First Impressions – First Play reviews are a series of reviews from initially opening the box to the completion of the first game, these are not designed to be in depth reviews of the game itself or an explanation of the rules, more of a quick precursor. As (if?) the game gets more play time a more in-depth review will be added.
What’s the game about?
Building a cathedral during the reign of Ivan the Terrible, to do this you are to take on the role of architects. The game is a bit of several things including area control/majority (the sections of the Cathedral built by you are critical to scoring points), and worker placement via dice on a rondel, there is also a bit of resource management thrown in for good measure. The game has elements of luck to it (the dice rolls determining how many spaces on the rondel the workers/dice can be moved) but there are enough options and mechanisms (such as spending money for extra movement spaces and the choice of multiple dice when selecting resources) to mitigate much of the luck element within the game.
What’s in the box?
The box art to my eyes is not the best, with the drab palette and uninspiring art, having said this it does have the look and feel of some forms of traditional Russian art. Also this is not a review of the box, ultimately the only really important thing is the game and how it plays.
In the box are some really nice scoring markers in the shape of two headed eagles (this is a symbol strongly associated with Russia and introduced by Ivan III), wooden tokens representing player banners and the resources (gold, wood, rock), some plastic gems in purple and green (also technically resources used in the game) and some cardboard coins. A bunch of cards including those used to make the titular cathedral and finally there are the individual player boards (double sided with a basic and advanced side) and the main board for the dice.
The box contains loads of manuals, each one for a different language – making it great for multilingual groups!
The components all feel of good, durable quality, and the cards are of a smooth finish and feel very nice and thick – not ideal to shuffle, but then these cards do not need a lot of shuffling in this game.
What is the manual like?
The manual is good, well laid out for the most part, although some rules are added to different areas making them difficult to find. Some of the two player scoring is in one place in an obvious yellow frame but other parts are hidden elsewhere. It is not the easiest manual to dip into to find a certain rule, but does make good sense when reading through it in one go.
One glaring omission from the manual is a components list. An example of how this would have made life easier is that in the game there are four sets of faction/trades cards that each have a picture of people on the back of them one card back for each faction. When setting up the game there were five sets of cards with people on the back of them. With no explanation of the cards on setting up our first play we had to go trawling through the entire manual to find out that the fifth set of cards was for the solo player bot called Ivan. Also without this section, not only is it difficult to identify the components, there is no way of knowing if anything is missing from the box.
What’s it like to set up?
A bit fiddly to set up, but not excessively so. Tradesmen/faction cards added to the corners of the board to determine the extra abilities gained in each quadrant of the board, select a cathedral to be built from a choice of 3 cards (3 designs for each player count). Build the cathedral using the three specialised decks (ground floor deck, centre section deck, and finally cupola/dome section deck) as per the selected design. On each section a tile is added. Ornamentations (small chits representing doors, windows, and the roof adornment/cross) and banners (used to denote areas of control on the cathedral and also restrict resources on the player board until played) are added to the individual player boards, money (roubles) are given to each player (3 for the first 4 for second and third and 5 for fourth). Dice are allocated at random to the rondel starting from the position that grants a cross.
What’s it like to learn?
This game is very straight forward to learn. There are really only three actions, for which the manual takes you through each action in its own section with very clear examples in each section. The actions are to claim a cathedral section, build a cathedral section or gain resources from the market. While the actions available make the game seem simple, it is deceptively so. This game has lots of strategic depth that, because of the relatively simple rules, you can start to focus on nearly straight away rather than worrying if you have a fiddly rule exception correct.
Is the first play through fun?
The first first play through was definitely fun, after the first turn the manual was not really needed which I like as (mentioned above) it allows you to focus on the strategy of the game straight away.
There is an element of conflict caused by the area control when claiming cathedral sections – these are critical when scoring at the end and overall control over a vertical section gives you the points for the section. There is also the possibility to move a dice that is needed by the opposition, creating tension during the course of the game. Finally there is the ability granted by one of the cards to swap the location of two resources, therefore potentially making your opponent’s next turn difficult. Although high on luck there are so many actions that can be undertaken that the luck element is largely mitigated.
Thoughts on potential replayability, variations in setup etc.
Three different cathedral layouts at each player count give useful variation meaning different tactics need to be employed depending on the number and height of each tower. Differing cards (trades people) in each quadrant will give different ways to play due to differing bonuses. I don’t expect this to play wildly differently with these changes, but will add sufficient variations for this game to remain interesting for some time to come. On a final note there is a solo variant in the box as mentioned previously, I have not tried it so cannot at this point confirm if it is a worthwhile addition.