Imhotep 3DBox

The real Imhotep was a powerful mastermind behind many Egyptian structures that we know and recognize today—and now, Thames & Kosmos is channeling his eye for strategy, advancement, and design in its new game with the same title.

Imhotep asks players to be cunning and strategic just like the famed leader and build monuments as he did, all while outsmarting opponents who aim to do the same. The object of the game is to transport stone blocks on ships from your quarry to different building sites, such as the market, pyramids, temple, burial chamber, and obelisks. Each site offers players a different challenge to earn points and outsmart their opponents. For example, a player can bring stones to the obelisk building site and try to build the tallest obelisk, thus earning the most points from that site. In order to earn points at these sites, a player must first load up boats with stones from his or her quarry and set sail to the building site that will reap the most reward.

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But, there’s a catch. A player can only make one of four actions in a turn: get more stones from the quarry, load a stone onto a ship, sail a ship to a site, or play a market card that you have gathered from the market site on a previous turn. Because only one of these actions can happen during a turn, it’s very easy for a fellow player to sabotage you. An opponent may see that the stones you loaded onto a boat during a previous turn would earn you the most points at the pyramid site, so the opponent may sail the ship to the market during his or her turn.

The game is structured in six rounds: fill and sail all of the ships to the sites, and the round ends. At the end of each round, the points earned from certain sites will be added to the players’ totals, while other sites are counted up at the end of the game.

Imhotep takes a lot of ruthless brainpower to not only reap the benefits of each building site, but also keep your opponents from doing the same. This game is ideal for lovers of intense strategy game, and would make a great addition to any brainy family game night. It’s definitely tempting to get into the sabotage aspect of the game, but we can only hope that no one is quite as cutthroat as Imhotep was in his day.

About the author

Melanie Rainone

Melanie Rainone

Melanie Rainone is the editorial assistant at Toy Insider and Adventure Publishing Group. She can usually be found watching Star Trek: The Next Generation (she knows the opening monologue by heart) and she firmly believes that dessert is the most important meal of the day. 

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