Players: 3-5
Playing Time: 90-120 minutes
Difficulty: 4 (of 10)
Amun-Re is co-produced by Hans im Gluck in Germany.
The Components
Amun-Re includes:
- Cards:
- 66 gold cards
- 39 power cards
- 15 province cards
- Miniatures:
- 30 pyramids
- 15 building stones
- 10 player markers
- Cardboard Bits:
- 15 province markers
- 45 farmers
- 1 Amun-Re temple
- 1 Pharaoh marker
- 5 summary cards
- 1 game board
- 1 rule booklet
The Cards: The cards are all printed at small German card size, full-color, with rounded corners.
The money cards include denominations of -3, 1, 2, 5, 10, and 20. The front of each money card one has a different colored background and shows the appropriate numeral plus an appropriate sized pile of cards next to it. It makes the values very easy to distinguish between.
The power cards feature 12 different powers which can be used by their holder during the appropriate phases in the game. The background of each card is color-coded to the appropriate game phase (though unfortunately this color is used nowhere else); simple drawings display the cards usage. Some of our players had to look up the card icons on the back page of the rulebook during player, but I found them fairly intuitive--and by the end of the game most of the other players seemed to agree.
The money and power cards feature the same artwork on the back side which is a very cool feature, because it means you can't really estimate how much money or power a player is holding at any one time. It also helps out in the sacrifice phase, as noted below in The Game Play.
The province cards are really just bidding mats. Each one shows the name of a province plus its icon, surrounded by the first nine possible bids (0, 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, 21, 28, 36). The bid spaces are just the right size for the players' bidding markers.
Miniatures The miniature pieces used for this game are, I'd guess, all resin. They're a weirdly textured plastic that allows for some nice detail and has a good weight to it.
The pyramids come in two sizes, the single pyramid and the double pyramid, 15 of each. From my experience, in a 5-player game there won't be enough double pyramids, though you can substitute singles as appropriate. These are all nicely molded and evocative.
The building stones are tasty-looking Pez-shaped bricks (or maybe Chiclet-shaped, I can't decide). They're brown, mottled with white, and are meant to connote a pyramid under construction. They're kind of neat looking, but not really representational.
The player markers are molded exactly like the building stones, except they come in the five player colors: blue, black, green, white, red. Each player gets one for the scoring track and one to bid with. The fit just right onto both the scoring track and the province cards.
Cardboard Bits All of the cardboard bits are printed four-color on solid, textured cardboard and feature very attractive drawings.
Each player gets three province markers in his color. They're placed on the board to mark control of a province. Against its colored background each one depicts some hieroglyphics in a cartouche--presumably the name of a pharoah. (On the black marker that I used I can only make out the hieroglyphs for "and" and "on", which doesn't do a lot to translate the phrase for me, but I still appreciate the authenticity.)
The farmer markers simply depict farmers against a green background; they go on appropriate spaces on the board.
The Amun-Re temple and the Pharaoh marker are big stand-up pieces. Each one is composed of two cardboard bits cross-slotted at the bottom to allow them to stand up. The Amun-Re temple depicts the current space on the sacrifice track and the Pharaoh depicts the current first player. They're overproduced for the needs, and at least our Pharaoh kept falling apart because the slotting wasn't tight enough.
Summary Cards: The game has a lot of different scoring and a lot of different phases, so these sumary cards are absolutely required. They show the phases on one side and all the scoring on the other, and make the game very easy to play. There are two disappointments, however: the cards are printed on flimsy cardstock; and on the phase summary side of things the colors that depict the phases on the cards aren't used. Despite that, still very helpful.
Game Board: The board is a real masterwork of design, because it takes a game that could be very complex and makes it simple. Essentially, the board isn't a map of geographical proximity; rather, it's a record of each of the 15 provinces and the benefits that it provides. Besides this, there's also a score track, an Amun-Re sacrifice track, and a listing of purchase prices. The board has pretty much, everything you need to play the game, all in one place, and presented very iconically.
The board is printed in full-color on textured cardboard.
Rules: The rules are printed as a twelve page full-color booklet. It takes more than one read-through to be really comfortable with things, but that's because of the intricacy of rules, not the writing. The rules are extremely well illustrated and full of examples which make them easier to use. A full page "description of the power cards" on the back cover is also entirely vital to play.
