Joined in 2023 
82 
63 About this deal
Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia basilica is famous for its breathtaking stained glass windows, and now they’ve inspired a game where players compete to create beautiful displays of their own. Each round of Sagrada sees players roll a random selection of coloured dice from a bag. You’ll take turns choosing one at a time to incorporate into your window, scoring points for placing dice in certain configurations. Century: Spice Road has quality components and the artwork is great. The only bad points I can see to this game is that the theme is a bit on the bland side (pun intended) and at no point do you feel like a spice trader (Splendor has the same problem) and the game does feel like a solitaire experience as no real player interaction is involved.
These coins are metal (just try to resist that delightful clink) and, like everything else in the box, contribute to Spice Road’s universally breathtaking visual panache, from its gorgeous cards to the spices, which come with four diddly bowls to tidy up unruly heaps of cubes. If a player has his fifth point card (with 2 or 3 players, his sixth), the game ends after the current round. Each player earns the points on their scoring cards. Another review at Ars Technica states that it is "slightly more complex" than Splendor, and that it is "an absolute joy to play". [1] Expansions [ edit ] The first player gets 3 turmeric, the second and third player get 4 turmeric, the fourth and fifth get 3 turmeric and a saffron. When the game arrived I didn’t know what to expect. For its relatively cheap price the box was a small to medium size with great artwork, but nothing I hadn’t seen before. Upon opening the box I was pleasantly surprised, the rule sheet was one piece of card with pictures and writing on both sides.The other card everyone starts with – two grey cubes with an upwards-facing arrow – is an Upgrade card. When played, this allows you to upgrade any two spices in your caravan into the next-most valuable spice, or to upgrade one spice cube twice. Return spices from your caravan to the bowl and claim the upgraded version of it. One card, for example, provides the trade of two cardamon cubes in exchange for one cinnamon and two safran. If you (eventually acquire and then) play one of these cards, you’ll trade the spice(s) shown, for the spice(s) promised – again, returning spices to their bowls and taking the relevant ones onto your Caravan card.
Place golden coins above the Point cards – specifically, the first (left-most) card in this row. Put as many gold coins here as the number of players, multiplied by two (eight, for example, in a four-player game). Place the same number of silver coins above the second card. The clever thing about these three games is that as well as being excellent gateway games in their own right, any two of the three can amalgamate, providing a new bumper-game, entirely. However, in this tutorial we’re only focusing on how to play the one that set the ball rolling – Century: Spice Road. So clamber onto your camel, join the caravan and let’s trade some spices… Century: Spice Road – Set-Up To make things more challenging, though, you won’t be able to place dice of the same colour or number next to one another. Each player works to complete a different design, and the result is a game that feels a bit like sudoku on steroids. You’ll have to spot ways to maximise your score while avoiding painting yourself into a corner and ending up unable to finish your masterpiece.It’s a head-scratching and constantly evolving puzzle that squeezes a lot of depth out of a simple set of rules. It also benefits from some real variety, with different window designs and special power cards ensuring that every play-through gives you a fresh challenge. At the end of your turn, if you have more spices on your caravan than you can transport, you must return spices of your choice into the bowls until your upper limit is reached. Which brings us neatly to the second action a player could decide upon: acquiring one of the six Merchant cards on display. The left-most card is free. If you want the second card, it costs one spice of your choice. The third card costs two spices, and so on. The game-end triggers once any player completes five Points cards (in a four- or five-player game; six Points cards in a two- or three-player game). Play resumes, however, until the end of the round – so each player has the same number of turns. Now the value of each player’s Points cards are added up. Additionally, gold coins earned are worth three points each; silver coins are one point each; and any non-turmeric cubes left in player’s Caravans are one point each, too. Most points wins! Sage Advise
Therefore getting spices and, more importantly, the orange Points cards is kind of a big dill (groan) to winning. But how do you accomplish that, we hear you ask? Rules Breakdown To play a hand card, place it face-up in front of you and trigger its effect. There are three types of trader cards that you can play: Spice Card To get the most out of your time with Spice Road, we’d recommend playing with around three or four players, opening up the more interesting interactive aspects of the design while keeping play time a comfortable length. An often-forgotten rule is that this action can be repeated multiple times in one turn, providing you have the appropriate cubes. So, using the example above, if you played that Trade card and had six cardamon cubes, you could do that trade three times. As a result, you’d receive three cinnamon and six safran. There’s a wonderful moment in Century: Spice Road when everything comes together. You’ve spent the first few turns slowly filling your caravan with the dinky coloured cubes that represent the four spices – turmeric, saffron, cardamom and cinnamon – being traded, exchanging them for more valuable seasonings using upgrade cards and filling out your hand of dealers, who allow you to swap one combination of cubes for another. You may have even cashed in a handful of your spices for one or two of the scoring cards, perhaps claiming a gold or silver coin from the two leftmost slots for bonus points.Merchant cards can be bought for an increasing price, the further to the right the card is. The first card on the left is free, but any cards further along require more spices. To buy a 'deeper' card, you must place a spice cube on each of the cards left of the card to buy. Any merchant cards will go straight into your hand after buying. If a card you buy has spice cubes on it, you gain them instantly. The second type is upgrade cards, which allows you to upgrade spices twice, whether it be one spice upgraded twice or two upgraded once each. For the 'Upgrade 3' merchant card, you can upgrade three times. You can upgrade only once as well if you wish. Century: Spice Road casts players as merchants leading caravans in search of precious spices. Photograph: Owen Duffy/The Guardian
The clever thing about these three games is that as well as being excellent gateway games in their own right, any two of the three can amalgamate, providing a new bumper-game, entirely. However, in this tutorial we’re only focusing on how to play the one that set the ball rolling – Century: Spice Road. So clamber onto your camel, join the caravan and let’s trade some spices… Century: Spice Road - Set-Up Last of all, there’s just enough thyme for a few winning tips (okay, that’s the last of the awful spice puns, we promise)… Overall, I am very pleased to add this to my collection and always have a great time when it hits the table. I will be looking forward to the next installment of the Century trilogy and it will be great to see how they all work together.Example: Tom has 6 turmeric and plays a card with which he can exchange 2 turmeric for 1 cardamom. He can now exchange 2, 4, or 6 turmeric for 1, 2, or 3 cardamom. The simple setup and playtime helps keep her interested and even though the theme is not one that really shines through, the game has enough fun and depth to keep all levels of gamers invested throughout the play time. Century: Spice Roadis played using the actions above, players will collect spices buy market cards and trade for point cards. The game ends when the first player gets their fifthpoint card. Turns are fast and even our first play only lasted 45 minutes. Final Thoughts Play a card from your hand. These may be an upgrade card which allows you to upgrade a spice cube to the next level or a Spice Card where you collect a set amount of spices.
Great Deal 
New Comment