The Adventurers Pyramid of Horus board game review

Way back in 2013 my wife discovered something at GameALot, a game called The Adventurers: Pyramid of Horus. This game brings up all the old feelings of Indiana Jones, The Mummy, or mummy serials from way back in the day.

I love the style of the box art

The theme of the game is that a group of adventurers are exploring a tomb and collecting treasures. Your goal: collect as much treasure as possible and escape before the ceiling collapses and you are sealed in with the mummies.

Each player selects a character with a special ability, for example: David Gore –the trigger happy Canadian or Rasputin –the psychic Russian. There are 8 in all. Each character has a special ability which can be used once per game. Deciding when and where to apply the ability can be tricky, you really don’t want to waste it… or pass up using it when it would have helped you most.

A very successful Canadian Adventurer

I love the game because while it does rely on luck, all of that luck is heavily influenced by your decisions in the game. To begin with: for players like me, you seem to have a mummy’s curse placed on your dice rolls, you aren’t that bad off. Each turn a single player is made the Dice Keeper. That player rolls the five dice and all of their players determine their movement from that dice roll. This is great when the niece, who the gods favour, rolls but players groan in agony when it is my turn to toss. This balances the luck by no single player being left behind due to bad dice rolls.

Now how these dice rolls are affected by player choices in the game is when players determine their Wound Load Level (WLL for short.) As you play the game you gain cards, wounds and treasure cards. Every wound you take and every piece of treasure you pick up effect this WLL level. A player without wounds or treasures can count dice with 2 or higher showing, while a player with a WLL of 10-12 can only count dice with 5 or higher showing. Your decisions in the game, such as where you search for treasure, how often you search and even which direction you move in can affect the WLL.

Another thing to affect dice rolls is deciding to pick up idols. These valuable treasures enhance your end score nicely but each idol is cursed. Carrying an idol makes you unable to count its corresponding coloured die. So do you pry open the Horus tomb for that precious idol? Or do you think you will need to count that extra die for your escape from the temple?

Enter the temple

Of course what is a temple raiding game without danger? At the end of each turn the Dice Keeper selects a random stone block from the box and causes the block to land on its number. If a player is on that space they take a wound and move to an adjacent space. If the player cannot move they are crushed and lose the game. If the blocks land in such a way that there is no path to the exit all players behind that line are sealed into the tomb and lose the game.

Well, this is your home now.

There are other dangers and each is in its corresponding area of the tomb. At the entryway is the cobra nest- a pit of deadly snakes where low value treasure can be found as well as helpful treasure hunting items. The next area is the scorpion pit where precious jewels can be found among the poisonous arachnids. The center of the tomb is the crocodile pit, where adventurers can find golden treasures below the murky green waters. Finally there are three mummy corridors filled with ancient sarcophagi each laden with treasure. Within these corridors are alcoves holding precious idols with powerful curses. Beware each hall is guarded by a restless mummy whose mere touch will harm you.

The mummy will win

While I personally enjoy the game it does come off as a little less mature then it could be. It just feels a little kid geared even though I feel it can still be fun for adults. Strategy elements are in the game but they are also a little overshadowed by the luck of dice rolls and card draws. The theme doesn’t fit with true archaeology so it is not educational. It seems to fit more with very old school bad archaeology concepts of grave robbing and temple desecration. So players who are looking for an educational game or a more strategy driven game probably won’t enjoy it as much. I’m pretty much a big kid who idolizes Indiana Jones so I love this game.

So sum up The Adventurers: Pyramid of Horus is works for balancing luck with player decisions in order to bring a rounded game experience. This game is geared more towards families and easy fun game nights but still can be a blast for Mummy and Indiana Jones movie fans. The game is really about players deciding which gambles to take and when to cut and run for the exit to score points. I would recommend this for family board game nights and for groups who just want some old school collapsing temple raiding fun.

Lazy Sunday gaming was a bit of a flop

This room is feeling lonely without you!

The wife and I had planned a lazy Sunday board gaming day for friends and family to hang out at our house. We planned this for the 8^th. I was hyped up for the day as we had 15 people talking about coming out. We ran out to the board game store and picked up a game for a large group, then stocked up on snacks and drinks. The day came and 3 people showed up.

The brother in law came with the niece. The sister in law ended up having to work. My other niece’s husband showed up for a bit but left early to pick up my niece from a baby shower.

