One of the new games that I played in the last couple of weeks was Imhotep. This one came after Luxor as another Egyptian themed game. While Luxor was exploring the tombs within the pyramids, Imhotep is about ancient Egypt and building up pyramids, tombs, obelisks and more. But we’ll get into all of that as I talk about how to play the game.

How To Play Imhotep

Imhotep is a pretty simple game to play. On your turn you take one of three actions. You either add a stone from your quarry to a ship. You sail a ship to one of the locations. Or you gather more stone so it is ready for you to use. That’s it, the three actions that you do, and you do them over six rounds until all four ships have sailed to locations.

When you sail a boat you go to one of those different locations. But you can’t sail a boat unless it has enough stones on it. And you can sail any boat. You don’t need stones to be on the boat to sail it. So let’s talk about the locations you can sail to.

Locations

The main part of the game are the five locations. Each one of them is going to give you something different to do, but generally it’s about placing your cubes and scoring points. There is one that is different that we’ll get to, and how each scores points is different.

Obelisks

The Obelisks will be the first location that I talk about. When you sail to that location you add your stones to your obelisk as do your opponents. Whomever at the end of the game has the most stones on their obelisk is going to score the most points, and then fewer points as you go down in height.

Tomb

Next up there is the Tomb. The tomb scores at the end of the game and you score for your areas in the tomb. The larger the area that more points it’s going to score for as scoring scales. And each of your areas is going to score separately at the end of the game. Stones for the tomb and the rest of them are always placed in the order they come off the boat, front to back.

Temple

Then we have the Temple. The temple scores each round. And you score points for each of your cubes visible from the top. Depending on player count the temple is longer and offers more scoring each round that way. Once the temple reaches it maximum length for the player count, you start a second row.

Pyramid

After the temple is going to be Pyramid. The pyramid is built up throughout the game. You start with a three by three base level. Then as you move up it goes to two by two and then a single one on top. Each of the spots has a specific value associated with it. And if more stones are brought to the pyramid than can be placed, each extra stone scores a single point.

Market

Finally there is the Market. The Market doesn’t give you points directly. In the market you gain cards. The cards might give you a special action, bonus scoring for a location, an immediate affect, or set collection scoring. The two scoring you just keep by you for the end of the game. The action will take place instead of your main action. And the immediate affect is, well, immediate.

After six rounds are played the total scoring is tallied. And the player with the most points is going to win the game. I’m sure that there are tiebreakers as well, but you can figure those out when and if you need them.

What Doesn’t Work

I do think there is one flaw that can happen in the game. The game can get stuck in a rut if players aren’t being a bit daring. What do I mean by that? It is probably to your advantage to fill up a boat before sailing it. Because that’s going to limit the number of cubes you can get out. If everyone does that, though, then the game can become stale. Yes, it matters where you end up with your stone still, but it loses some of the fun of the game.

I have only played a game where this became an issue. And I think that is because once a player starts doing it, all other players need to follow suit at least somewhat. Otherwise the one player is potentially going to run away with the stone advantage. Now, you can also stick them in spots, especially just giving them the most stones on the obelisk, but it does make the game less fun.

What Works

So that is a flaw with the game up there. But otherwise I really think the game can sing when played as it’s meant to be played. The game works really well when players are sailing boats early, either to optimize their scoring or the hurt others. And that’s the great cat and mouse of the game. You play a single stone into a boat that holds a single stone, I might sail that to the spot that is least useful for you. It really works best when you get in the other people’s way.

I also like how all of the scoring is different. Each location is going to give you some solid points throughout or at the end of the game. And the scoring you can get from the market, like a point for every three stones in the temple, for example, helps you formulate a strategy because those bonus points can help a lot. It also means that your strategy can be different every game if you want.

Next up, I think the game nails the game speed of play and game length. You feel like you get to do a bunch Imhotep. But it always feels like you want to do just a bit more. Especially when you see a partially filled ship sail, I always wish I could have gotten one more stone on it. But turns go fast, and the game with six rounds lets you do a lot and really optimize some scoring.

Who is Imhotep For?

I think this is a good game for a lot of people. Mainly because it is simple to learn what to do in the game. Then as you play you get to explore more scoring options and challenges of the game. And because there isn’t a ton of variety in the game, it’s going to be one that is easy for people to pull back out and play again.

Final Thoughts on Imhotep

I very much enjoy this game. In fact I picked up a copy of it. And when I can find the New Dynasty Expansion for it I will. The downside is that the expansion is not easy to come by so it’s not that cheap. And the most reasonable priced ones that I found on eBay didn’t ship to the US, to bummer for me.

But that is it that got me to buy the game? I think it’s the different scoring mechanisms. Each of them really does give you a great new way to play the game. And while they are fixed, so I’m a little bit worried that it might become stale over time, it is an easy to play and table game. It falls into that category of a game that I’ll like to pull off the shelf once or twice a year when I don’t know what else to play and I want to a puzzle to get to that is going to be different each time.

My Grade: B+
Gamer Grade: B
Casual Grade: B
Strategy Level (out of 10): 6
Luck Level (out of 10): 4

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