Excellently IMO :) the general dynamic is that the fewer players there are, the more important it is to be “playing the player not the game”. And the more players there are the more important basic fundamentals are
With 2 players it‘s pretty optimal to be trying to read the opponent a lot. So games can be very cutthroat.
You also get a lot of rounds in, so you can metagame more (eg you call the opponent’s bluff on turn 1 because they were clearly bluffing on turn 1 last round)
It's a fun game, I own it and play it frequently. Main disadvantages:
Yeah agreed with 1. Although for 2 and 3 I think the skill ceiling is very high for getting out of seemingly “unwinnable” or “random“ situations by creating mindgames or making (informal) deals
I've been playing Coup for a long time now. I keep a copy in my backpack and bring it everywhere. It's definitely earned the space - I have an absolute blast every time I play this game, with new friends or old!
A few reasons it's so good:
I think everyone should strongly consider owning a copy!
The rules, briefly
Coup is a bluffing game. There are mechanics, but bluffing is the heart of it.
Mechanics. Everyone holds hidden cards. Your cards give you powers and also are your lives. Each player tries to gain resources and eliminate other players over the course of the game, and the last one standing wins.
Bluffing. The key move is that you can claim to be a character you don't actually have, which lets you take powerful actions. But it's a risk-reward trade: anyone can challenge your claim. If you were bluffing and they call it correctly, you lose a life. If they call wrong, you keep your life and they lose one instead.
The bluffing is what makes it really fun! Calling a bluff — or bluffing in the first place — is high-stakes. And on top of the base mechanics (which I think are genuinely well designed) there's a whole emergent layer of mind games and metagaming that makes it far more fun.
This doesn't really do it justice though. You can get a taste of what it's like by watching this short: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/wIE50edV3bk
Where it falls short, and a fix I'm exploring
Base Coup is best at around three players. Past that it gets diluted: with a big table, the risk-reward of calling someone out collapses. Most of the time, do you really want to be the one to stick your neck out and challenge? With three people that tension is balanced perfectly; with six or seven it mostly drains away.
So I've been thinking about a team version. Pair up with a partner, and six people play as three teams of two (or two teams of three) instead of a diffuse six-way. I think that'd keep the risk-reward tight while accommodating more people. I'll probably grab a second set to try it out.
Bottom line
Coup is just a straightforwardly good game to own. I've introduced it to several friend groups, they've gone and bought their own copies, and they love it. More people should have one.