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The Temple is assessed at the end of the round and the Obelisks and Burial Chamber are assessed at the end of the game. (All described below.) Imhotep is a game played over six rounds where each player takes one action to quarry stone, load a stone, deliver a stone or play a card. Players score points depending on where and when they deliver the stones to the various places of Egypt. After the sixth round the player with the highest score is crowned the victor. Imhotep - Creating the Land of the Nile The 'B' side burial chamber; The burial chamber is built up the same as the 'A' side, but instead of scoring all stones that are connected at the end of the game it is based on the most to the fewest stone in each row. Each row scores either eight, four, two or zero points. Points are shared between any tied players. Players must have at least one stone in the row to score anything.
Given my love of Imhotep it came as no surprise that I love this one too! Imhotep: The Duel was included in my Most Anticipated Games of Origins 2019 and Most Anticipated Games of Gen Con 2019 (thanks to some scheduling mishaps), and it was worth the wait.
Final Thoughts on Imhotep: The Duel
Obelisks: Players earn points for the size of their obelisk, with the tallest getting the most points and other players getting fewer points for smaller obelisks. The points available depend on the number of players in the game. The player with the most completed rows also earns an end-game bonus. This is a fun, albeit straightforward mini-game, but it’s the right kind of simple. Imhotep is like juggling five mini games all at once, but this isn’t Trajan levels of thinking. It’s got a 10+ age rating, and this feels apt. D-Sides, Too? With These Pharaoh Rocher, You Are A-Spoiling Us
The ‘B’ sides of the boards are a little more complex in how they work and how they score, it’s advised to use the ‘A’ sides for your first games ofImhotep before trying out the ‘B’ sides. The game does allow for some take-that play and sensitive players may get upset. Sailing boats before people are ready and market cards that alter the rules in a player’s favor make it possible to screw over other players. But if you’re playing with family or non-gamers, the good news is that everyone gets something when the ships sail (as long as they have a stone on the boat). Having a plan go awry doesn’t necessarily mean you get no points (although it can). It usually just means you don’t get all the points you wanted. Some of the Market cards. Ships are selected by placing workers in a 3 x 3 grid, then unloading a ship when its row or column has at least 2 workers. These points are added to the points earned during the game (from the Pyramid and Temple) and the player with the most points wins the game. A Monument to Gaming Greatness, or the Ruins of Fun? Burial Chamber: Each stone in the chamber earns a point. If, however, stones of one player’s color are connected, they earn bonus points based on the number of connected stones.The ‘A’ side of the burial chamber; Like the pyramid the burial chamber is built up in column’s made top to bottom and left to right when each column is completed and is unrestricted in the right direction and therefore can go off the board! The scoring is based on how many stones of the same colour are connected along their long edges. One lone stone scoring one point, two score three points and so on as described on the board. Can you emulate the famous Egyptian architect, Imhotep? (You might have heard the name from the 1999 film The Mummy, but in this game, Imhotep isn’t the Bad Guy!) This is a fantastic family-weight game by KOSMOS Games for 2-4 players. Your aim? Contribute your building materials towards a series of ancient monuments for big points. The aim of the game is simple; collect the most points before all the boats bar one have left the harbour. Players take it turn and can carry out 1 of the 3 following actions: Place a worker, unload a boat, or play an action tile.
The Market– as each stone is removed from the boat, the player whom the stone belongs to can claim any one of the available market cards. Some of these cards provide instant benefits. Others provide situational benefits and can be held to be used at a later time. Still, others will provide the players with additional victory points at the end of the game.
Imhotep: The Duel Overview
Temple: Points will be given for each red pillar on your temple tiles. These tiles can have 1-4 pillars on them. Imhotep. The legendary architect of the Egyptian monuments. His awe-inspiring structures and brutal tactics earned him divine status among ancient Egyptians. Can you match his ruthless determination to build the most revered monuments? Don’t let that chase you away, though. Overall, it’s a very good game and I have a really good time playing it. I think you will, too. Place One Stone on a Ship. You may place one stone on any empty spot on any ship that has not yet sailed.
Most of us can only dream of achieving the greatness of Imhotep. The man was a master builder and the Benjamin Franklin of his day (in that he knew an awful lot about many subjects). He even built his own tomb and hid it so well, it still hasn’t been found. While I don’t know that many of us want to disappear when we die, there’s something to be said for being a great builder. Imhotep gives you a chance to cover yourself in greatness by building monuments that will stand for ages. Or, you know, you can just quietly crawl into your tomb and disappear. Get new stones. A player can gain up to three new stones from the quarry and place them on his sled, he can never have more than five stones on the sled. If you have five stones on your sled, or if there are no stones of your colour left in the quarry, then you cannot take this action and must choose a different action. The entire game only lasts six rounds (the same number of boat cards that were laid out during the setup phase). At the end of the sixth round, the final scoring takes places. Players will score their points from the Burial Chamber and the Obelisks. At this time, they will also score any points awarded to them by the cards that they may have obtained from the market. The player with the most points is the winner. Thoughts For every stone that gets sent to the Great Obelisk, it covers a meandering 15-spaces path. On each one is a shape, almost polyomino in nature. You earn the corresponding tile according to the shape. You then try to fit these tiles onto your own base card, building them ‘upwards’. This is pure and simple Tetris: you score two points per horizontal row you fill. Mechanics such as using action tiles or unloading an opponent’s boat can change the pace of the game. These actions can be brutal but up the entertainment value as you mess with your opponent’s strategy. As you can only take 1 move each turn, gameplay is fast paced, and games are relatively short. It’s a snappy strategy game filled with deception.Joe Huber (1 play): Imhotep is a very reasonable game – while there is something of a cutthroat nature to the game, as Chris notes, it didn’t bother me in spite of a general preference against such game play. I did play the advanced game, and can easily see the basic game being a reasonable fit for the Spiel des Jahres. Reasonable, but unexpected; I would have expected (and did expect) some other game to have taken the nomination. I’d play Imhotep again if others wanted to – but that wouldn’t be my first choice. Gameplay is fast. The box advertises 40 minutes, but I have yet to have a game go that long, even with 4 players. Imhotep has decisions to be made, but it doesn’t induce the dreaded analysis paralysis, and time between turns is short. Four players are given as the best player-count for Imhotep on Board Game Geek, but we found that three was the sweet spot. It scales well for varying player-counts but the laughs and unpredictability rises with more players. Final Thoughts on Imhotep Imhotep is best played briskly for the fun of it. Sure, apply some thought to your moves, but then get on with it. A game loaded with AP isn’t fun. The game just isn’t deep enough to justify that kind of mental effort or time, unless you’re playing with a group where all members agree to play this way. (Then more power to you. Fry your brains at will.)
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