Imhotep: The duel

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Imhotep: The duel
Game data
author Phil Walker-Harding
graphic Miguel Coimbra ,
Michaela Kienle , Claus Stephan
publishing company German : Kosmos Spiele ,
Dutch : White Goblin Games
Publishing year 2018
Art Board game
Teammates 2
Duration 30 minutes
Age from 12 years

Awards

Imhotep: The Duel is a strategic board game by the Australian game designer Phil Walker-Harding for two people. The game was published in 2018 in the series For Two Players by the publisher Kosmos Spiele and thematically builds on the board game Imhotep: Builder of Egypt from 2016, also developed by Walker-Harding .

In 2019 it was awarded the DuAli game award by the Ali Baba Games Club and was included on the jury's recommendation list for Game of the Year .

Theme and equipment

The game builds on the game Imhotep: Builder of Egypt and, like this one, deals thematically with the construction of buildings at the time of the builder Imhotep . The players take on the roles of Nefertiti and Akhenaten , who receive goods in a competition and have to unload the most valuable goods from the landing ships. They use the material to build their four monuments in order to get as many victory points as possible.

In addition to the game instructions, the game material consists of:

  • a port board with nine port fields, a reserve field and six moorings,
  • 6 boat tiles with three loading spaces each
  • 60 delivery tiles, including 12 tiles each for the obelisks, the pyramids, the temples and the burial chambers, as well as 12 action tiles
  • two times 4 place-name signs for the obelisks, the pyramids, the temples and the burial chambers, and
  • two times 4 pieces in black and white.

Style of play

To prepare for the game, the harbor tableau is placed in the middle of the table and the 6 boat tiles are placed on the moorings. Each player receives a set of place-name boards, which he places in front of him in the starting version with the A-side open, and four playing figures in his player's color. The 60 delivery tiles are shuffled and placed in a pile as a face-down supply. From this, three randomly drawn tiles are laid out face up on each boat. Three additional tiles are drawn and placed face down on the reserve space of the harbor. Due to the starting line-up, the port forms a grid of 3 by 3 fields with a loaded ship in each horizontal and vertical row.

Beginning with a starting player, the two players take turns and can either place a pawn, unload a boat or play an action tile.

To place a pawn, the player takes one of his pawns and places it on any free space in the harbor. A player whose figures are already completely in the harbor cannot place a pawn. If there are at least 2 game pieces of any kind in a vertical or horizontal row, he can unload the boat adjacent to this row - regardless of whether he has his own pieces in the row. For each player figure in the row, the player whose color it is may unload a tile from the boat. The player of the character who is closest to the boat begins. The players also get their pawns back to use them again in the following rounds. Any tiles remaining on the boat are removed from the game, after which the boat is refilled from the supply. If a boat can no longer be filled, it is removed from the game.

The players place the tiles they received on the corresponding location tiles:

  • Obelisks are stacked on the obelisk board,
  • Temple tiles are placed face down as a stack,
  • The pyramids are placed over the location tile according to their color and form a light and a dark pyramid with up to six tiles,
  • The burial chamber tiles are placed on the location tile according to their number
  • the action tiles are placed face up in front of the player next to the location tiles.

If a player has action tiles in front of him, he may place them on his turn according to the action indicated on them and then remove them from the game. The action tokens allow

  • take any construction tile from a boat and fill it up with a tile from the reserve,
  • To place 2 or 3 pawns,
  • to place a figure and unload up to two boats,
  • Swap two goods tiles on the boats and then unload a boat.

The game ends when the penultimate boat is unloaded and removed from the game; the last boat is no longer unloaded. At the end of the game there is a final scoring, the players receive points according to their buildings:

  • each tile on the obelisk is worth one point, and the player with the higher obelisk receives 6 additional points. The latter expire in the event of a tie.
  • Each circle symbol on the discarded temple tile is worth one point.
  • The two pyramids are billed separately and give points according to a sum formula. For 1/2/3/4/5/6 stones the player receives 1/2/6/10/15/21 points.
  • At the burial chamber the player receives points for connected rows of numbers in the square of the number. For 1/2/3/4/5/6 connected stones he receives 1/4/9/16/25/36.
  • unused action tiles and each figure still in the harbor score one point.

The player who has the most points after settlement wins the game. In the event of a tie, the player who did not start wins.

Variant B

The location tiles are printed on both sides and, in addition to the A side, each have a B side with a different task:

  • In the case of the obelisk, the tiles are placed on top of each other again. The player who receives his fifth tile first turns it over and receives 12 additional points at the end of the game. If the other player also reaches 5 stones, he receives 6 additional points and if a player reaches 10 stones, he receives 12 + 6 = 18 additional points.
  • the temple tiles are placed face up and sorted according to the number of circle symbols on the tile. At the end of the game, tile sets are settled according to the square of the number, i.e. for 1/2/3/4 tiles each 1/4/9/16 points
  • The pyramids are also placed over the location tile according to their color and form a light and a dark pyramid. Only the smaller of the two pyramids is rated with -6/0/4/10/18/30/48 points for 0/1/2/3/4 tiles.
  • The burial chamber tiles are placed on the location tile according to their number. During the settlement, the player receives 4 points for each group of tiles, regardless of the number of tiles connected.

Development and reception

The game Imhotep: Das Duell was developed by the Australian game author Phil Walker-Harding on the basis of the board game Imhotep: Baumeister Ägyptens from 2016 and published in German by Kosmos Spiele in 2018 and in English the following year. A Dutch version was published by White Goblin Games in 2019 .

In 2019 it was awarded the DuAli game award by the Ali Baba Games Club and was included on the jury's recommendation list for Game of the Year .

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g game instructions Imhotep: Das Duell , Kosmos Verlag 2018
  2. ↑ Versions of Imhotep: The Duel in the board game database BoardGameGeek (English); accessed on May 23, 2019.
  3. ↑ DuAli Prize Winner on the Ali Baba Games Club website ; accessed on May 23, 2019.
  4. ↑ Imhotep: The duel in the database of the Game of the Year eV; accessed on May 23, 2019.

Web links