Kingmaker is a board game published in the UK by PhilMar Ltd. in 1974 that simulates the political struggles to place a king on the throne of England during the Wars of the Roses.

Each noble has a combat strength that is augmented by titles, offices, mercenaries, and certain other cards held in the player's hand.

This is not true of the royal heirs, who are limited to a few specific historical characters, such as Henry VI, Richard, Duke of York, and Margaret of Anjou.

Kingmaker was created by Andrew McNeil in the early 1960s, who unsuccessfully tried to find a publisher for it through the late sixties.

[2] The following year, American game company Avalon Hill published a revised edition in North America.

[5] The UK magazine Games & Puzzles published a number of reviews, starting with one in Issue 40 (September 1975) by John Humphries.

After a lengthy examination of the Philmar edition, Humphries found the rules ambiguous, with "a number of omissions and errors."

)"[6] In the June 1976 edition of Airfix Magazine, Bruce Quarrie had several issues with the game, starting with the rules, which he observed "could have been presented in clearer form."

He also found that "The course of play seems to be predictable, one side, or alliance, being clearly in the ascendancy after an hour or two with little chance for a recovery by the opposition, unless they are fortunate enough to have luck beyond the law of averages."

He warned that the game was "Emphatically not for those seeking a test of skill, " commenting that it "becomes riotous with half a dozen players as nobles get whizzed home to look after local rebellions, plagues lay waste to armies, pretenders to the throne cower in Calais, and sittings of Parliament dish out high offices to powerful factions."

"[8] In Issue 22 of Moves (August–September 1975), Richard Berg called the game components "a stunning physical production."

It has to be played to be appreciated, to be savored like a rare wine [...] All this is in Kingmaker, all this and more: the rich legacy of an era, the color, panache, and, yes, the cruelty of the Middle Ages, all magnified and illuminated by the finest game of the decade ... a class of style and wit.

The game is fun because it's a multi-player political wargame that is largely abstract, thus lacking a lot of the fussy detail required of a true historical simulation.