Saturday 29 December 2012

Review - The Hobbit Card Game

The Hobbit Card Game


The Hobbit Card Game
Published by Sophisticated Games
Designed by Martin Wallace
For 2-5 players, aged 10 to adult

It seems like ages since I posted a review for a game I like, so I thought I would write something about this new little card game from Martin Wallace. Now, before I begin, I should mention that I don't often pick up card games: I'd rather be pushing lumps of plastic around maps of dungeons than trick-taking. However, I have recently found myself in the situation where I have more games than shelf in my study; and this Christmas I also imposed on my wife a spending cap for gifts, which would have been blown right out of the water by a single Fantasy Flight Games product. As a result, I ended up asking for The Hobbit Card Game and the new edition of Dungeon!, both of which come in small boxes, and are about as cheap as games get (while still looking amazing). My wife is a bit of a star, and purchased both games for me; and on Boxing Day I had the chance to play my first games while the parents were visiting.

Now, don't get me wrong, I do have quite a few light, "filler" card games in my collection; they just aren't my first choice unless I am in a situation where I am playing with a lot of "non-gamers" or I don't have a lot of spare time to play. So, even though The Hobbit Card Game might not have been my most anticipated release of 2012, I had already noted its arrival in stores and had checked out the rules online. The game is basically trick-taking, but it had a twist that interested me greatly. The fact the game is based on one of my favourite childhood stories, and features the artwork of Ted Nasmith (who is probably rivalled only by John Howe when it comes to illustrating the world of Tolkien), was the icing on the cake.

I normally start my reviews with a rundown of components, but in this case that won't take very long. For your money (which, in the UK, is less than £7 delivered to your door!) you get a sturdy little box with a beautiful cover illustration, inside which you will find a single piece of folded paper containing the instructions and a single deck of cards. There are 65 cards in total: five showing characters from the story, and 60 showing various images with a numerical value and a suit colour.


The Hobbit card game
The cards... The fronts are much more interesting.


The artwork on the cards is really nice (although not necessarily the best work I have seen from Nasmith), but the appearance is slightly harmed by the overall card layouts, which are rather bland and feature a sold grey background. Overall, the design is perfectly functional, and you can't really complain too much because the artwork is so good. Also, the cards are pretty sturdy and should survive quite a lot of shuffling (I hate sleeving cards, and normally don't bother).

The game is incredibly simple, but before I talk about that, I do just want to mention the theme, which I am sure is going to attract a lot of people. The cover of the box states, "based on the book by J R R Tolkien." This isn't really true. Sure, there are characters from the book on certain cards, but this is a trick-taking game that features some nice fantasy artwork. There is no story, no sense of progression through Bilbo's adventure to Smaug's lair. Don't expect high adventure in a world of magic. Expect trick-taking with pretty artwork.

Okay, enough already. How do you play the game? Well, that really depends on how many players you have, because the rules for a two-player game are slightly different. I haven't played any two-player games, so I will just talk about playing with three or more.

Each player gets allocated a character from the book. There are three good characters, and two evil characters. Good players work as a team, and will win as a team, and the same applies to the evil players.

In a three-player game, the good team comprises Thorin and Bilbo, and one player gets to be Smaug; in a four-player game, the good team adds Gandalf; and in a five-player game, Bolg the goblin king is added to the evil team.


Smaug from The Hobbit Card Game
Smaug... always in a bad mood.


The premise is simple: The first player plays a card, and then every other player has to play a card of the same colour. The owner of the card with the highest value wins the trick. If a player cannot play a card of the correct colour, then he can play any other card from his hand and will therefore be unable to win the trick - unless the card he played is purple, as purple is the trump colour.

Once everyone has played one card, the winner of the trick gets to assign cards. This is the clever twist I mentioned before. While some cards are blank, other cards also feature a symbol: There is an orc helmet, a star, and a pipe. Assigning orc helmets wounds a good player, but heals one wound on an evil player; assigning a star wounds an evil player, but heals one wound on a good player; assigning a pipe means that player will be dealt one extra card in the next round (he must then discard down to the correct number of cards, allowing him to tailor his deck to his play style).


