Type: King
Effect Text: Double the strength of one of your rows. Then swap one unit on the field with your opponent, Or draw a card.
Flavor Text: "It will have blood, they say. Blood will have blood."
Flavor Source: William Shakespeare, Macbeth
Artwork: Louis XIII of France by Philippe de Champaigne (1635)
Strategy:
All King cards allow you to double a row of your choosing, essentially functioning as a trump card for the round. Your opponent will likely need to play their King card or some other counter to remain competitive in that round. Remember, Kings also come with the choice of a unique effect (in addition to doubling a row), allowing you to tailor your strategy as the game unfolds. The Traitor King’s unique powers allow you to draw a card, or swap a unit with an opponent (usually choose the strongest cards, cards with attachments, or make/break adjacency).
About the card:
Louis XIII was the French Monarch most closely involved in the Thirty Years War and French Wars of Religion. Although an ardent Catholic, Louis and his minister Cardinal Richelieu (see also Minister) allied themselves with the Protestant Germans, the Swedish (see also Lion King), and the Dutch against the Hapsburg forces in Spain and Austria. They sent large quantities of subsidies and soldiers to fund their Protestant allies abroad while waging war against the Huguenot Protestants at home.
This clearly conflicted against Louis' and many Catholics' sense of just action, but Richelieu (who may be as close to Machevelli's The Prince as any early modern ruler) convinced the King that the good of France did not align with the good of Catholicism as a whole. Louis' consolidation of French power and weakening of the empire allowed his son Louis XIV (see also Sun King) to become the most powerful and absolutist French monarch until the time of Napoleon.
