Amun-Re's Ancient (2002) Auctions Are Back, Baby!

foreign what you doing Tom oh I was just thinking about [Music] what have I told you about using your imagination that I shouldn't do it yes and I wrote you a helpful poem no it's too long it's too weird and it's dark no it's none of those things say it with me now okay fine if in your brain some thoughts dude a freaky concoction of thoughts bizarre gathered from near and afar I wish I could keep my thoughts in order not to be a big brain hoarder alas unless downwards I sink to fanciful to out of sync indulging too much and desires to think oh how I wish these thoughts would end go team it's weird it's normal anyway you don't need to use your imagination anymore because arm and Ray is here and it's set in ancient Egypt don't you need the imagination to do a review no all right Gamers rhinocanicia has a new game it's a reprint from like 20 years ago and this one is set in ancient times that's all set in ancient times it's a game about managing resources in order to get victory points oh boy and this is one of the strongest designs he's ever made [Music] yeah no it isn't it yeah good game for that yeah all right fine originally from 2003 almond Ray is an auction game that's been lifted from its sarcophagus by Alley Cat games and deluxified as Armin Ray 20th anniversary edition it's got plastic bricks plastic pyramids plastic Miniatures that I broke when I lost I'm just kidding they broke in transit it's got new art from Vincent do Trey and now comes in two flavors a pleasingly affordable 20th anniversary edition and an expensified Expanded Edition with new expansions which is fitting because almond Ray is actually a game about shopping for bargains it is so here's how it works for reasons that are not explained and apparently not relevant Egypt is up for sale at the start of each round you're going to deal out a number of region cards that you'll bid on equal to the number of players and each round starts with each player making a bid for a region they fancy often pummeling someone else out of the running for a region because here's what makes this auction real awful when somebody outbids you for a region you can't then do another bid on that same region you have to make a bid for somewhere else first so if you want sarwoo more than you've ever wanted any place or person in your life but you're outbid for it because you were being cheap you end up looking at the board and trying to make the worst possible bid for another region in the hope that you'll get out there again and can go back to sauru although sometimes nobody outbids you and then you're stuck governing thieves you see Tom you tried to use your imagination to picture a better life for yourself and look where it got you governing thieves governing thieves it's a cool auction system it's weird it's quick it's simple but why would players want some regions more than other regions well for starters everyone's holding secret cards that might give you extra points if all of your regions are on one side of the Nile or adjacent or whatever but also some regions let you buy more of these special rule-breaking cards each round some regions have more slots for farmers and Farmers generate cash to replace the cash that you are spending every round all the time and then there's regions to get your victory points and also if you buy abidos it comes with a free brick so that's nice if you buy three bricks they become a pyramid through a process that isn't explained but I'm sure involves no human suffering whatsoever and pyramids are mostly what generate the points that win you the game every pyramid is worth one point every set of pyramids across all of your regions are worth three points and the region with the most pyramids on either side of the Nile is worth the five points and you can remember that pyramids get your point because pyramids have points they also all start with a P that's a stupid way to remember something okay okay anyway you know I'm not done teaching you this Reiner kanitzia classic yet because it doesn't yet sound like something's going to turn your brain into so much gray guacamole so here's what I haven't told you between auctions you can spend money on New farmers bricks and cards but the more you buy of one thing the more hellaciously expensive it gets and bids during auctions work the same way you see you have to bid either zero one three six ten and so on meaning there's almost no such thing as a reasonable price in Almond Ray also you don't just get money from Farmers each round you have to do another worse blind auction where everyone secretly reveals how much they're donating to King of the Gods arm and Ray or robbing from his Temple the players who donated the most then get gifts including everybody's favorite bricks but the total donated by all players minus how much was robbed determines how much money each Farmer on the board generates are you going to explain the best of it now in the game yes I'm gonna teach them why would I not teach the best bit in a review I was just checking to see just to make sure that people don't know about the best bit of the game yeah okay like that bit where all the pyramids It comes naturally at this point in the review okay so once you've auctioned off all of Egypt which takes about 30 to 45 minutes then you're gonna score as if the game was over but then you're gonna play another round and all the pyramids are going to stay on the board and you're gonna play it again for like from the beginning but it's like all the pyramids okay okay okay fine yeah you're gonna you play another error you kind of yeah so you when you because pyramids are you've ruined this for me sorry ah all right once you've auctioned all of Egypt and scored the game once you then give up all of your regions you take off all of the farmers you leave the pyramids because now it's a thousand years later and pyramids cannot die why can't they die because of their geometry geometry geometric geometry geometry geometry yeah so you then play the secret second half of almond Ray where the board is already speckled With Victory Point generating pyramids and rather than all the players starting with the same amount of money instead you have whatever cards and money you stashed from the first era I've got 30 pounds I've got four oh now you might think that playing a game kind of once and then resetting it sort of and playing it again with different stakes and different funds is boring we're here to tell you it's not shut up and sit down actually kind of likes when games are simple and then you sort of play them twice it's Pleasant yeah try it sometime and don't be so judgmental yeah yeah Solomon Ray is a good game the auctions that