Bard from The Hobbit card game
Bard is about to ruin Smaug's day.


What makes the assigning system even cleverer is that each character assigns cards in a different way. For example, Smaug can choose to assign up to one card to each player, while Thorin is reckless and has to randomly allocate a card to each player (meaning he can hurt his team-mates or help his opponents).

This really does lift the game and gives you something to think about above and beyond the rather simple choice of what card you are going to play. For example, the good team will usually be trying to get Gandalf to win, as he has the strongest power for assigning cards. It is great fun trying to remember what has already been played, and trying to determine what card to play to make sure Gandalf can beat or trump it without Thorin or Bilbo being forced to play a better card. Sometimes it might even be better for a team to "throw" the trick by purposefully playing to lose. Of course, if you know your team is going to lose a trick, then you need to carefully select cards to play that will not benefit your opponent when they get assigned (either cards that feature symbols that will help you, or cards that are blank).

Once all the cards have been played, any characters that have two wounds are eliminated. This may result in a win condition for one side or the other. If there is no victor, the survivors play a second round, after which the victor will be confirmed.

It's a very simple game, very quick to play, very quick to learn, and a lot of fun. The theme is almost entirely irrelevant, but that doesn't matter. This isn't the sort of game I want to play every day, but it is great for small family gatherings, and a good warm-up game before something a bit more substantial hits the table. I think it is probably best with five players, as then the evil players get to work as a team as well; but with four or three it is still an entertaining way to spend half an hour.

I was really impressed, and for the price, I think it is a bargain that anyone with an interest in card games should check out.

Friday 28 December 2012

Review - Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas

The Nightmare Before Christmas



Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas
Published by NECA
Designed by Santa's elves... or Satan's elves
For 2-6 players, aged 8 to adult


NBX Box
The box is oh so pretty...


I have to be honest, I intended to publish this review before Christmas (it would have made more sense), but better late than never... Right?

Right.

Good, that's settled then.

Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas is a typical NECA board game - rather beautiful, but not really much of a game. It's one of those games that is aimed squarely at the fans, who will buy a copy even if it's absolute crap. And yes, I am one of those fans.

NBX (which is what I understand all the cool kids are calling it) is one of my favourite movies, and as I also collect out of production board games, it is no surprise that I have a copy of this game in my collection. What is surprising, is I didn't even know the game existed until it was already out of production and rare as hen's teeth in the UK. I spent a long time hunting down a copy, and eventually picked one up (mint condition) from eBay for a lot more than I would have really liked to spend. Was it worth all the effort? Let's find out...


The Nightmare Before Christmas inside the box
The board has an NBX label on the bottom, which is a nice touch.


As already mentioned, NECA really went to town to make this game look nice so that it would appeal to fans who are not necessarily interested in board games, but who want this for their collection of movie merchandise. It ships in a sturdy box with a high gloss finish (hence the terrible photographs on this page with light glare all over the place), and plenty of great artwork to keep the fans happy. Inside the box is a thick board that features scenes from the movie, a spinner, two chunky dice, and six really nice pewter playing pieces.

The board (I would have preferred illustrations to movie stills).


Before I go on, I have to say, for a fan of NBX, these pewter pieces are going to be a big draw. They are miniature busts of Jack, Sally, Dr Finklestein, Lock, Shock, and Barrel. Very heavy, very nicely sculpted, and worth the price of admission alone. Mine end up on the shelf at Christmas time as extra little decorations, I like them that much.

In fact, everything in the box is of a very high standard except for the deck of playing cards, which are well-illustrated, but a little thin.


The Nightmare Before Christmas playing pieces
Pewter playing pieces.


However, while the components are excellent, the game is something of a disappointment. The aim of the game loosely follows the plot of the film. First you need to "kidnap" Santa Claus, then you need to collect 100 points (okay, that bit's not like the film), and then you need to "defeat" Oogie Boogie. Sounds great - but what does it mean?

(Here comes the science bit...)


