Kings and Queens Classic Card Game, play with 30 Kings and Queens including Queen Elizabeth II and Charles I, gift for ages 6 plus

I was inspired to buy this set by a free sample card that I found inside a Monopoly game - the "Kings and Queens" edition. That was clever advertising! This would be an ideal, inexpensive gift for history fans. It is also very educational.

My daughter’s got a strong interest in history and this seemed like a fun new version of Top Trumps that might be a little bit educational, as well as tallying with what she already knows from Horrible Histories and beyond. And yes, it is a little bit educational- there’s a paragraph on each monarch which might, possibly, tell you something you didn’t already know, but even my primary school age daughter already knew pretty much all of it. It’s very much a ‘King’s coronation product’ and the figures in it are 2023 figures, showing King Charles’ reign as 0 years and so on, which gives the set a slight longevity problem. It feels a bit odd, and somewhat sycophantic, to include Camilla, William and George in the set, when they’re using up spaces that could have been better spent digging up some other lesser-known monarchs from history. Putting aside the alive-in-2023 entries, most of the other monarchs depicted here are the “greatest hits” of the UK’s royal history- Henry VIII, William the Conqueror, Henry V and so on. As a result many of the info panels contain info that even people who know relatively less about history (including myself) feel like they already know the deal. There are a couple of exceptions- Ruaidri Ua Conchobair and Llewelyn Ap Gruffydd. Those two cards feel like a bit of a conscious nod to Irish and Welsh heritage to prevent the set from being too Windsor-centric, but it does add some variety and I have no objections. As a Top Trumps game, there are five categories of numbers to compete with. ‘Age’, ‘reign’ and ‘children’ are simple enough and hard to dispute. ‘Military might’ seems a little bit arbitrary and hard to justify- for example I’m at a loss why Camilla, Queen Consort has a military might ‘of ‘2’ where Edward VIII’s military might is given as ‘1’. Even more inexplicable is the “Top Trumps rating”, which essentially seems to be a random number with no real justification behind it at all. Queen Elizabeth II is undoubtedly the top trump, with a high score in every category except military might (which is utterly ridiculous given the Queen’s early life). When you’re playing the game, Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria are other cards definitely worth hanging on to as well. I find the set a little sycophantic, and oddly compiled, both in terms of the selection of monarchs and the numbers they’re assigned. But for royal history lovers who enjoy a good game of Top Trumps, it does tick all the boxes.

Daughter loves them

Not bad. Very new idea. Definitely not Retro Top Trumps though.

Factual inaccuracies on the cards, so if you wish your top trumps to be accurate and will be frustrated when they're not. Then avoid this particular pack

Next door little girl age 5 really enjoying playing this

The usual fun Top Trumps game, but I do take issue with the ‘Kings And Queens’ title of this pack. Firstly, it includes Oliver Cromwell, who I’m fairly sure would not want to be remembered as a king. Lord Protector, yes; King, no. Also included is King Arthur – a questionable inclusion to say the least. On top of that we get two current princes (William and George), neither of whom are kings as yet. On the plus side, the pack is up to date (at the time of writing) as it includes King Charles III, and it goes back as far as Alfred The Great. Not all kings and queens are included (Henry VIII could almost take up a whole pack on his own!). This is a fun and enjoyable way for children to learn, but perhaps it should be made clearer that King Arthur is legendary (and not 1500 years old) – children can be impressionable. Apart from that card, this is a great way for them to learn without realising it, whilst having fun at the same time. Finally, the pack is called ‘Kings And Queens’ but it only includes British and Irish monarchs. Perhaps ‘of the UK and Ireland’ should be added to the title – after all, there are plenty more kings and queens throughout history who would deserve a place in the pack. Notwithstanding my minor gripes above, this is still a fun game and (regardless of my personal feelings on the relevance of the monarchy in the 21st century) I know we’ll get as much enjoyment out of this as we do out of other Top Trumps games…I’ve been playing these games for getting on for fifty years now!

We recieved the King and Queen cards today and after a while we noticed some mistakes. 1st - The card for Elizabeth 1st states that she reigned for 5 yrs. Infact she reigned for 45 years. 2nd - The card for Oliver Cromwell should not be included as he was never King of Great Britain. Infact, he abolished the monarchy. We have contacted the manufacturer for a response.