While the rules can seem "fiddly" on reading they go very smoothly in play. Everything is clearly laid out, and player aid cards are provided. While some questions were raised while playing they could all be answered quite easily by referencing the rule book. We did make a couple of mistakes when playing but I don't think that they hurt the game too much.
There is very little text - only the rules and player aid cards are significant, so a German edition should be playable with a translation of the rules and homemade player aid cards. Everything else is represented by symbols.
Presentation is not quite up to the highest stanards of the German boardgames industry, but the components are of good quality except perhaps for the rather flimsy but servicable player aid cards.
The game is played in two halves - the "Old Kingdom" and the "New Kingdom". Each consists of three rounds, followed by scoring.
A round of play proceeds as follows : Provinces are auctioned. Each player buys power cards, farmers and stones (for building pyramids) Players sacrifice money to Amun-Re (a blind auction) Income is taken
For the auction of provinces one province is drawn from a deck for each player. These are put up for auction, with each player placing a bid in turn. Bids use a fixed track - following the sequence 0,1,3,6,10,15,... A player may choose to bid more than the minimum but must bid more than any bid currently on the province. After the first round the players who have been overbid have to place a bid on a different province - this is the only extra bidding, so the auction ends when every province has exactly one bid on it. The result is that each player will get one province and the cheapest should be free. Some provinces grant bonuses on winning and all offer some benefit to their owner.
Power cards, farmers and building stones are bought on a sliding scale, very like that used for the auction - 1 costs 1, 2 cost 3, 3 cost 6 and so on.
Power cards either offer bonus points in scoring if all three of a players provinces meet a certain condition or assist on one of the other phases of play. For instance, ach player starts with one card that allows a pyramid to be built from two stones rather than the usual three. Buying power cards is restricted by the provinces - most provinces offer the right to buy one or more power cards in a turn (up to four), but these are not cumulative, only the best may be used.
Each province may also have a number of spaces where a farmer may be placed. Farmers generate money at the end of the turn. Farmers may be placed in any province owned by the player, but only if there are unoccupied spaces.
Stones are used to build pyramids. Like farmers they may be placed in any province owned by the player but there is no limit on the number that may be placed in each province. Three stones make a pyramid, and each pyramid scores a point. There are also points for the largest number of pyramids in a single province on the East bank and on the West bank of the Nile and points for "sets" of pyramids (a pyramid in each province owned by a player - or perhaps easier the lowest number of pyramids in one of the three provinces owned by a player).
For the sacrifice each player secretly bids an amount of money. In addition to the cards used to represent money each player has a "-3" card which may be used instead (and is reclaimed by the player for future use). Players who use a "-3" receive 3 cash but no other benefit. Of the other players the highest bid gets three items - power cards, farmers or stones in any combination, the second highest gets two and the remaining players get one each. Ties are broken in play order, but the later players get to place last which can be an advantage. The total value of the sacrifices also affects the income provided by farmers - from 1-4 per farmer, going up as the total goes up. However some provinces pay a bonus income if the total payout is only one or two so often some players will have a motive to drive down the total. In the final round of a Kingdom a few provinces give out points equal to this number so there is another motivation to make the total high or low.
At the end of the Old Kingdom the unused provinces (if playing with fewer than five) are put aside and all ownership markers and farmers are removed from the board. Pyramids and stones remain. For the New Kingdom the same provinces are auctioned off and the pyramids and stones already placed come as part of the deal.
There is one difference in scoring at the end of the New Kingdom - there are bonus points for the three players with most money. It doesn't take much thought to see that this is the only benefit for money earned at the end of the final turn - it cannot be used for anything else.
This is a game that needs to be played more than once. The first couple of turns were spent learning how the game came together and getting used to what the power cards did. Like most auction games it depends heavily on what the other players do - there was relatively little conflict over provinces in our game until the final round, which I think will be less common with more experienced players. My feeling is that my rating is likely to go up a little with repeated plays.
Like many of Knizia's game it is a little dry and mathematical, without the wider appeal of Settlers of Catan or Puerto Rico. It can also appear a little forbidding at first glance, although if there is at least one person prepared to do the work of reading the rules the rest of the group can be spared the worst - actual play is a lot easier than it might look at first.
Summing up, this is a strong release even if it will not be to everyones taste. Likely, it will be judged one of the best games of 2003.
