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Pyramid: Only the smaller Pyramid scores points. If your smaller Pyramid consists of 0 or 1 tiles you will get -6 or 0 points. This incentivises players to prioritise unloading Pyramid tiles. For starters, Imhotep is a great looking game. The colors are rich and vibrant. The artwork is very well done. And the various components are all top notch quality. The cubes are very large and have a nice tactile quality about them. I’m a big fan of the smaller cubes that you’ll typically find in most board games that use cubes in some form or another, but I really like these. They work very well here. As far as looks go, Imhotep gets a thumbs up from me. Get new stones. Players can take a maximum of three, but they must have space on their sled for the stones taken. After the success of Imhotep, Imhotep The Duel was released in 2019. This game is made just for two and takes the core themes from its Big Sister and dilutes them. Are you ready to go head-to-head and build the best Egyptian monuments? Battle it out as Nefertiti and Akhenaten and become the Empires master builder. Setup
Burial Chamber – Stones are placed column by column, top to bottom and left to right, with scoring at the end of the game coming from orthogonal connectivity. The value increases arithmetically for additional connections, up to 15 points for five, then 2 points for each additional connection. Score all your areas. Players score points according to their race position at the end of each round. They also score end-game points in accordance to how far they’ve progressed. This is a lot of fun, both visually on the table, and as a concept. At the risk of being a querulous pain though, the theme of it being a race and not construction feels a tad out of place. (Not that you’ll care! It’s a neat alternative.) Both light and dark Pyramid tiles are placed onto the same board in their respective areas. At the end of the game players will receive an increasing number of points the more tiles they have of each color. From -6 points for having zero of a color, to 21 points if a player is able to secure all 6 of the same color. This player would receive 13 points from the Pyramid board. The Tomb
Final Thoughts on Imhotep: The Duel
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? Regardless of which side you are playing, players will score a point for each unplayed action tile in their possession. Players will also get a point for each worker still on the harbour 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.
Having 2 sides mixes up how you approach each game. Players can even decide to use both A and B sides, if their boards match. This adds a small level of variance every time you play. Final Thoughts Get New Stones: Take three of your stones from your quarry and place them on your supply sled. The sled can hold five stones so if it’s already full, you cannot add more. If you don’t have enough empty slots to place all three stones, you may place however many you can, but any extra stones must remain in your quarry. Players will keep taking turns and filling up boats until no more tiles remain in the reserve. When boats are unloaded and can no longer be filled, you remove them from the harbour. Monumental Points 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 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.A predetermined number of ships — each with a varying number of spaces — will be put out at the start of each round. On a player’s turn, they can choose one of four actions:
Since an introductory game of Imhotep only uses the ‘A’ sides of the building tiles, I am only going to discuss those sides in this review. I will begin from the top of the tile layout and move downwards until I have discussed them all. We begin with… 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. ThoughtsDon’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. The game is easy enough to learn, with most of the actions and ways to score points being intuitive, but experience and tactical play matters. I’ve found it better to focus on a couple of different monuments, although you don’t have complete control over your ability to do that. Obelisk: Each Obelisk tile is worth 1 point. The player who builds the tallest Obelisk will gain an additional 6 points. 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.
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