The Nightmare Before Christmas rules
Instructions... A truly epic tome.


Each player is initially dealt four cards. These cards will either show a red picture of Santa Claus, or a white picture of a character from the story along with a numerical value. The character pictures on these cards, match pictures on certain spaces on the board (well, sort of - some of the artwork doesn't match exactly, which is a bit confusing). Your cards are kept secret.

The first player is the "biggest, scariest, most intimidating person" according to the rules, but as these things are not mutually inclusive, I just let the wife go first. On your turn, if you have a Santa Claus card in your hand, you just play it out in front of you for everyone to see. Once you have done this, you have "kidnapped" Santa and can begin accumulating points. It is not possible to accumulate points until you have played your Santa card.

If you don't have a Santa card, instead, take a random card from any other player and then roll the dice and move your playing piece the exact number shown (oh yes - roll and move. Did you expect anything else?)

If you land on a blank space, your turn ends. If you land on a location space, you can draw one card (if available) from that location's draw pile. If you land on another player, you steal one card from that player and then send him or her to Oogie Boogie's lair. If you land on a space that shows a picture of a character, and you already have a Santa card in play, you can play one card from your hand that matches the character you landed on. You then score the points on that card. Once you get to 100 points, you can go for the end game.

Players in Oogie Boogie's lair don't get a normal turn, instead they must spin the spinner and try to get an "escape" result. Any other result means they miss a turn and must try again next time. That's
about as much fun as it sounds.


NBX board game spinner
Spinner AND dice - you can never be too random, it seems.


Once you have 100 points, you have to land on Lock, Shock, and Barrel's tree house location (by exact dice roll, of course, because that's always fun), which immediately teleports you to Oogie Boogie's lair for the final showdown in which you... spin the spinner. In the ultimate insult to gamers everywhere, when you spin the spinner, if you get a "win" result you have won the game, but if you get the EQUALLY LIKELY "lose" result, you are dead and out of the game.

Yup, not even kidding. Dead. Gone. You kidnapped Santa, got 100 points, you were first to Oogie Boogie's lair, but you span the "lose" result and therefore lost completely. And yes, that does mean it is possible that at the end of the game, nobody has won.

As you read this brief overview of the game (which isn't much shorter than the actual rules as printed inside the box), you will have noticed that there's quite a lot of randomness, and this randomness will entirely determine the winner of the game.

It is possible to get lucky and to be dealt a Santa card as one of your four starting cards, giving you a massive head start on everyone else; but then again, you might not see Santa in the whole game and never even start to score points.


The Nightmare Before Christmas cards
Santa Claus was rubbish at blending into the crowd.


Once you start trying to score points, you have to land on certain spaces, and you can only do that by exact dice roll, so you could spend the whole game trying to land on spaces that match cards you own, but constantly missing.

If you get sent to Oogie Boogie's lair, on each turn you have a 50% chance of escaping, so you could spend an age in there trying to get out and back into the game.

And then if you do endure all that randomness and get 100 points, when you face Oogie Boogie in the showdown, you have a 25% chance of dying anyway and being eliminated from the game completely. What kind of reward structure is that?

The game is infuriating, and just not that much fun. So that means I'm getting rid of it, right? After all, I have that rule where I only keep games I'm going to play... Well, here's the thing. I do play this game. Only at Christmas, and never more than once a year; but I do play it. It helps me get into the Christmas spirit, and isn't the worst way to spend half an hour with friends while having a few festive drinks.

And beside, it's The Nightmare Before Christmas... Of course I'm not getting rid of it.

Tuesday 11 December 2012

Review - Switch 16

Switch 16
Published by Tomy
Designed by Anthony Vadasz
For 2-4 players, aged 7 to adult


Switch 16
Switch 16: the cunning dice-rolling card swapping family wrecking game


I don't have a very big gaming group, it's basically my wife and two of my best friends; however, on special occasions like Christmas, the family gathers around for "quality time" and I get to play some games with them as well. Now, once upon a time, those games would have been Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit, or Monopoly. I can't stand Scrabble, I loathe Trivial Pursuit, and Monopoly should not be played at Christmas (it is supposed to be the season of goodwill, after all). That being the case, I always try to roll out something different. I know I'm not going to be able to get my "non-gaming" family to play Arkham Horror or Marvel Heroes, and that's why my collection of board games also contains a bunch of "family-friendly" stuff that I normally wouldn't look twice at.

