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The ancient Egyptians were deeply interesting. The architecture and construction projects in which they undertook were impressive feats of their time and their mythology is rich and vibrant. It’s probably why so many of the key things of ancient Egypt stand out to us. The Sphinx, pyramids, a jackal’s head, all examples of cultural artifacts which we all think of when we say “Egypt.”
We learn these things at a young age, they’re instantly associated. This is why I’m going to talk to you about a game where the thematic association is on point and you are trying to gather gems from a temple whilst trying to fix the ancient artifacts. Beware of the pointy top! Here’s Triumph of the Temple.
The Game
Triumph of the Temples is a tile placement, order fulfilment game, where you are rushing to repair the broken artifacts of Egypt. By doing so, you gain gems, which are your points. The highest points at the end win. To start, each player draws three tiles and one is placed face-up on the table, very much like Carcassonne.
Then the active player draws a quest card, showing one to three artifacts on it. You must place a tile that completes one or more of the artifacts shown on the quest card, pairing it with an already laid tile. Also, like in Carcassonne, you can only place like with like, so you can’t put a jackal head next to a pyramid and they must be in the right orientation.
For each match you make, you get a gem. If you can make more matches, you may place another one of your tiles down. If none of your tiles in your hand or the tiles on the table can create a match that is on the card, you discard it and your turn is over. Draw back up to three tiles and play then passes to the next player. The game ends when all quest cards have been discarded. Count your gems, and the game is over.
My Thoughts
This is a difficult one to write out because I think it became very clear early on that I am not the target audience for this game. I’ve been playing games for too long and I have other tile placement games like Carcassonne and Sorcerer City that I would rather play.
That does not mean that Triumph of the Temple is a bad game. It’s not! It’s a good little game. I like the theme and the unique way in which the box draws you in, even if it’s because it has shiny gems in it and is shaped like a pyramid. The serious gamers will be thinking “well that doesn’t fit in a Kallax.” They aren’t wrong but it’s also not meant to be put on a Kallax, it’s meant to be played by children.
It’s a matching game, it has spatial orientation, order fulfilment, a dollop of luck, and shiny gems. That’s great! It’s a great game for kids to get interested in the hobby before they’re ready to give a game of Carcassonne a go. It has pretty much the same mechanism for gameplay and there’s nothing wrong with it.
If I had kids, or if my nephew hadn’t just moved away (with his parents, obviously), I would probably keep this for them and I’d happily play with them. I’m not going to be offended if someone asked me to give it a go nor would I turn them down because it’s ultimately a gateway to creating new gamers.
I like the artwork; I think it fits the theme incredibly well. It’s super easy to grasp and it does show that there are times when you can’t do anything because the card you drew doesn’t match the tiles and that’s a shame. There’s even a mechanism in the two and four-player game which lets the first player have an extra turn because they had fewer options at the start of the game.
Conversely, they may have too many options at the end, so I think it balances out nicely. Here’s my final thought. If you have children who you want to get into the hobby one day, get them Triumph of the Temple. It has that “wow” factor for a kid, it has something which they can hang onto before you introduce the game that got them into the hobby. It’ll give you something to go off when you start trying to explain what a meeple is.
