Courtesans of Versailles is a good political game. Most (if not all) of the game revolves around dealing with other players to get them to help you. You gain money through Titles / Charges / Pensions, but another big way you gain money (and lose it) is through bribes and making deals with other players.

You could play without making deals or alliances with anyone, but you will probably get hosed. Also, you have to play with "Diplomacy Minded" people who don't mind the fluffy area of making freeform deals. The downside to this game is that you have to read the rulebook about 5 times before it clicks. There is too much "You always do X (Except for when Y)." "A always occurs, unless B is played" which rubs against the grain. A couple of cards appear to be misprinted (errata anyone?). It would have been nice for the cards to actually have printed what type of cards they are (e.g. TITLE, CHARGE, EVENT, etc.) so it would be clear how/when/where/discard to do with them.

That may seem like a great deal of strikes against it, but once you get past that it is a good game ... of course that depends on how wheeling and dealing the players are. Domo. Ja na