our review
Monuments need Building blocks
Imhotep
Delivery to building sites
Imhotep, the universal genius in Ancien Egypt, is building monuments and we as builders should deliver blocks for them und score the most possible points for this.
Double-sided location boards for Market, Pyramid, Temple, Burial Chamber and Obelisks are laid out, with different levels of difficulty; for a first game the rules recommend to use the A side of the boards. Market cards and the necessary rounds cards there are seven for each number of players are shuffled separately and stacked, then you discard one randomly selected rounds card, as only six rounds are played.
Then players in turn are given 2-3-4-5 blocks from stock, called quarry.
For the actual round you reveal the top rounds card; it determines the boats in play for the round there are boats with two, three and four slots for blocks. The boats are set out ready next to the location boards; finally, you reveal four market cards and put them on the Market board.
Then players in turn have to choose and resolve one of four action options
* Acquire new blocks take up to three blocks of your color from the quarry for your stock board, the board can hold maximum a of five stones.
* Put a block into a boat you place a block from your stock board onto an empty slot in any boat that has not yet been moved to a location.
* Move boat to a location you take a boat and put it next to an available location board; the boat must carry the minimum number of blocks, marked by the symbols in the bow of the boat, that is, the boat must not be full to be moved. You can also select a boat on which you yourself have not placed a block. At the location board the boat is unloaded owners of the blocks take them out of the boat in the order in which they sit in the boat and place them at the location.
For each location special rules apply:
Blocks delivered to the Market go back to the quarry and you take one market card for each stone: Red cards are implemented instantly you place one block in the given monument; blue cards can be used once in a consecutive turn they influence your block supply, placement in boats and moving boats; purple statues and green decorations give points at the end of the game.
For blocks delivered to the pyramid you immediately score the points indicated on the case that you fill with your block; blocks are placed in columns from left to right, fill Level 1 and then Level 2 and Level 3. When the Pyramid is complete, additional blocks score one point each.
Temples are scored at the end of the round; each block visible from above scores one points; cases are filled from left to right, when one level is filled, the next one is begun.
The Burial Chamber is scored at the end of the game, it is filled as the pyramid in columns from left to right, but there is no limit to the right side, you can fill any number of columns and you score for areas of of connected blocks of your color, not for the biggest one, but for all areas!
The Obelisks are also scored at the end of the game; you build your own Obelisk and score for its height in relation to the number of players.
* As the fourth option you can play and resolve a blue market card:
Hebel you move a boat and determine the order of unloading blocks.
Hammer You take three blocks from the quarry into your supply and move a block from your supply into a boat.
Segel You place a block into a boat and move this boat to a location.
Meiίel You place two blocks into one boat or one block each into two boats.
When all four boats are at locations and unloaded, the round ends. For a new round boats go back to stock, market cards are removed from the market. Then the next rounds card is revealed, the boats are prepared accordingly and four new market cards are put into the Market.
After six such rounds, as already mentioned, a final scoring is done of Burial Chamber, Obelisks and Market cards for Decoration and Statues, each unused blue market card gives you one point.
The B-sides of the board provide detail changes in scoring, with somewhat more demanding conditions for high-score placement of blocks.
If you like, you can play with any random mixture of A and B sides of the boards
And if you would like to play an even harder game, you play the version DERZORN DES PHARAO, in which you must be involved in the construction of all four monuments. If, at the end of the game, you did not deliver at least one block to each monument, you must deduct five points from your final score.
Regardless of the sides of the boards which you use for game and if you play with ZORN or not, Imhotep is a fantastic game, abstract and yet with a topic that fits the mechanism very well. Interaction, too, comes in exactly the right dosage, you need to keep an eye on the other players and, if necessary, unload a boat that has no stones of your own to hinder an other player to achieve a high score and you also have to look out for the market cards to catch a really good one in time.
The game also has a foot on both sides of the fence, it offers enough tactic for experienced player and is all the same simple enough to be played by families with a bit of gaming experience. In short, a very well-made game all in all, and this praise also goes to the excellent rules and the beautiful components.
Dagmar de Cassan
Players: 2-4
Age: 10+
Time: 40+
Designer: Phil Walker-Harding
Artist: Miguel Coimbra
Price: ca. 35 Euro
Publisher: Kosmos 2016
Web: www.kosmos.de
Genre: Placement, building
Users: With friends
Version: de
Rules: de
In-game text: yes
Comments:
Very nice components and design
Good topic for an abstract mechanism
Rules very well structured
Compares to:
Pueblo for visibility of stones, other building games scoring for formations
Other editions:
Kosmos (en), 999 Games (nl), Phalanx (pl), all announced
My rating: 6
Dagmar de Cassan:
Worker placement without workers, but with stones, a game in which you must use each situation in an optimum way, and yet not a tinkers game!
Chance (pink): 1
Tactic (turquoise): 3
Strategy (blue): 1
Creativity (dark blue): 0
Knowledge (yellow): 0
Memory (orange): 0
Communication (red): 0
Interaction (brown): 2
Dexterity (green): 0
Action (dark green): 0