Box: The box is a slightly oversized, sturdy box with a tray inside. There are individual slots for a lot of different pieces, though it's one of those trays that somewhat puzzles me, because I'm not quite sure what is supposed to go where. In any case, the tray nicely keeps everything from going all over in a too-big box.
If I were just going to rate Amun-Re's Style on the beauty and quality of the component I'd give it a "4". However, the game also does a very good job of using iconification and correlation of different components to make the game easy to understand and easy to play, thus earning it a full "5" out of "5" for Style.
The Game Play
Amun-Re centers around gaining control of Egyptian provinces, then using the resources of those provinces to gain gold and thus build pyramids that will be remembered for all time.
Setup: Each player choose a color at startup and is giving a scoring marker, a bidding marker, and three province markers in that color. He also receives a special Builder power card and 20 cards worth of gold, plus a special -3 gold card. Two elements are improtant to understand before play: provinces and power cards.
The Provinces: The game centers around the provinces of Egypt. There are 15 of them total and they can be divided in a number of ways. There are 7 provinces east of the Nile and 8 west; 7 in lower Egypt and 8 in upper; 8 on the banks of the Nile and 7 on the outskirts.
Each province also in special in a number of ways. Some grant free items when they're won--power cards, building stones, or gold. Some allow you to purchase power cards, and some to farm (one even comes with free farmers). Some generate income in all years, and some only generate income from caravans during poor harvests. Finally, some provinces contain temples. All of these various possibilities come into effect during the various phases of the game
Each and every province is unique, with its own advantages and disadvantages. Some are clearly better than others. Individual players will prefer some provinces over others because of their own situation. This all helps to differentiate and inform the two different auction phases within the game.
Power Cards: The other general component of play is the power cards. There is a deck of 39 of these, featuring 12 different card types. Each card is clearly marked with a specific phase during which it can be played.
There's a general rule for power card play: the identical card may never be played twice by the same player during the same round.
In addition, you can always sell a power card back to the bank for 1 gold. This is useful if you have a worthless duplicate or a scoring card that you can't use--or if you really need just 1 more gold to win a province.
Order of Play: The main game is played in five core phases:
- Choose Province Cards
- Bid for Provinces
- Make Purchases
- Sacrifice to Amun-Re
- Generate Income
The game is played in a total of six rounds. After the third round a special scoring phase occurs, then Egypt passes from the Old Kingdom to the New Kingdom. After the sixth round a second scoring phase occurs and the game ends.
Choose Province Cards: There are 15 province cards, one for each of the 15 provinces on the board. A number of province cards are randomly selected equal to the number of players in the game. Each card is placed in its on-board province, so that players can clearly see the benefits and general location of the province. Any free power cards, building stones, or gold that are won with the province are placed there as well.
Bid for Provinces: Starting with the first player each player bids on a province by placing his bidding marker on one of the spots of one of the province cards. The spots represent bid totals and are numbered: 0, 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, 21, 28, and 36.
If a player wants to bid on a province that someone else has already bid on, he must place his marker on a higher number.
If a player has been overbid he must then choose another province to bid on; he may not immediately overbid the player who overbid him by jumping his marker (though he may return later if he has the opportunity).
Bidding continues until there is exactly one bidding marker on each province, at which point it ends immediately. Players must pay their winning bid to the bank and may then put their province marker on the province and collect any free items won with the province.
This is generally an open English auction with some very specific rules for how bidding must occur. I generally believe that trade, negotiation, and auction systems are made more interesting by inclusion of tight limitations (as I wrote when I reviewed another Reiner Knizia game, Res Publica), and that's done well here. Usually there are some hard-fought provinces and some which players get for a song. Some players hop back and forth between provinces, while others decide the whole overbidding deal is a scam, and their money can be better used elsewhere in the game. Particularly in later rounds, this can get quite tense.
Usable Power Cards. There are two special power cards that may be placed in this phase. Bidding blockade forces an overbidding player to bid at least two more than your bid. Overbid allows you to overbid in the same province. Each card applies to you throughout this entire phase.
Make Purchases: After each person has gotten a new province, other purchases can be made. Each player may buy power cards, farmers, and bricks.