We tried out our new game, Masquerade, for a few rounds. I’ll review it once we get some large group plays in. We moved on to The Adventurers for a while then everyone went home. And I just realized we’ve had the Adventurers forever and I never did a review. Check back next week for that one!

Jerks not coming to my party.

To be honest I’ve been feeling pretty blah about it and have been in an antisocial funk since then. But the wife has convinced me to try again. After all the people who did come seemed to have some fun, and I’m always happy to see them. Most of the people who didn’t come had reasonable issues prevent them. My brother was on course, my sister and niece had tickets to the Indiana Jones exhibit, friends from out of town couldn’t make it in for the weekend, and for some friends it was their weekend with the kids.

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So we are trying again at the end of the month. We tried timing it for when people don’t work so we will see how this goes. I shortened the list of invites because some people just didn’t seem interested. My wife wanted it moved to a Saturday so we could have a quiet lazy Sunday. We figured a 1 to 6 timeframe would work so we wouldn’t be interfering with date night plans.

If one of our friends is reading this and wondering why they didn’t get the invite it’s either because all of the planning happened on facebook and you aren’t on there or I didn’t realize you were the board gaming type. Feel free to shoot me a message for the info.

Looking for new games!

I am always on the lookout for another great board game. I’m looking for something that will introduce me and all of my family and friends to hours of play. This weekend the wife and I are finally attempting to host a big gaming day at our new home. Considering we are almost at our first anniversary of purchase it’s about time! Today I’m going to talk about what I look for in a game. At the end hopefully you readers can suggest some new games for me to check out.

The Nerd Dungeon, or my game room if you prefer.

Easy to learn. Important yet not… let me explain. I like a game that is easy to learn and to teach new players because I want to introduce new players to gaming. I need more gateway games to intro new gamers and to keep more casual gamers coming back to my table. It isn’t important to me personally because I love complicated rules games and am a devilish rules lawyer. Of course those games with complex rules have a limited appeal to my usual gaming crowd but I do know some players who would love to get in on them. For example: Dixit is a perfect intro game that keeps players coming back to the table while Twilight Imperium is my super complex dream come true in the form of a board game.

Less reliance on luck/choices should be meaningful. I really hate the old game mechanic of: roll dice, do what board tells you, repeat ad nauseum until game ends. That isn’t fun for me. I really need to have an impact on how the game progresses. I need my mind and the minds of the other players to impact the progression of the game. I need interaction for fun to happen. I’m not totally opposed to luck if it adds chaos to strategy. I like luck factors (card draws and dice rolls) to create a need for more interaction and strategy. For example: Settlers of Catan relies on luck for dice rolls to collect resources but players make decisions on building, trade, and moving the robber. These decisions change the effect of later dice rolls. This blends luck, interaction, and strategy for a fun game experience.

Novices should have a chance of winning. There are games where experience pretty much guarantees victory. I get bored easily without a challenge so I want every opponent to bring a challenge to the table. Chess is an example where experience allows you to beat an inexperienced opponent easily. In Chess there are certain combinations of moves that allow you to win quickly and easily. Typically there does have to be a randomness factor that limits an experienced player’s advantage and allows for novice players to gain traction in the game.

Replayability. I want to be able to play the game often and have fun every time. Mechanics should lend to the game experience being different each time you play. Things like board memory limit this (i.e. the board is static and certain positions are optimal for game winning) I love eurogames with a board that alters each game. A fantastically replayable game is Betrayal at House on the Hill. The map changes each game and the haunt is randomized. Players go in not knowing which horror story they are in and only find out part way through. Players also don’t know who will be the traitor for the game until the random haunt reveal. Of course replayability is increased by my next point.

Multiple routes to victory. I believe a game is “broken” when it becomes apparent that there is a single game winning strategy. For example Risk. Ask pretty much any player how to win Risk and they typically go with this strategy: take Australia and slowly build to take Asia. It works very well and if you are playing against novice players you are pretty much guaranteed the win. I prefer a game to have mechanics to counter opponents’ strategies. If there are multiple routes to victory the game develops character. Moves, countermoves, bluffing, deception and observation make for a deeper game experience. Risk 2210 does change the game franchise creating new routes to victory and limiting the advantage of taking Australia by opening routes to invasion.

