Imhotep
2-4
10+
40
In Imhotep, the players become builders in Egypt who want to emulate the first and best-known architect there, namely Imhotep.
Over six rounds, they move wooden stones by boat to create five seminal monuments, and on a turn, a player chooses one of four actions: Procure new stones, load stones on a boat, bring a boat to a monument, or play an action card. While this sounds easy, naturally the other players constantly thwart your building plans by carrying out plans of their own. Only those with the best timing — and the stones to back up their plans — will prove to be Egypt's best builder.
User Reviews (1)
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How to play
You have six turns to gain points to win the game; during the six turns you can:
1) refill your reserve of stone cubes
2) place one of them onto one of the four available ships which change, for load capacity, each turn, move one ship, as the minimum level of load is reached, to one of the locations available and each player put their own cubes according to the order of load (first in, first out); according to place chosen you’ll get cards (1 location), immediate points (1 location), end of turn points (1 location) or end of game point (2 location).
When all the four ships are unloaded the turn ends.
Rules and Rulebook
Rules are clear, my experience says that after half a round everyone is able to manage the rules of the game. The rulebook is clear, well-illustrated and with proper examples.
How it works
It is short, it is tactical, it’s fluent and all the rules have sense; you can take it after time and you don’t need to read the rulebook anymore; it is language dependent because of text on the cards and on the locations, additionally, with only four actions among which you must choose there is no downtime even in four players. Good rate of repliability, even if expansions will be welcome
The judgement
It is not a family game, not only because there is direct interaction that could be very rough, but most because it’s a game based on timing; taking the wrong time on refilling your reserve or putting the cube on the wrong boat could cost you the final victory. Despite that it’s a beautiful game, maybe not a masterpiece but it can claim a place on your bookshelf.