Ra

Overview

Players take the role of factions vying for power and prestige in ancient Egypt. To do this, they have to compete for the favour of the Pharaos, gain wealth, build monuments, cultivate land and pay homage to the gods. In game terms, this is done by bidding for and collecting different sets of commodity tiles. Each player starts an epoch with a number of Sun tablets and with these, he has to bid for sets of commodity tiles.

Game Mechanics

The game board consists of two tracks, a Ra track and a Commodities track.

The game consists of 3 epochs, each with a variable number of player turns. At the end of each epoch, scoring is done and the player with the most points at the end of 3 epochs is declared winner.

At the start of the game, players are given a number of Sun tablets, each uniquely numbered. One Sun tablet goes to the center of the board.

During a player's turn, he has the option of drawing a tile, starting an auction or playing a god tile.

• When a player draws a tile, he places it on the board. It goes onto the Ra track if it is a Ra tile. Otherwise it goes onto the commodities track. An auction occurs if a Ra tile is drawn or when the commodities track is filled.
• A player may declare an auction by calling 'Ra'. This uses up his turn.
• A player may use a God tile won in a previous auction to steal a tile from the commodities track. This enables him to obtain the tile without the need to bid for the entire track.

When an auction occurs, players may bid their open Suns tablets. The player who drew the Ra tile, or who invoked Ra is termed the Ra player. Bidding is single round and goes clockwise around the table, with the Ra player bidding last. This gives the Ra player a distinct advantage as he holds the initiative during the bidding. Bidding is voluntary except when the auction is due to a player invoking Ra. In the latter case, if there is no bid, the player invoking Ra has to bid.

The winner of the bidding takes all the tiles on the commodities track. Not all tiles are good. Some are disasters which causes the player to lose other commodities should he have of them. He replaces the Sun tablet at the center of the board with the one he has bid. He takes the tablet at the center of the board and places it face down in front of him. When a player runs out of face-up Sun tablets, he may take no further action in the current epoch (including playing God tiles.) This is a clever little game mechanic, as the Sun tablet that is bid also becomes part of the basket of goods that a player gets when he wins a bid.

At first glance, it may seem that players will want to wait for the track to fill completely before bidding. However, the epoch ends immediately when the Ra track is completely filled. There is no last turn bidding when this happens, so players have to weigh the payoff of that additional draw versus the chance of that last Ra tile appearing and ending the epoch prematurely.

Scoring is determined by the combination of tiles owned by the player at the end of each epoch. Some tiles score for each epoch while others score only at the end of the game. Some tiles are removed at the end of each epoch while others are carried over to the next epoch. This scoring mechanism makes for an interesting game.

Comments

Calling Ra a boardgame is a sort of misnomer. The board is only used to keep track of the status of the game, much like in Avalon Hill's Republic of Rome. For all intents and purposes, the game could very well be implemented as a cardgame. Not that I am complaining. As it is, the game is beautiful.

My personal opinion is that the mechanics and theme in this game are independent. The game mechanics, other than the naming of tiles, have absolutely no relation to ancient Egypt. In short, it is a game with the theme grafted onto the mechanics. However, the game itself is intriguing and I believe it will enjoy may more playings at my group.

Ra has exquisite playing pieces

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