The ‘A’ side to the obelisk; Players build their individual obelisks here and are scored at the end of the game, with the tallest earning the most points as indicated on the board. If there is a tie then the total points are divided among the tied players, for example in a two-player game, if both obelisks are the same height then the players share 10 points (five each). A player must have at least one stone to score anything.

Play One Blue Market Card. If you have a blue Market card, you may play it and use its benefit/special ability to bend the rules of the game. The card is your action for the turn. It is not played in addition to any other action. Take up to 3 stones of their color from the quarry and place them onto their sleds. They may never exceed five stones in total.The ‘A’ side of the Pyramid; The stones are placed one after the other on the next free space of the pyramid, immediately earning the player points. The pyramid is made column by column left to right from top to bottom. The first layer is 3×3, the next layer is 2×2 with the points noted on the edge of the board, and finally a single stone on top. Stones can be delivered even after the pyramid has been completed scoring one point per stone for their respective players. Players will keep taking turns and filling up boats until no more tiles remain in the reserve. When boats are unloaded and can no longer be filled, you remove them from the harbour. Monumental Points Most of us can only dream of achieving the greatness of Imhotep. The man was a master builder and the Benjamin Franklin of his day (in that he knew an awful lot about many subjects). He even built his own tomb and hid it so well, it still hasn’t been found. While I don’t know that many of us want to disappear when we die, there’s something to be said for being a great builder. Imhotep gives you a chance to cover yourself in greatness by building monuments that will stand for ages. Or, you know, you can just quietly crawl into your tomb and disappear.

Mechanics such as using action tiles or unloading an opponent's boat can change the pace of the game. These actions can be brutal but up the entertainment value as you mess with your opponent's strategy. As you can only take 1 move each turn, gameplay is fast paced, and games are relatively short. It’s a snappy strategy game filled with deception.Hardcore play can also lead to severe AP. If everyone is trying to maximize every turn, Imhotep can have the thinking time of chess. Thinking through your options, the spatial ramifications, and the “what if’s” to chase every point can slow the game to a crawl. Again, everyone will hate you. Each player is a master builder in Egypt. In short, players are trying to acquire stones, put them on ships, and then ship them to one of five monuments, earning points along the way. The game is played over six rounds, with each round ending when all of the ships have sailed. The player with the most points at the end is the best builder.

The box states 40 minutes and ages 10+, and Imhotep certainly doesn’t overstay its welcome; also, the ease of set-up and the relative speed of the game means that it will hit the table frequently. I didn’t feel that the player conflict was a problem as each turn offers you a variety of ways to score points. Play an action tile: In the game, there are 12 action tokens which consist of 4 different actions. You will be able to gain these tiles from unloading boats which have them. You can then use a turn to play one of these tokens and perform its action. The actions can be real game changers and mess up your opponent’s strategy. Actions include: Placing 2-3 workers, place a worker and unload 1-2 boats, swap 2 cargo tiles and unload, and take 1 cargo tile.

For starters, Imhotep is a great looking game. The colors are rich and vibrant. The artwork is very well done. And the various components are all top notch quality. The cubes are very large and have a nice tactile quality about them. I’m a big fan of the smaller cubes that you’ll typically find in most board games that use cubes in some form or another, but I really like these. They work very well here. As far as looks go, Imhotep gets a thumbs up from me.