One such game is Switch 16, a game so completely and utterly random and chaotic that it makes me feel queasy to think about it for too long. This is a game that I would have been happy to wing out the window after the first game, but my parents really liked it, so I have kept it (it's still better than bloody Trivial Pursuit, after all).

Now, Switch 16 really isn't my sort of game. It has no theme for a start (where are all the dragons?), and as already mentioned, no real strategy or skill. Each player has a deck of 16 cards (numbered 1 through 16), and the aim of the game is to be the first person to discard the card numbered 16. This is achieved by rolling dice into the rather nifty dice tray.

Actually, before I go on, I should spend a moment to talk about the dice tray... The game doesn't have a board in the usual sense, it just has a plastic tray with four indents (one on each edge) for holding the decks of cards for each player, and a central well with a foam lining into which dice are rolled. Even though the game isn't great, this tray is quite cool; and if you can find this game really cheap in a charity shop you might want to get it just so you can use the tray elsewhere.


Switch 16 dice tray
The rather nifty dice tray - almost makes it worthwhile... almost


Enough about that, back to the game:

Each player puts a deck of 16 cards in the allotted space on the perimeter of the dice tray, with card one at the top and card 16 at the bottom. As well as a number, each card has a picture of some dice, and this indicates the number of dice you are allowed to roll, along with a special "switch" dice that has special instructions on it instead of numbers. For example, card one has a picture of three dice, meaning you roll three dice plus the "switch" dice.


Switch 16 cards
Switch 16 cards


Why are you rolling dice? Quite simply, to try to match the number on the card. If any single dice matches the number on the card, or you can combine two or more dice to equal the number on the card, then you are allowed to remove that card from the top of your deck and discard it. If you are then able to use the same dice results to remove the next card you may also do that, and you can continue through your deck until you reach a number you are unable to match.

That sounds a bit confusing, but it really isn't. Here's an example:

On my first turn of the game I roll three dice and get 1, 2, and 4. I can match card one, so I discard it. I can also match card two, so I discard it. I can match card three by combining 1 and 2, so I discard it. I can match card four with the dice that rolled 4, so I discard it. I can discard card five by combining 1 and 4, and so on... Sounds exciting, right?

Wait, it gets better!

Once you can't make any more combinations, you can pass, or you can take a risk. If you take the risk, you roll again; but if you can't match the card at the top of your deck after doing so, then a whole bunch of cards get returned to your deck (either taking you back to card one or card eight, depending on how far down the deck you have got).

Play continues round in this fashion until someone has discarded all of their cards, or someone drinks too much eggnog and suggests playing charades instead.

Matching dice rolls to cards isn't that bad, and it's pretty good for young children to help with maths; but what really annoys me about this game is the damned "switch" dice. You see, this special dice has a number of blank faces, and a number of faces with special instructions:

If you roll a green "switch" then you can swap decks with any other player (and will obviously swap with the person who has discarded the most cards). If you roll a red "switch" then you MUST swap with the person who has the most cards left to discard. Finally, if you roll "block" then you take a special "block" poker chip. This chip can be placed on any player's stack and will stop that player from discarding any more cards until he or she rolls a "block" (and therefore takes control of the "block" chip). Alternatively, the "block" chip can be used to stop another player switching decks with you.

And that's all there is, folks.


Switch 16 dice
"Switch"


Basically, it's a dice-rolling number matching game with heaps of added luck in the form of the "switch" dice. I can't describe quite how annoying it is to be on your last card, only to watch as an opponent (who hasn't discarded any cards yet), rolls a "switch" result, meaning you have to watch totally helplessly as your deck is swapped and you are basically set back to the beginning. It's one of those games where you honestly feel like it really doesn't matter what you do. If you discard loads of cards, it doesn't matter, because invariably someone will swap with you. Similarly, you shouldn't feel bad if you haven't got rid of any cards yet, because a single dice roll can put you in a winning position by allowing you to swap with the leader. Pointless!

