Luxor game series#

This leads to a really exciting end to each game of Luxor, because once it becomes clear that one or more players are going for the burial chamber, the rest of the players will be caught up in the infectious desire to race to the bottom as well. These closing turns tend to be a bit of a race, even if up until that point your plan was to work methodically to gain treasure. Each space has a score on the wall next to it, and the more adventurers that each player can get into the burial chamber, the higher their finishing score will be. Players may only enter the burial chamber if they have gathered keys, however, so there’s a bit of preparation that has to go into making the final run. The first and second players into the main burial chamber will take five and three point bonus tokens respectively, as well as triggering the end game. The idea, of course, is to manage your pieces to move in the most efficient way and claim as much treasure as possible.Īs the game draws closer to its conclusion, the behaviour of the players will change. Horus tiles allow the player landing on them to take a bonus, such as a powerful Horus card which allows the player to change the normal movement rules in one way or another. Treasure tiles can be collected for points simply by placing enough meeples of your colour onto the space. They may move any one of their adventurers, and whilst each player begins with only two, others can be collected further into the pyramid up to a maximum of five.Įach space will contain a tile of some kind – either treasure or one of the special tiles relating to an ancient God. When playing a card, the player may only choose to use the card from either the top or bottom of their deck – giving them two movement values to choose from. Players actually make progress along them by playing cards, in what is perhaps Luxor‘s most unique feature.

Luxor game series#

The board in Luxor is made up of a series of individual spaces that loop around the edge and wind down towards the central chamber. Those who simply don’t reach the chamber won’t score at all, but that can be OK if enough points have been collected from other sources along the way. The first and second player to reach these sarcophagi will score significant bonus points, with the other players who reach the chamber later scoring a much more modest amount.

Each player controls a party of adventurers (beginning with two and rising to five) who will explore an ancient pyramid, with the aim being to reach the valuable sarcophagi in a central burial chamber. Like most classic board games, the objective of Luxor is to score the most points at the end of the game, and based on my experience, it’s a game that rewards steady and meaningful progress with rushing ahead for the best prizes in a broadly equal manner. There is a decent shot of luck involved, but where chance has an impact on gameplay, it affects all players equally to the extent that no one player should feel that they have been disadvantaged in any way. Luxor is simple to setup, very fast to play and filled with interactions. Whilst it didn’t win, Luxorwas a nominee for the Kritikerpreis in 2018, which means it is a game to be taken very seriously. Games that win this category are usually those that embody what dedicated fans like to see in games – fast turns, clever mechanics and meaningful decisions. There are several categories, with one of the most prestigious being the Kritikerpreis, which broadly means the Critics Choice. Not everyone has heard of Germany’s Spiele Des Jahre award, but to provide a basic translation of what it is it’s Germany’s way of declaring the best game of a given year.