bookend each round are tense and exciting the game is always full of you receiving Bargains and watching your opponents accidentally pay too much which is fun and how much dough to save for the future and when to blow it all is a juicy decision the cumulative costs and everything you have to pay for in this game frequently clash with the unreliable stream of income that everyone else is relying on making every little bit of spare change feel like it counts in a game where it's very easy to spend a lot of money very quickly and become flat broke which is something that's just very entertaining for everyone else around the table Yeah I also think this game is good but I have a weird criticism okay I wish going broke was a bit easier because when someone around the table is just absolutely busted and just trying to scrape together the cash to buy bhuto the game is both more entertaining for everybody else obviously but it's also more interesting to have a player who you can count on to not outbid you and stuff but if you just play Armin Ray a bit sensibly you probably won't go broke and you probably will do really well so yeah I have another criticism oh here we go so unless you're playing the game with a full five players you don't play with all of Egypt right you randomly draw some regions that are just out of the game but the way that alicat suggests you do this is once you've drawn that card what region it is you turn that card over and you put it down and look the art asset just looks a bit rubbish and also it's not very readable you can't add a quick scan of the board see which regions are out of play that's your that's your big criticism yes it's probably quite a good game then isn't it yes yeah look winds what if I told you this 20th Anniversary Edition comes with expansions imagine the possibilities no no I will not be using my imagination if in your brain some thoughts do no no we're not going there look listen one of the expansions adds another type of currency instead of just buying bricks or bonuses or boys you can also buy bricks but they're a different kind this time and you're building your Eternal resting place out of them getting a smattering of one-time bonuses as you build this personal pyramid tomb will slowly grow out in front of you reminding you that one day you will die and that you don't know if there's anything in the great beyond that you also don't know if you've even got a soul that maybe nothing happens after you die and that nothing really mattered in the end at all and also that you get a plus three bonus for points in final scoring I like to be buried next to draw plus one card the second expansion adds statues that you get to place on the board some of the regions will have these plastic boys that get the lucky winner a special power and some of the powers are pretty good maybe this bird God makes your pyramids cheaper although mostly the most exciting thing about this expansion is having a little plastic crocodile person with inexplicably Rippling reptilian ABS a nice picture of him with shiny foil detailing somewhat distracting you from the fact that one day you will die that you don't know if there's anything in the great beyond that you don't know if you have a soul and that maybe nothing really mattered where am I going with this the expansions they're good like most rhinocular expansions they're not necessary but they're fun little add-ons if you want a little bit more we think the base game is plenty enough but if you want an extra load of plastic and bits why not I guess that's not like super useful for them if they're trying to decide which version to get the expensive one with expansions and plastic or the base one so what what should you tell them well it depends if they want the shiny so back doesn't it really I don't I mean he's cool but this is we're not collecting baseball cards we're playing a board game and I think I just want the base game okay me too yeah yeah that's our official recommendation I want to keep him though that's fine you can do that so in conclusion Alley Cat games really use their imagination when it came to republishing this Reiner kanitzia classic yeah and look where I got them perfectly good really nice looking Euro game that wouldn't look out of place in a modern collection and is freshly updated with new expansions to make it just a little bit different and maybe better exactly Tom it was a disaster and everybody involves disgraced themselves but before we end this review we have to answer the question that is on everybody's list yeah which new updated version of a rhino kanitzia classic set in ancient Egypt with a central auction mechanic should our viewers buy wait what have you got about exactly the question I was thinking but you were doing something there there was something going on ra is the better game right so recently Publishers 25th Century games put out a gorgeous new reprint of Classic rhino auction game ra with a new lick of paint from much lauded artist Eno tool check out Quinn's old video on ra if you want to see how that one plays but imagine it with nicer art and imagine he's wearing literally anything else are you using your imagination in there no no I wasn't it's nothing here's the thing whereas Arman Ray is just a very good game ra is one of the best games of all time I think it should be a staple of everyone's collection regardless of how good or bad the presentation might be yeah agreed but I don't think it's necessarily exactly as simple as oh definitely buy a raw first and then maybe get arm and Rain they are kind of different games arm and Ray fills a table it fills an evening it's very strategic whereas ra is like a slot machine that went to college but people should get raw first right I mean I think so yes ra is really good and almond Ray is good good it's good as reflected by bgg's deeply questionable but inarguably Democratic Decimal System almond Ray receives a 7.3 to Raz 0.6 yes which if we translate that to what those numbers actually mean raw is a 9 out of 10 where almond Ray is an eight so how do we end this video then uh well not with more imagination let me tell you I've had about all I can take doesn't the ending of the video kind of need a bit of imagination to come up with Let's do an ending with no imagination at all yeah okay yeah yeah here we go cool cool the um do you want to do the poem again no no

Channel: Shut Up & Sit Down

Views: 118,368

Keywords: Shut Up and Sit Down, SUSD, SU&SD, Board Game Review, Review, Board Games, Board Gaming, Boardgame, Board Game, Gaming, Tabletop, Fun Games, Quintin Smith, Tom Brewster, Amun-Re, Reprint, Ra

Id: QDw5dN5jdsY

Length: 14min 46sec (886 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 21 2023