The game rules suggest you can make "clever use" of the "block" chip; but as ownership of the chip is determined by random dice roll, there really isn't anything clever about it. There are no tactics to employ. You just roll the dice, and hope you match the numbers on your cards or get to swap with someone who is doing better than you.

There really isn't much to recommend Switch 16, beyond the fact that it isn't Trivial Pursuit. Nice dice tray, shame about the game...

Monday 10 December 2012

Review - Anima: Shadow of Omega

Here's the thing... Gradually, I am porting across all my reviews from Board Game Geek so they also appear here. Most of the time, this isn't a problem; but from time to time it means I will be publishing a review for a game I no longer have. Such is the case with Anima: Shadow of Omega, a game I really didn't enjoy and sold rather swiftly. Why is it a problem that I no longer have the game? Two words: no pictures.

So, here is a short review that I originally posted on www.boardgamegeek.com back in August 2008, reproduced here for your reading pleasure with absolutely no pictures at all. Enjoy...



Anima: Shadow of Omega
Published by Edge Entertainment
Designed by... ah, no idea. Probably by committee
For 2-5 players, aged 10 to adult

I'm not going to lie, I bought this game because of the artwork, which is unquestionably beautiful. I've been known to do this in the past (Blue Moon, for example), but I have never been quite as disappointed with my purchase as I was with this game, which appears to be a muddled, confusing half-game with too many exceptions that break the rules.

Wow, that's quite negative... I'll start again...

This game has several aspects that make it appealing. First of all, it is not collectable. I hate collectable games. You spend a fortune trying to get enough cards/models in order to have a fair chance of winning a game, only to find your opponent has an "uber-rare-shiny-gold-win-the-game-in-the-first-turn-super-nasty"(tm) and you get completely smashed anyway. Worse still, the game goes out of production before you have a complete set.

Second, Shadow of Omega comes with everything you need to play. I hate opening a game only to find I have to borrow dice from another game, or use pennies to keep track of my health, or buy a special "extras" kit with all the other bits I need (Magic, Dungeoneer - I'm looking at you).

Third, the production value of this game is very good. The graphics are immaculate, and its all very pretty.

Unfortunately, the game is a bit of a mess.

So, what do you get for your money? You get 110 normal-sized cards which are fantastic, two dice (one white, one black), and five wooden counters. By the way, 110 cards is not nearly enough. It sounds a lot, but they all do different things: There are 20 hero cards, 10 mission cards, 3 final mission cards, 14 location cards, 29 event cards, and 34 advantage cards. This basically means you will control between one and four characters from a stock of just 20, on an "epic" adventure in one of 14 locations, trying to complete one of 13 missions (more than enough of these though). The 34 advantage cards, representing spells, skills, and weapons can be used to customise your team based on their class (warrior, spellcaster, etc), but this seems a lot of customisation when you consider there are only 29 unique hazards to be confronted, of which only 21 are actually monsters.

Okay, there are expansions available to increase the variation, and I know this is only a base set that has to cover a lot of ground, and yes, I know it is trying to do the best it can to create the feel of a customisable RPG in a card game format; but the variation just means that after one game you have pretty much seen and done everything there is to see and do.

I actually really enjoyed creating a team of hardened warriors: Gathering my recruits and equipping their skills was my favourite part of the game (but note, team members and skills are drawn randomly from the deck). Each character has a combat value and a speed value, which are used when fighting or performing missions; and they also have one or more classes that allow them to use certain skills. For example, the Dark Paladin can use Kia powers only (basically special combat techniques), but the well-read Freelancer can use Kia powers, magic cards, and trickery cards (cards that allow you to steal things or sneak into locations, etc). Interestingly, characters are also designated as male and female, and this characteristic has been incorporated into the gameplay: if you play a romance card on a male and female character, they fall in love and will fight together with a bonus until one of them dies (I don't see why this card should be limited to a male/female combination of characters, but that is a debate for another time!).

