Oh, Pharaoh!
A board and card game
From: Uberplay
Reviewed by: Marc Shayed
Oh, Pharaoh! is a new board and card game from Uberplay. In this small witty game players are all competing to build pyramids for their Pharaoh. As one of their “Small Box Games”, Uberplay has put forth a good, fast paced and clever game.
From the back rules booklet:
“The all-powerful Pharaoh Put-n-Tut has issued a decree that a Pyramid building competition will be held. The Pyramids are all built level by level with Building Stone Cards. Builders may also exchange cards. Once a Pyramid is complete, the builder must decided whether to keep adding to it, or present it for scoring. Of course, big Pyramids score more than small Pyramids – but don’t wait too long or you risk being caught by those blasted thieves!”
This game is primarily played with the game cards, and the board is used to keep track of the “score”… although game points are not tracked on the board. It keeps track of what stage of the game that the players are in and when the game is over.
The basic idea is that players have cards that represent stone blocks. They are numbered with their value. To build a Pyramid, players lay their cards down in front of them in the shape of a Pyramid. The numbers for a level must all be the same, and from top to bottom the cards must be in order.
For example:
If a player has three cards with the value of ‘4’, two cards with a value of ‘3’ and two cards with a value of ‘2’… then the player would lay the three cards with ‘4s’ down as the base of the Pyramid. The next level would be the two cards valued at ‘3’, and the top would only be one of the ‘2’ cards.
Every round players have the chance to add to their Pyramid or to score it. Scoring the Pyramid has 2 results. The first is that players earn the points for their Pyramid. In the above example that one would be score using the sum of the numbered levels, multiplied by the number of levels…
i.e. (4 + 3 + 2) x 3 = 27 points
Also every time a Pyramid is scored, the “score keeper” on the board is moved 1 space. Once the “score keeper” has been moved 3 times, then players can have 2 Pyramids being worked on at a time. Once it is moved another 3 times then only Pyramids that are at least 3 levels in height can be scored. Four more spaces beyond that is the end game space, where all the cards are reshuffled, and the End Game Card is added into the deck. Once the End Game Card comes into play the game is over, point score compared, the player with the highest point total wins.
There are also Special Cards that add a few twists into the game. The Tax Collector card allows 1 player to take a random card from a player’s hand. The Thief card can force a player to remove key stones from his Pyramid and thus forcing him to take it apart and rebuild. Then there is a Pharaoh card that cancels both Thieves and Tax Collectors.
So… what does Marc really think?
A fun game. Uberplay has made a real hit here.
Although not a serious game, not a war game… it is a fun and ‘funny’ game. Players do enjoy themselves.
I am happy to give “Oh, Pharaoh!” a high recommendation
Above all I suggest you judge for yourselves. Check out Uberplay and their new board and card game Oh, Pharaoh! at their website http://www.uberplay.com …and of course at all of your local game stores!
Oh, Pharaoh!
From: Uberplay
Type of Game: Board & Card game
Game Created by: Thilo Hutzler
Game Components Included: 79 Building Stone cards (with varying values), 10 Special cards, 1 End Game card, game board, score keeper, rules booklet, and 1 d6
Game Components NOT Included: a method to keep track of points to determine the winner. A pencil and piece of paper are enough
Retail Price: $ 16.95 (US)
Number of Players: 3-4
Player Ages: 10+
Play Time: 40 mins
IBSN: 1-932742-08-5
Email: info@uberplay.com
Website: www.uberplay.com
Review Score: 9 out of 10 points (4.5 stars)
Reviewed by: Marc Shayed
Review Editor
http://www.GamingReport.com
