Tips & Strategies

The lowly “Guard” is actually a potent card; only a player using a “Barron” and a non guard can knock the guard out of a round. Each of the other cards is subject to a guess, and the player holding a correctly guessed card is out of the round. And if another player’s card is shared (by the “Priest” card), the guard can eliminate that player from the round.

As we have become more adept at playing the game (and counting cards) we’ve added a rule to help make the intrigue a little more, well…intriguing. When the Baron calls out a player for a duel, the losing player places their card “facedown”. This keeps the identity of the courier secret, making it harder to guess at which cards remain in the deck. The secret card is revealed at the end of the turn to settle ties and such.

In a vacuum of statistical information, where any double card is as likely to exist as another, make the Baron your target of choice with any Guard action. The Baron is most likely to linger in an opponent’s hand as they wait for a high numbered counterpart. This becomes more likely the more opportunities your target has had to play a card. If they have recently played a Baron and survived, then you can name a higher target like Princess or Countess.

One thing I do to change this up, so my adversaries do not deduce my strategy, is to guess Handmaiden when my target has not had a turn at all in the round. It is mathematically just as likely since they have not made any decisions to skew their hand in a certain direction. Eliminating a Handmaiden helps by forcing players to hold onto their Barons and not bounce them off the safe temporary target.

The prince is the highest ranking card that has two copies in the deck, so using your guard to guess someone has one of those has a higher succes rate than guessing on the top cards. I do this whenever I have no information to think differently (like one exposed prince on the board).

I tend to play my handmaiden cards early, this allows you to sit back and let others knock each other out before your next turn. Normally one person is out before its your turn to play another card.

Guard Strategy: As the game nears its end, your chances on guessing your opponents card with a Guard dramatically increase. As an added benefit, if you hold onto a Guard, you are protected from other Guards. The downside is vulnerability to Barons.

Baron Strategy: Hold onto the highest card you can in the hope people target you with Barons (or you draw one yourself). This works particularly well if people suspect you of regularly holding on to a Guard.

Mix your strategy between hands to avoid becoming predictable. Play aggressive some hands and passive in others.

Every once in a while if I have a Priest or Handmaiden and the Countess I’ll discard the Countess. Players tend to try to guess if I have one of the royal family members.

I know it isn’t a tip regarding gameplay but I think it’s an important one, especially for this game. I have never thought about sleeving cards before playing Love Letter. When playing games that require a lot of cards (i.e. Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, any of Fantasy Flight’s Living Card Games) there usually aren’t a large enough quantity of cards in consistent play for me to notice any wear. But since Love Letter consists of a bare 16 cards (honestly not of the highest quality, but maybe it depends on the edition) and those same 16 cards are in constant play and continuously shuffed they definitely benefit from being sleeved. think of them as an invesment in all future love letters. : )

Playing the countess to bluff an opponent that you may hold the Princess, King or Prince can throw people off the sent. It’s not often I win on a countess card unless I play Baron and countess early.

I have this game in my bag at all times. Whether traveling to meet a few friends for drinks or something to breakout after a dinner. It really never matters whether or not the people I’m with even know how to play. It’s so easy to explain and the game time is relatively short.