Power Cards allow players to essentially break the rules in various phases and also to gain additional victory points. Each province contains a number of power card symbols, from 0 to 4. A player may buy only as many power cards as the symbols displayed in his one province with the most power card symbols, maximum.
Farmers generate income each round. They must be placed in a specific province. A player may buy only as many farmers as he has empty "farmer spaces" in his provinces, maximum.
Bricks are used to build pyramids, which generally determine ultimate victory. They must be placed in a specific province. Once there are three bricks in the same province, they are replaced by a pyramid. Multiple pyramids can be built per province (and, in fact, there are two general strategies: to try and end up with the same number of pyramids in each of your provinces or to really max out one of your provinces, to make it the most impressive on its side of the Nile). You can buy as many bricks as you can afford.
The cost of each category of purchase is determined individually and is calculated using an incrementing scale based on how many of the item was purchased. For 1 item, you pay 1 gold, for 2 you pay 3 gold, for 3 you pay 6 gold, for 4 you pay 10, etc. Thus if a player bought 2 power cards, 1 farmer, and 3 bricks he'd pay a total of 3 + 1 + 6 gold. Yes, this can be a bit of a pain to calculate during the game.
Usable Power Cards. There are two special power cards that may be placed in this phase. Free Farmer lets you add a farmer to one of your provinces, outside of the "farmer spaces". Builder lets you build a pyramid with just 2 bricks.
Sacrifice to Amun-Re. Now each player takes some money cards into his hand to make a secret bid for the sacrifice to Amun-Re. This may be one or more positive money cards or a single -3 card. (Each player must bid at least one money card.) This bid can also include a sacrifice correction power card (which helpfully features the same card back as the money).
All of the bids are revealed simultaneously and summed up. Once a total is arrived at, any player who played a sacrifice correction power card may increase or decrease the total by 3, per his preference. Finally, the Amun-Re temple is moved to one of the four spaces on the sacrifice track: #1 for a sum of 2 or less; #2 for a sum of 3 to 12; #3 for a sum of 13 to 22; and #4 for a sum of 23 or more. This will determine the value of harvests in the next phase and also the value of temples during the scoring phase if this was the third or sixth round.
Afterward, rewards are handed out by the pharoah. The player who sacrificed the most is given three items reward (power cards, farmers, or bricks) and becomes the new first player; the player who sacrificed the second most gets two items reward; and all other players who sacrificed a positive amount of money get one item reward. Players who bid -3 stole from the Amun-Re. They get three gold and also get their -3 card back for use in future sacrifices but don't get any items.
It may not be immediately obvious that this is actually another type of auction, a fairly traditional blind or closed-fist auction in which many of the players are bidding to be first or second in the Pharaoh's affections. The complications of negative bids and trying to achieve either a low or high total sum just add to the strategy of this auction.
Usable Power Cards. As already noted, a player can use the Sacrifice Correction card during this phase.
Generate Income: Each round ends with each player generating income from each of his provinces. Farmers each generate income equal to the number of farmers times the Amun-Re sacrifice space (from 1 to 4), meaning that if you had 5 farmers and the sacrifices gave a good harvest in the #3 space, you'd earn 15 gold. Some provinces marked with a gold coin generate bonus income every turn. Other provinces marked with a gold coin and a camel only generate bonus income if there was a poor harvest, and the Amun-Re sacrifice space was either #1 or #2.
Usable Power Cards: The 8 Gold card may be used to replace the normal output of a province with 8 gold. The Harvest Increase card increases the output of a province by 1 per farmer.
The End of the Old Kingdom & Scoring: After three rounds of play the Old Kingdom ends and the game enters its first scoring phase. Each player tabulates his score based on the contents of his three provinces, as follows:
- 1 point per pyramid.
- 3 additional points per complete set of pyramids (a complete set being a pyramid in each of the player's 3 provinces).
- 5 points for the player with the province with the most pyramids on the east side of the Nile.
- 5 points for the player with the province with the most pyramids on the west side of the Nile.
- 1-4 points per temple (based on the current Amun-Re sacrifice space).
- 3 points per bonus power card whose conditions are met.
