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How long did it take to build the pyramids, we now have an answer, 10 turns. In this card game of drafting and building all players will construct a pyramid, obelisk and tomb with the aim of making their dynasty the most glorious and remembered for all time.
Pyramids by Matthew Dunstan and Brett J Gilbert was released in 2017 by Iello Games in their ‘book’ format box. This 2 to 5 player game, plays over 10 rounds in less than 30 minutes and has a very clever double drafting mechanism. At the end of the 10 rounds, all players would have completed their pyramids and also built an obelisk of varying heights and a tomb with numerous cards buried.
Getting Ready For Construction
The setup for this game is very easy. Shuffle all of the cards and secretly pass one to each player and then place the remainder face down to form a deck, choose the god tiles according to the number of players and display them in the middle of the table, and finally choose a player to be first and hand them the first player token (a cute little pyramid).
Stones Of Destiny
To get the most out of the game you need to understand how the cards work. The top half of the card can be ignored as it is just used for aesthetic purposes for the constructed pyramid. The bottom half will always contain three separated stones of five colours. It may also contain a Glyph which is used for end game scoring. The colours are how you score all of your constructions as follows:
Pyramid -
- For all 5 colours you count the largest number of orthogonally connected stones and you receive 1 point per stone for each colour.
- 1 extra point per stone for the largest connected colour group.
- A bonus 10 points if each colour has at least 3 points.
Obelisk - Work out which colour is most present on the cards played. Then receive points based on the number of stages that colour appears in. A stage means a constructed card. The maximum points you can receive is 15 for having 5 or more stages with the same colour.
Tomb - For all five colours you work out if any individual player has the majority of stones and if they do they receive 5 points for that colour. A maximum 25 points are available in the tombs but in the event of a draw for any of the colours no points are awarded for that colour.
Glyphs - You will gain two points per glyph correctly placed. So, the glyphs that looks like a pyramid should be placed in the pyramid if you want to score it. The same goes for the tomb and obelisk glyphs.
Pray To The Gods
Each of the 10 rounds plays the same and will proceed by laying two sets of cards facing the upper player in the middle of the table, then the starting player will draft one of the God tiles. Depending on which god tile you drafted the turn order then changes and starting with the player with the lowest-numbered god tile you then draft a set of these two cards. The sets of cards are not interchangeable and must be drafted together.
This double drafting leads to some difficult decisions as you have to weigh up the need to pick a set of cards first over the increasing usefulness of the later god tiles. The number 1 God tile will only allow you to place one card in your pyramid, the number 2 tile will allow you to place a card in your pyramid and one in your tomb, the number 3 will allow you to place a card in your pyramid and 1 in your obelisk and the number 4 tile (in a 2 / 3 player game) will allow you to place 1 card in all three locations.
In the 4 and 5 player game the 4th god tile will allow 1 in the pyramid and 1 in either the obelisk or tomb. The 5th god tile will allow you to place a card in any location.
Regardless of the tile you choose you will always place 1 card in your pyramid every round, all other placements are voluntary so if you do not wish to place a card in the tomb with the number 2 tile you don’t have to.
Your pyramid will be constructed in the expected shape by placing 4 cards along the bottom, 3 in the second row, 2 in the third row and finally a single card sitting at the top. You must always place your first two cards on the bottom row touching each other, after that all future cards must either be placed next to another card in the same row or on top of two other cards covering the top half of the cards.
Once a card has been placed it cannot be moved in any future rounds. At the end of each round, you may only carry 1 card in your hand so discard any others then pass the start player token to the next player clockwise. After 10 rounds you would have constructed a beautiful pyramid.
The winner of the game is the player with the most points and there are no tie break conditions, however in all the games I have ever played there hasn’t been a single one that ended in a tie.
Final Thoughts
Pyramids is a brilliant quick playing double drafting card game. The table presence is beautiful and the final scoring is always exciting. It is very easy to teach and everyone I have taught this to has demanded a second (and sometimes third) play immediately. I enjoy the game at all player counts but would say the two player game is probably the weakest as it doesn’t feel like there is as much urgency to your choices.
The game comes with a nice score pad which makes scoring easy. The card quality is very high and despite many plays the cards are not showing any signs of wear. The rules are clearly written and very easy to understand.
