Sphinx (game)

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sphinx
Game data
author Gunter Baars
graphic Chris Mitchell , Klaus Bender (Ravensburger Games)
publishing company Ravensburger Spieleverlag (1999)
Publishing year 1999
Art Board game
Teammates 2-4
Duration 30 to 40 minutes
Age from 8 years

Awards

Games Magazine Awards : Best Memory Game Runner-Up, 2000

Sphinx is a dice board game for children and young people aged eight and over by Gunter Baars . The game was published in 1999 by Ravensburger Spieleverlag . The game focuses on the search for a treasure chamber in an Egyptian pyramid , which is guarded by several sphinxes . The game is recommended for children from the age of 8 and the playing time is specified as 30 to 40 minutes.

action

Several researchers explore an Egyptian pyramid to get to the treasury in the center. However, the treasury is guarded by three sphinxes that the researchers have to outsmart. In the corridors of the pyramid they come across secret doors and mummies that give them tips. You will also find answers to the riddle of the sphinxes. The winner is the explorer who has overcome the sphinxes first and can enter the treasury.

Furnishing

Sphinx is played on a square game board, which is divided into nine horizontal and vertical fields. With plastic strips attached, a corridor in the form of a square spiral is formed on this field up to the central target field, the treasure chamber. The continuous wall is interrupted by rotating elements, the secret doors, which each encompass two fields of the two adjacent corridor areas. In the corridors there are “mummy fields” on which a hand wrapped in bandages is depicted, and map fields with the depiction of colored Sphinx cards. The last three fields as well as three wall niches ("temple chambers") in the first circuit are marked as sphinx fields.

The equipment also includes

  • four characters ("researchers"),
  • six sphinx figures, under each of which there is a color plate,
  • three six-sided dice , one of which shows two snakes on two opposite sides,
  • 24 Sphinx cards in six suits (four cards of each suit).

Style of play

At the start of the game, the participants' pieces are placed on the starting field. The six sphinx figures are shuffled and distributed over the six sphinx fields. The Sphinx cards and the three dice are placed next to the playing field. The aim of the game is to be the first researcher to reach the central treasure chamber and to show the correct order of the guarding sphinxes on the basis of the sphinx cards you have with you, thereby outsmarting them.

In the game, the players in turn roll all three dice and then place the individual dice one after the other. The player can determine the order himself. If the dice only show numbers, the player may move through the individual values ​​one after the other. He decides for each die in which direction the pawn will be moved (forwards or backwards, never with a die in both directions). A dice move may not end on an opposing figure, but the player can skip opposing figures during the move. Depending on the train, different things can happen:

  • If the player comes over or onto a mummy field with a dice move, he may look at the underside (and thus the colored tile) of a sphinx figure in the center of the game board.
  • if he comes over or onto a card field of a color of which he does not yet have a card, he may take it from the draw pile. However, if he already has a card of this color, he must hand it over. Each player may only have one card in one of the six colors.
  • if he skips an opposing piece, he may take a card from the player in question in a color that he does not yet have.
  • if the move ends on a space with a secret door, this is turned with the figure and the figure lands in the adjacent corridor.

If the special die shows the snake symbol, the player must use this die to exchange one of the sphinxes in the center of the board for one in the wall niches. To win, a player must get to the sphinx in the center and then show the sphinx cards in the color sequence of the three guards. He pushes this face up on the game board and then checks, face down, whether it applies. If this is the case, he shows the other players the underside of the sphinxes and is allowed to penetrate into the treasury - he has won. If the order does not correspond to that of the sphinxes, he must discard all of his cards, go back to the starting field and start again.

Editions and Reviews

The game Sphinx was published by Ravensburger Verlag in 1999 as an international version with multilingual game instructions in German, French, Italian, Dutch and English. In 2000 an edition with the identical game was published for Eastern Europe in Czech, Hungarian, Polish and Slovak languages.

The game was named Best Memory Game Runner-Up at the Games Magazine Awards 2000 . It is rated as a relatively simple game with a medium degree of interaction between players and a high degree of chance. Arno Steinwender describes the game on spieletest.at as “a nice game that […] was not entirely convincing. The gameplay is simple and does not offer many options for action. The design is solid, but rather inconspicuous. ”Compared to The Scattered Pharaoh and Luxor , both of which are also by Gunther Baars, he describes it as less successful. In a review on spielphase.de the game was described as “quite well done”, “even if the memory mechanism is not a novelty.” The reviewers' conclusion: “Rather average with two people, but quite entertaining with four people.”

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b Sphinx at funagain.com
  2. ↑ a b c d game instructions from Sphinx at Ravensburger Verlag
  3. ↑ Versions at BoardGameGeek
  4. ↑ Sphinx at gesellschaftsspiele.piele.de
  5. ↑ Sphinx at spieletest.at
  6. ↑ Sphinx review at spielphase.de (archived)

Web links