Analog Games for Analectuals: Ra

It's only the second in this posting series, but I played a couple new board games recently, the first being Ra. Ranked #25 on boardgamegeek, it's well worth the praise.

Its motif is obviously Egyptian, but doesn't really involve warmongering. The major mechanic is a constantly rotating bidding war for different ways to obtain points. Fitted with some equally clever negative pieces, the careful juxtaposition of bidding tokens is a key element to winning. Tokens aside, it plays sort of like Princes of Florence without restricted building codes. Intermixing a humanized randomization with the point value tokens for bidding (hard to explain unless you see it in action) is executed in brilliant fashion.

Really it's no surprise coming from such a talented game designer in Reiner Knizia (yes, another German). His ludography is astounding, a few of which I've had the pleasure of trying: Samurai, Lost Cities, and Tigris & Euphrates.

After trying Ra only once, I'm definitely looking forward to many more plays. Now if only I wouldn't have to go to Pennsylvania for the next time.

-- "Give my regards to King Tut, a**hole!"