There are 5 different bonus power cards who's conditions may be met. They are: own provinces with at least 9 power card icons; own provinces with at least 9 farmers; own provinces all in upper or lower Egypt; own provinces all on the east or west side of the Nile; and own provinces all on the banks of the Nile or away from the banks of the Nile.
After scoring is completed all player province markers and farmers are removed from the board, through pyramids and stone remains. Any province cards that were not used are set aside (only in issue in 3 or 4 player games) and the ones won in the Old Kingdom are reshuffled. They'll be reauctioned in the New Kingdom, with values widely varied due to their pyramidal contents.
The fourth round begins with the auction of the first set of these, as usual.
The End of the New Kingdom & Scoring. After the sixth round of play, the game ends. A second and final scoring phase occurs, using the same rules as the first scoring phase with a few additions:
- 6 points for the player with the most gold.
- 4 points for the player with the second most gold.
- 2 points for the player with the third most gold.
The player with the most points then wins!
Relationships to Other Games
Reiner Knizia likes auction games. Originally he designed three which were known as his auction trilogy: High Society!, Medici, and Modern Art. Since, he's released a number of others including: Ra, Taj Mahal, Traumfabrik, and Merchants of Amsterdam. I generally use the phrase "Auction Trilogy" for all of them, even though they're greatly outgrown that original classification. (Some of Knizia's other games even feel a bit like auctions, including the aforementioned Res Publica.) Unlike some of Knizia's other auction games, this one has a lot of depth to it, thanks to the many other gameplay aspects.
Reiner Knizia also likes math, and that comes across abundantly in this game. Bids and prices are both based upon numerical sequences and scoring is essentially a long process of give-and-take based on scoring various values.
Reiner Knizia ultimately designs many different types of games, but this one clearly falls into the category of "big box gamers' games", the last of which was the very well received Tigris & Euphrates.
The Game Design
Amun-Re's game design combines many different types of gameplay in a way that adds interest to each of them. Here's some of the best elements:
Good Interaction of Gameplay Systems: The fact that money is used for so many different things adds considerably to the strategic gameplay. You have to think not just about bidding on provinces, but also how much money you need for purchasing items and for sacrificing to Amun-Re. Finally, the inclusion of minor resource management systems adds an important possibility for cash inflow.
Auctions Well Designed: Both of the auctions are well-designed to be fast, yet allow strategy. The incrementing numbers of the province auction ensures that people will get out pretty quickly, while the single closed-fist bid of the sacrifice is likewise guaranteed to be fast. There's also a bit of bluffing possible in the latter auction, with some players bidding -3 even though they want a high result, because they want gold too, and figure that other players will carry them to a high sum. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.
Multiple Paths to Victory: The variant victory conditions allow for multiple paths to victory. This is most obvious when you decide whether to even out your pyramids to get sets or to build up to have the best province on your side of the Nile. There are also multiple paths that can be taken in earning money from provinces (farmers, use of bonus cards, camel routes, etc).
Here's some of my complaints:
Math is Dry: The math in the game is dry and a potential stumbling block. This is most obvious when you're trying to add up your money for the various purchases, but also when you're scoring during the two score phases.
Victory is Opaque: At least for a casual player of the game, the victory conditions are somewhat opaque. Partially because of the multiple paths to victory and partially because the score is only calculated twice during the game, it's not obvious who's winning. There's also a very poor feedback loop between taking an action and seeing a reward for that action. This will improve through multiple games, but in my playtest I never knew how well I was really doing, and couldn't tell much about the other players, other than the fact that one was clearly lagging.
Overall, everyone who played Amun-Re had fun, and it was obvious to us that there was real, deep strategy there. I'd originally given Amun-Re a "4" out of "5"; I've since played a larger number of auction games, and my assessment of Amun-Re has improved because of its skillful integration of multiple types of gameplay, from auctions, to resource management. Thus, Amun-Re ekes in a "5" out of "5" for Substance.
Conclusion
As Reiner Knizia's gamer's game release of 2003, Amun-Re matched its audience well. It's a good auction game that's a lot more too and serious gamers should enjoy it quite a bit as a true battle of wits. It also evokes the background of Egypt quite well, and that type of thematic balance is a rarity for a Knizia design.
Contrariwise, for the casual gamer, I don't think I could recommend this without a lot of trepidation.
