Rebuilding ancient Jerusalem
Ezra and Nehemiah is the latest arrival from @garphillgames and it might not come as a surprise that we immediately fell in love with it 🥰 . The action selection bundled with fun resource management is extremely engaging for us, and gameplay is very combo-heavy. Basically everything you do and pay for will give you something else (either resources or other actions), which leads to a satisfying experience. Decisions matter a lot, and you can focus on different aspects! 😉
Players are tasked with the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem. Repairing its gates and walls 🧱, building its temple 🕍, stoking the fires 🔥 of the altar, teaching the Torah 📃 to the returning exiles and traveling to outside settlements ⛺. In a game of Ezra and Nehemiah you are playing through a snapshot of 3 weeks of these efforts, which are split into 6 working days and 1 resting (Sabbath) day. So 3 rounds, with 6 turns and a scoring phase each.
The action selection stands in the spotlight. 🧐 Your action cards have colored banners 🚩 on them, each color corresponding to a segment of the board and thus a pair of actions. Each turn you’ll play 1 card into 1 of 3 slots, then choose a banner/action color. The more banners with that color you have in your display (counting ones placed earlier too), the stronger the action will be. You basically get action points that you can use however you see fit.
☝️Since you only have 3 card slots, from the 4th turn on you will have to start playing cards onto already placed cards, meaning you have to sacrifice some icons in exchange for others.
Cards also have an optional trade action ⚖️ on them which you can use. And to put an additional twist on things, at each Sabbath you will have to tuck 1-2 cards that you’ve played under your board. This is good for your engine because you get one permanent banner and a scoring condition that can be scored multiple times, however you also lose the card itself, so that banner combination and trade will be lost to you!
The actions themselves you perform are fun too, making everything perfectly click. ☺️
