Egizia

GaGarfieldstar7.0

#50 I really like the game. But I don't like the endgame victory cards where you can get a lot of points without done something. [c] Theme: ★★★★☆ <!-- size 7]Very thematic --> Gameplay: ★★★★☆ <!-- size 7]Many options --> Interaction: ★★☆☆☆ <!-- size 7]Not much, blocked spaces --> Artwork: ★★★★☆ <!-- size 7]Very good --> Luck: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]End game victory cards --> Strategy: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]Obvious ones --> Components: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]Good --> Play duration: ★★★★★ <!-- size 7]Very good --> Easy to teach: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]Ok --> Rules quality: <!-- size 7]not yet read --> Setup time: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]Ok --> No downtime: ★★★★☆ <!-- size 7]Plays very quick --> Replay value: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]Try different strategy --> [/c]

EvEvanstar4.6

In this game, you place workers along the nile. Each time you place a worker, that action spot needs to be further downstream than your last placed worker. The action spots allow you to take the faceup card in that spot (which either gives you resource income or give some rule breaking ability), upgrade one of your workers, or tap a worker and pay bricks to work on one of the three wonders in the game. The wonders are spaced out along the nile, with one close to the start, one in the middle and one at the end. This makes for some interesting tension as there are end of round bonus victory points according to how many of the wonders you worked on this turn. Spending to build is the way you get victory points in the game, but each piece of the wonder has an increasing requirement in terms of both worker strength and number of bricks spent, so budgeting and upgrading is necessary. The game has an interesting push your luck element to it, as each of the five rounds you have to feed your workers, and not all grain fields are equal in terms of their reliability. One of the action spots allows the movement of a token that chances which fields will produce. Overall this is a very enjoyable euro, however the strength variance of some of the cards that you can acquire during the game sours me a little bit. It seems like there are a few things when gotten in combination that can allow a single player to run away with the game. It's not the worst, since players can sort of take on themselves to take sub-optimal moves to grab the cards up first, but it feels a little uncomfortable. I would be interested in seeing what a second edition of the game looks like should that ever happen. ★ Art, Iconography and components functional ★ Clever or interesting mechanisms ★ Reasonably low downtime between turns with mildly AP players ☆ Multiple plays stay interesting ★ Low or mitigatable luck elements ★★☆☆☆ Raw enjoyment