Overall, getting a good combination of characters that can perform all the different skills you have in your hand is very interesting, but having put together an ultimate fighting force, there isn't really that much to do with them. You travel to a location, maybe fight a monster, maybe draw a card, and then move on. It really is a rather bland game, and even though one of my big complaints is the lack of variety, I'm not even sure if more cards would help that much other than having more pretty artwork to look at.

As an aside, while talking about the pretty artwork, I should mention that some people have commented on "inappropriate" art. Basically, this is a high fantasy game, so there is certain archetypal imagery associated with it: There are a few pictures of female characters in very small clothes (one card features a woman waking up in bed in just her underwear), and there is a particularly violent image of an assassin stabbing someone in the back so that the point of his knife bursts out through his unfortunate victim's chest. I don't mind this sort of thing, it goes with the territory; but it is well worth noting if you intend to get this game for very young players. It should also be noted that all the heroes are human (no dwarfs, no elves), and there is an equal mix of male and female characters, so there is a refreshing mix which you don't always get in this sort of game.

Now, back to the game...

It doesn't help that the rules are badly written, and it can be very difficult to know how certain situations are resolved. It is quite common for a card game to have cards that create exceptions to the general rules of the game, but this game is crazy for it: Half the time I didn't know if I was allowed to play a card or not! In this review I haven't gone into the mechanics of the game in great detail, and I don't intend to, but I would advise anyone thinking of buying this game to read the rules beforehand to get a feel for the game. It plays about as dry as it reads, trust me.

By the way, this game has an awful endgame situation: Missions require for you to go to certain places on your turn, but which locations are currently in play is determined by all players, and in every turn, a location can be discarded from play and replaced with something else (and it is not easy to retrieve discarded places). You just try getting to a specific place when everyone else at the table is trying to stop you. You'll be lucky if you ever get there at all.

I really wanted to like this game. I like anything that attempts to create a RPG feel in a board game or card game, I love high fantasy, I enjoy building teams of adventurers and giving them customisable skills; but I just don't seem to be able to get into this game.

Overall: lovely graphics, nice box, interesting concept; but with complicated rules and certain situations that quickly sap the fun out of it.

Wednesday 5 December 2012

Review - Ramses Pyramid

It has been ages since I added anything new to my blog, mainly because I have been doing promotional work for my first book, The Wing Warrior, and rolling out my second book, The Unicorn Rider. But now that's all out of the way, it's time to get some reviews posted. I thought I'd start with something that isn't out of print: Ramses Pyramid.

Ramses Pyramid

Ramses Pyramid
Published by LEGO (yay!)
Designed by Cephas Howard & Reiner Knizia
For 2-4 players, aged 8 to adult


Of course, I really enjoy board games - if I didn't, I wouldn't have this blog and a spare room stacked with more board games than furniture - but I am also a fan of Lego. I don't allow myself to buy Lego, because I don't have enough room for another collection of toys; but Lego board games allow me to make an exception from time to time. You see, a Lego board game gets to be classed as part of my game collection while also giving me just enough of a Lego fix to prevent me from rushing off to the toy store and buying that pretty awesome The Lord of the Rings Mines of Moria Lego set.

Unfortunately, there is one problem: Lego is awesome, board games are awesome; but when they are combined, the results seem to be... well... not awesome. The sets tend to be rather uninteresting to build (as they need to be functional and often repetitive designs) and the games tend to be rather simplistic as they are designed for younger players and "non-gamer" families. Such is the case with Ramses Pyramid, a game that has Reiner Knizia's name on the box but little other evidence that he participated in the game's design.

Ramses Pyramid by Lego
The box - proudly displaying the Toy Innovation 2009 logo.


Before I go too far, I should say this game was a gift from a very good friend of mine, who believed the combination of Lego, board game and Knizia would result in an excellent purchase for me, so I am a bit bummed out I don't like this game more. I don't hate the game, I just don't like it as much as I want to. Anyway...

