Mind Games

Why can’t I get “Walk Like An Egyptian” out of my head? We had an Egyptian/Mid-Eastern themed game night last night!

Leigh asked to play Cleopatra and the Society of Architects, so we built a theme around that. Leigh cooked up some seriously yummy dolmas, hummus and spanikopita (and why didn’t I remember to take a picture of the food?) and PisecoDad insisted on stopping by his favorite diner for a tray of baklava.

I rummaged through our game collection and was amazed to find so many titles that fit the theme!

We had: Alhambra, Tutankhamen, Babel, Old Mummy, Cleopatra and the Society of Architects, Settlers of Catan Historical Scenarios I (Cheops and Alexander the Great), Source of the Nile, The Arab-Israeli Wars, The Last Straw, Aladdin’s Dragons, Egyptians and A Line in the Sand. Jer brought Civilization to add to the mix.

The group of seven adults split easily to play games. First, the guys played a shortened game of Civilization while the gals played Alhambra for the first time. Then we shuffled the groups and one side of the table played Cleopatra while the other end played the Cheops historical scenario of Settlers of Catan. We felt pretty accomplished at getting in four great games!

Alhambra had been on my wish list around Christmas and my birthday, and though I got it for my birthday, we just hadn’t fit it in before last night. I had heard great things about the game, and there are many expansions published for it, so it’s obviously pretty popular.

Alhambra is a tile-laying game. Each player is trying to build the most impressive Alhambra by placing new building tiles around the starting tile. The twist is that tiles in the market are placed at random on four squares, corresponding to four different currencies (four colors of money cards). In order to buy a tile, you have to have the right amount of money in the right color.

Once you’ve bought a tile, you place it with your others, following a set of rules. All buildings have to be right-side up and reachable from the starting fountain tile “on foot” - without going off the board or over a wall. (Some tiles have walls on 1, 2 or 3 sides.)

There are six types of building. The game has three scoring rounds in which players are awarded points for having the most of one type of building, so it’s important to try and collect more of the type you already have. Points are also awarded for having the longest continuous wall - which is how Leigh eventually won this game!

It’s an interesting balance between saving, spending, collecting and wall-building. Alhambra falls in the lighter end of our collection of eurogames - the mechanics are fairly simple to learn, but the strategy may take a while to develop. Robin, Leigh & I really enjoyed it, and we’re now curious about the many expansions.

What were the kids up to? Oh, they tried on JediBoy’s old Thoth costume,

played with some of JediBoy’s Egyptian figures and toys,

and maybe someone, an unnamed and innocent person of course, handed them a 16-roll package of toilet paper, with which to become mummies and otherwise frolic through the house.

It doesn’t get more fun than that!