Post by Gilvan Blight on Feb 6, 2006 10:26:23 GMT -5
Quickly: A great auction based game.
Summary: players receive a set number of 'suns' with numbers on them. They use these to bid in auctions. Each turn a player either draws a tile from a bag, invokes Ra, or uses a god tile. When a tile is pulled if it is a Ra tile a round of auctions starts. If it is anything else it is put up on the auction block (no auction starts). If Ra is invoke an auction round starts with no tiles being drawn (and the player invoking much bid). A god tile lets you swap it for any tile up on the auction block. The auciton. Players go around once bidding thier 'sun' tiles. Winner gets all cards up on the auction block and lays them out in front of them. The game is played through 3 epochs and tiles are scored after each epoch. Scoring is varried, some tiles being worth a set amoung (gold), some worth points if you have the most and cause a loss in points if you have the least (pharos, suns), others score based on how many different types you have (monuments, culture). At the end of three rounds the one with the most points wins.
The Good: okay the description sounds confusing and so do the rules the first time through, but this game is rather simple to learn. The amazing part is the amount of thinking and strategy still avaliable with such simple rules. The game is also nice and quick. One of the few euro board games where the box accurately tells you the game length. (45mins-hour). The bits in this are rather nice though odd. There are some great things in here. One rule is that when you win an acution you sun (the amount you bid) is placed in the middle and you get the sun that is there. This makes it intersting since not only are you bidding on the tiles you are also looking to make sure you have good numbers for the next round. We played three rounds of this and each game felt different. This is a great sign.
The Bad: Players boards would have been useful. The board included only tracks Ra tiles (associated with rounds ending) and the auction block. The players have to line up all the other tiles in front of them, a board for this dividing up the different card types would have been very nice. The main board itself isn't that great either. It looks pretty enough but really only exists to hold two rows of cards. Plus the denotions of how to score victory points just isn't that clear at first and took a bit to figure out.
The Ugly: I have to mention this one. I really wanted this game due to it being the number one wanted game on boardgamegeek for some time (until it was re-printed) so I knew I was getting something good. But if I had seen this in a store there would be no way I would ever pick it up. The box is useless. The most useless box for a game I have ever seen. The summary of the game just gives you the background text about Egypt (that really doesn't mean anything to the mechanics). There is no picture of the componenets or the game or even the rulebook. Dumbly it also states contents may vary from those shown, but doesn't show anything! Sure it has that bar code rating with a randomness of 4, strategy of 7 and fun of 10, but who belives the bar codes on the back of a boardgame. Okay that rant done. I personally found that in the last epoch the player winning often stays that way. Now the two poeple I played with didn't see it so maybe it was just me.
Overall: a really good game. The best utilization of an auction format so far (due to the sun system). I am very glad it was re-released over here by Uberplay. I don't think I will be getting sick of this one any time soon. This ranks up there with Peurto Rico, Catan and Princes of Florence for me.
Summary: players receive a set number of 'suns' with numbers on them. They use these to bid in auctions. Each turn a player either draws a tile from a bag, invokes Ra, or uses a god tile. When a tile is pulled if it is a Ra tile a round of auctions starts. If it is anything else it is put up on the auction block (no auction starts). If Ra is invoke an auction round starts with no tiles being drawn (and the player invoking much bid). A god tile lets you swap it for any tile up on the auction block. The auciton. Players go around once bidding thier 'sun' tiles. Winner gets all cards up on the auction block and lays them out in front of them. The game is played through 3 epochs and tiles are scored after each epoch. Scoring is varried, some tiles being worth a set amoung (gold), some worth points if you have the most and cause a loss in points if you have the least (pharos, suns), others score based on how many different types you have (monuments, culture). At the end of three rounds the one with the most points wins.
The Good: okay the description sounds confusing and so do the rules the first time through, but this game is rather simple to learn. The amazing part is the amount of thinking and strategy still avaliable with such simple rules. The game is also nice and quick. One of the few euro board games where the box accurately tells you the game length. (45mins-hour). The bits in this are rather nice though odd. There are some great things in here. One rule is that when you win an acution you sun (the amount you bid) is placed in the middle and you get the sun that is there. This makes it intersting since not only are you bidding on the tiles you are also looking to make sure you have good numbers for the next round. We played three rounds of this and each game felt different. This is a great sign.
The Bad: Players boards would have been useful. The board included only tracks Ra tiles (associated with rounds ending) and the auction block. The players have to line up all the other tiles in front of them, a board for this dividing up the different card types would have been very nice. The main board itself isn't that great either. It looks pretty enough but really only exists to hold two rows of cards. Plus the denotions of how to score victory points just isn't that clear at first and took a bit to figure out.
The Ugly: I have to mention this one. I really wanted this game due to it being the number one wanted game on boardgamegeek for some time (until it was re-printed) so I knew I was getting something good. But if I had seen this in a store there would be no way I would ever pick it up. The box is useless. The most useless box for a game I have ever seen. The summary of the game just gives you the background text about Egypt (that really doesn't mean anything to the mechanics). There is no picture of the componenets or the game or even the rulebook. Dumbly it also states contents may vary from those shown, but doesn't show anything! Sure it has that bar code rating with a randomness of 4, strategy of 7 and fun of 10, but who belives the bar codes on the back of a boardgame. Okay that rant done. I personally found that in the last epoch the player winning often stays that way. Now the two poeple I played with didn't see it so maybe it was just me.
Overall: a really good game. The best utilization of an auction format so far (due to the sun system). I am very glad it was re-released over here by Uberplay. I don't think I will be getting sick of this one any time soon. This ranks up there with Peurto Rico, Catan and Princes of Florence for me.