When I review a game, I usually start by talking about the quality of the pieces. That isn't really necessary here: We're talking about Lego, and that means the quality of the pieces is exceptional. You get enough Lego blocks to build a three-dimensional pyramid, a "buildable" dice which has cool rubbery edges so it bounces all over the place, and a bunch of microfigs (four player pieces, and a set of mummies, including the titular Mummy King, Ramses). And in case you don't know what microfigs are - they are basically little Lego characters about the size of a thumbnail.

Ramses Pyramid Lego microfigures
Microfigures - cute, aren't they?


(As an aside, I would love to see Lego games using minifigs instead of microfigs: How cool would it be to have a Lego dungeon crawler where you could swap out the weapons and armour your hero is carrying?)

Lego collectors will probably be interested to know that this box contains 217 pieces and 13 microfigs. I suppose that even if you don't like the game that much, the pieces (which include some nice "gold" statues, chalices, and different coloured crystals) could easily be used in other builds.


Ramses Pyramid board game
The game, built and ready to play.


Once you have built the pyramid (which is designed to fit in the box assembled so you only have to build it once!), you can start playing almost immediately. The game is very simple and the rules are only two pages long, including excellent diagrams. What you actually have here is a memory game with a big old dose of randomness and a bit of "screw you" thrown in, and while I was playing it I never really felt like I was playing something designed by Knizia.


Ramses Pyramid rules
Ramses Pyramid rules booklet.


On your turn, you roll the chunky dice, and then you move the number of spaces indicated. First you move around the base of the pyramid. On each space, there is a coloured crystal, and when you land on a space, you can take the crystal or you can secretly look in the adjacent secret temple and remember the colour of the crystal hidden inside. If you look in a secret temple, you then replace it on any empty space on the board.

Once you have made a single complete circuit of the pyramid base, you start going up the side of the pyramid one step at a time. On each step on each side of the pyramid there is a crystal, and you can only stand on a step if you have a matching crystal or can reveal a crystal of the correct colour in one of the secret temples. If you cannot do either of these things, you are not allowed to advance up the pyramid and instead can move to one of the other three sides of the pyramid on the same layer; however, you still need a matching crystal, so you may be stuck not being able to do anything at all on your turn.

As well as showing a number of pips, several of the faces on the dice also allow you to do other actions, such as rotating the pyramid or stealing crystals from other players. Two faces on the dice also allow you to move one mummy from the top of the pyramid down to the next layer, and then move all the other mummies that have already moved off the top. The mummies act as road blocks, as you are not allowed to stand on a step on the pyramid that contains one, forcing you to take a less direct route, or rotate the pyramid in order to complete your journey.

It's all really straight forward and very workmanlike, and it just feels a bit like Knizia phoned this one in. Your fate is largely decided by the roll of the dice, as there is nothing you can do to mitigate bad dice rolls, or to prevent other players stealing your hard-won crystals. Worst of all, when you get to the top of the pyramid you have to roll the dice and roll a mummy face in order to win. That's right, this is a Knizia game in which the winner is determined by dice roll, with each roll having a 33% chance of winning. Not great.


Ramses Pyramid Lego dice
The dice - showing the face required to win the game.


Overall, it's not a terrible game; I just felt a little disappointed that there wasn't a bit more to it. The Lego pieces are great, and the microfigs are cute; building the board was okay, and the game is solid enough for a quick play every now and again (particularly with younger players); but honestly, it should have been a bit better.


Ramses Pyramid mummy microfigures
Ramses on his pyramid... Nice hat!

The only other thing worth mentioning is that the game encourages you to make up your own rules, and there is a page in the rulebook that makes some suggestions. You could easily combine Ramses Pyramid with your Lego collection, or other Lego board games, to make something new. I'm just not interested in designing my own games - I want to play a well designed game, or play with some cool toys.

Now you'll have to excuse me, I'm just going to the toy shop to take a little look at that Mines of Moria set...