Review Amun-Re

Game: Amun-Re
Designer: Reiner Knizia
# Players: 3-5

Evaluation System used with permission http://www.boardgame.de/

Components: Amun-Re comes with 110 cards (66 represent Gold (money), 39 Power Cards, and 15 Province Cards). They are smaller (about 1”x 3”) but functional and thick enough to hold up to repeated playing. Amun-Re comes with 30 pyramids, 15 building stones, and 10 player markers. These are all excellent quality plastic and provide that tangible aspect so prevalent in Designer games. It has 15 Province Markers and 45 Farmers. These are all made of cardboard and also of fine quality. It comes with two cardboard pieces that you assemble (Amun-Re Temple and Pharaoh). These are also well done and add more theme and flavor to the game. The map folds out and shows all 15 provinces in easy to read, yet thematic, artwork. It is very functional but not overly cluttered and contains a scoring track around the board’s perimeter. Finally, you get 5 summary cards with all the critical information for each round on one side and a Scoring summary on the other side. All in all, the components are excellent and get a rating of 8/10.

Object of the Game: The object is to have the most victory points at the end of the game.

Flow of Play: The game is split into 6 rounds with a scoring at the end of round 3 (Old Kingdom) and at the end of round 6 (New Kingdom). Each round consists of 5 phases (6 phases in scoring rounds). In the first phase Province cards a selected at random equal to the number of players. The 2nd phase involves an Auction to acquire the provinces. Phase 3 allows all players to buy Power Cards, Farmers, and Pyramids in their provinces. Phase 4 is a blind bid sacrifice to Amun-Re. In phase 5 everyone gets income from their provinces. Finally, in scoring rounds there is a 6th phase where victory points are scored.

The cost of items and provinces is a mathematical pattern (1,3,6,10,15,21,28,36, etc). Thus 2 farmers would cost 3, 3 farmers would cost 6, and 4 farmers would be 10. The auction is a clever bidding process where a player must bid on a price for a particular province in player order. If a player wants to bid on a province with another player’s marker, then she must place her marker on a higher bid. When a player has a turn and their marker has been overbid then they must select a different new province to bid on next. The auction ends when all provinces have a player’s marker on them. Provinces are not equivalent with each other. Some start with farmers or have room for many farmers. Some have fixed income and others have temples. Evaluating the value of provinces is a key element throughout the game since their values will change depending on which round they come out, what items are built on them, and what power cards and other provinces players have in their possession.

After provinces are selected, players buy power cards, farmers, and pyramids. There are limits on the Power Cards and farmers based on the provinces a player controls. Pyramids are the primary source of victory points so they are very important, but they do not have incremental uses like farmers (income) and power cards (breaking the rules).

After all players have purchased their items, players make a blind sacrifice (using Gold monetary coins). If players bid high values then the harvest will be plentiful, but if players bid low values then the harvest will be scarce (drought). All players get rewards (farmers, power cards, buildings) based on the amount of their sacrifice relative to each other. Players may opt to steal from the sacrifice to get money (which reduces the sacrifice by 3) but they don’t participate in the rewards.

Finally, players get income based on how plentiful the harvest. In general, provinces with lots of farmers will want a plentiful harvest while provinces with Camels will want a drought so that their income is maximized. Large income is important, since it sets players in position to bid and buy more in subsequent rounds.

The first 5 phases are repeated for 3 rounds and then a scoring occurs. Scores are based on Pyramids (individual, sets, and majorities), temples, and bonus power cards (if their conditions are met). Money also counts in the 6th round (final scoring).

Evaluation: An interesting twist in the game is that at the end of the Old Kingdom (after round 3 scoring), the farmers and province cards are removed but the Pyramids and building stones are left where they were built. This forces players to re-value provinces. Also, the order of the provinces is different each game and this keeps the game fresh and different over multiple playings.

The Power Cards offer several different benefits. Each card can be played in particular phases. Some give additional options during the auction, some provide extra farmers or help in building, and others modify the sacrifice and help increase income in the 5th phase. Finally, there are some cards that give a bonus during scoring if certain conditions are met.

One complaint of the game is that the power cards vary in usefulness and add a very random element. The other common complaint is that the blind bidding is very luck driven. I agree that the power cards can have a varying effect, but the game does allow them to be converted into gold at 1:1 rate at any time. This does help mitigate the risk of getting poor or useless power cards. The blind bidding auction for the sacrifice is interesting because the results of the bid are both special rewards and a cumulative total affects the income of everyone’s provinces. This means that you don’t want to have a camel province if everyone else has farmers or vice versa. Knowledge of this element will also affect the province evaluation in step 2 and this intrinsic linking of phases and decision-making is it’s strongest appeal for me.

Regarding the number of players. I think that with 3 players it is a little bit weaker because there is less variation in the auctions and less provinces to select. I have found it to be more enjoyable with 4 or 5 players though and it is always a game that I’m willing to play. It can run a little longer (~120-150 min) with less experienced players but once you have a good sense of the game flow it can be played in less time (~90 min).

Overall, I give Amun-Re 8/10 and it is highly recommended.

House Rules/Variants:
The only house rule I play with is when using a power card that modifies the value of the sacrifice. The card allows a player to shift the total bid by +/-3 but it must be played before a player sees the total of the bid. This often leads to a wasted play since the player generally wants to push the bid up or pull the bid down and therefore is only looking to shift the bid in one direction. Our house rule is to allow the card to shift the total bid by +/- 4. This tends to make the card more useful without making it too strong. It falls more closely in relative worth with the other Power Cards.

The only other power cards that I have considered weaker are the auction power cards because once players become experienced at evaluating the provinces these power cards are much less useful. I’ve decided recently to allow the auction power cards to be “interchangeable” so that either card provides either power (but not both). If you have the one that lets you rebid in the same province then you can use that card as stated OR as a blocking auction card that forces someone to bid higher to pass you.