Enjoyable for the losers. A game night should be fun for everyone at the table. Every player should feel like they contributed to the experience and should be able to pull off some interesting plays. Game nights for me are more about the companionship with friends and family and I want to enjoy their company. While I really like to win games I don’t want to sacrifice friendships for it. I still play like a jerk sometimes but I want other players to have fun too. After all you don’t bond over the “who won” stories; you bond over the stories of awesome plays. A great game to enjoy even when you lose is the story telling game Gloom.

Theme. The theme of a game makes it more relatable and playable. For example: My dad worked on the railroad. We grew up around trains, so naturally Ticket to Ride is a huge hit with the family. It’s easy to overlook flaws in a game when the theme fits with the players. Finding the right game for the right players is a fun experience in itself. Getting that Doctor Who game right for one niece or Harry Potter for another, Star Wars or Firefly for my wife, Superheroes for a nephew and the brother in law, or the perfect wargame for my brother… it’s worth the effort to get a game right for them.

The right number of players. I like a game to fit my game group. I should be able to have people over for a great game experience. Typically I have about 6 people at the table causing issues with games that only allow for limited numbers of players. I’m not sure why but it seems 5 players has become the standard. I also grew up in a family of 5 so 4 player games have just never see our table. I’m also working on building my game group. I’ve been playing with groups of 12 or more people so I need more “big group” games. Unfortunately I can’t get everyone into RPGs (yet) meaning I am in the market for simpler tabletop games for large groups.

Okay now that I’ve talked about my overall concepts about games I think I will address my views on types of games.

Beer and Pretzels- I love this style of game if it is done right. I need it to be fun, funny, and simple to learn, and have a short play time. Usually this is a high luck/low strategy game. It’s great for when people just want fun, great to start a night or for bringing casual gamers to the table. Great examples are either Bang! or Poo!

Eurogames- These are games from Europe that don’t fit the typical American game ideas. They tend to focus on strategy, keep their rules simple, have quality components and reduce the luck influence. This really is my favorite style of game. Think Settlers of Catan or Ticket to Ride.

Wargames- My brother and I had a huge sibling rivalry going on growing up and we tended to really get going around a wargame. We fell in love with wargames because even though we really got competitive we really connected over them. Memoir 44 or our old standby of Axis and Allies are good examples of wargames and we are always on the lookout for something better.

Mass Market games- At the risk of sounding like a hipster I have to say: I hate mass market games. I hate Monopoly and its ilk. I think these games are detrimental to the concept of board games because this is what people who hate board games think board games are all about. They never get introduced to the plethora of amazing games out there because they hit that mass market wall of (in my opinion) poorly designed games.

Collectible Card Games- I got into CCGs when I was younger but I feel I have outgrown them. And there I go being an old Hipster again. My problem with CCGs is that I don’t want an investment strategy, I don’t want to research, and I don’t want constant new editions making my investments irrelevant. I want to grab a game and play it. I tried Magic the Gathering and it left me feeling like a gaming version of a meth-head. Just my personal tastes here, go hard if you like CCGs but leave me out.

Miniatures games- I haven’t played any miniatures games. On one hand I’m wary of them because they seem to be very collectible in nature and I don’t want the old CCG habit kicking in. On the other hand I like the look and the painting aspect looks like it would be fun. I’d love to command an army of burly dwarves or post apocalyptic soldiers and mechs but I just don’t know which game I would like or if I want to make the investment. Being an adult and having bills sucks.

Role Playing Games- I love them. I love the story telling the character growth and the camaraderie of the RPG players. I could spend my life creating RPG characters and am more than willing to GM. I started on Heroes Unlimited and RPGs became my teenage “bad habit” as my parents opposed them. They bought into the “RPGs are occult” mentality of yesteryear. Screw you Tom Hanks and your Mazes and Monsters!

Deck Building- Defined by having a starting deck and slowly purchasing newer cards in an in game market. I’ve had issues getting into the mechanic. It just hasn’t clicked with me all that much. That is until Legendary: Aliens. Now I’m open to trying them again but the theme really has to resonate with me. The set-up and take-down time for most deck builders seems to be more work than the gain of fun from them. Maybe it’s my CCG prejudice kicking in but I’m just not really into deck-builders. I am willing to give them a try.

Now that I have talked about what I look for and enjoy in games I would like to ask you dear readers: What games do you like? What do you look for in a game? Do you have suggestions to expand my game library?

Thanks for reading and commenting below! Check back next week when I talk about my first attempt at a big gaming day in the new place.