Game 90: Imhotep

 My dear son Caleb couldn't quite wait for my birthday to have me open my gift, the game of Imhotep.  Since my semester begins Monday, just before my birthday, he felt it would be a good idea to give it to me on the weekend so we would have time to play.  Good idea!  I had never heard of this game before, but I like it, and I think we all did, based on just one play.  A great deal of this game depends on timing.  There are multiple ways of earning points, all of which have to do with bringing building materials to port on ships.  The trick is that you can only take one action on a turn, so you can place a block on a ship or use a card to do a special action or move a ship to port (if the ship is full enough) or you can re-supply from the quarry.  Since any player may move a ship, even if his building materials aren't on it, someone might move your ship to a port that affords you fewer points that turn or overall.  This causes for some intense offense/defense choices.
 There are five cards at which you can dock for building - obelisks, burial chamber, temple, pyramid and market (which is where you can pick up cards).  A ship can only dock once per round, and once that port is taken no other ship can dock there for that round.  A card is flipped each turn to determine the size of the ships that are going to be used.  Ships hold one or two or three or four building blocks.
Here we are starting out and beginning our building programs.
 And then a bit further along  .  .  .
 The quarry makes me happy, so I took a picture of that too - lots of lovely building blocks.
 Here are just a few examples of cards.  There are also red cards that take place instantly.
This is a good game, and I'm glad to have it on our shelves!  Thanks Caleb! :-)

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