Summary
Emulate Egypt’s pioneering architect to build monumental structures
Players: 2-4 players
Gametime: 40-45 minutes
Gameplay
Set up the game
- Place the game board on a flat surface.
- Each player takes a set of colored cubes and a sled card.
- Shuffle the market cards and place them face down on the board.
- Place the ship cards on the board and shuffle the ship tokens.
Collect cubes
- On each turn, players choose one of four actions: collect cubes from their supply, place a cube on their sled, place a cube on a ship, or sail a ship.
- Players can collect cubes from their supply or from the market cards.
Place cubes on ships
- Players can place their cubes on any empty space on a ship card.
- Each ship has a number of spaces, and once all spaces are filled, the ship sails to one of the destinations on the board.
Score points
- When a ship arrives at a destination, the cubes are unloaded and players score points based on the number of cubes they contributed to the ship and the location of the destination.
- Players can also score points by building monuments with their cubes.
End of the game
- The game ends after the last ship has arrived at its destination.
- Players score additional points for the number of monuments they have built and lose points for any cubes left on their sled.
- The player with the highest score at the end of the game wins.
Here is a video from Rodney Smith teaching us how to play Imhotep
Review
Imhotep takes a bit of time to learn and get a hang of, but once you do, the gameplay is smooth. It depends a lot on choices of other players so you have to strategize accordingly. Therefore, the strategy lies in determining which boats to send to which sites and when to send them, as well as anticipating the moves of other players. Visually pleasing and option for variation, Imhotep is definitely recommended to try once.
Difficulty: Medium
Likeness: 75%
Purchase
You can purchase Imhotep on Amazon here