IELLO IEL51751 Khôra Rise of an Empire Board Game, Multicoloured

This game is awesome!! There are many mechanics at play throughout the game so it provides a welcomed challenge. It took about 45 minutes to thoroughly go through the rulebook before playing. It may seem overwhelming at first because of all the different moving parts, but you catch on quickly. Each city state provides different strengths, so you're really not playing the same game twice. It's pleasant-looking, too. Take note: Drachma (coin) and Tax both have owl icons. The tax icon is a black owl- no background, and the Drachma icon is a black circle with a white owl. That threw us off the first game.

Purchased this on a whim on Cyber Monday deals and played it for the first time last week... Very good quality on the pieces and nice artwork. A bit of a learning curve to it, but I think once you play through slowly 2-3 times you get the idea well enough to speed up the game. If I had to pick something to be critical about, I would say the number of players... Like many new games now, it's limited to just 4 players. In most cases, this is clearly a cash grab as a lot of games immediately release a 5-6 player expansion now; however, that is clearly not the case here, to expand the players in this would take more than a little expansion box with extra player boards and cards/chips. This game could easily have been made for 6 or maybe even 8 players, without hurting 2 player playability. There simply aren't enough games these days for larger groups and this one could have been one of them.

This is a fun game that is engaging, yet plays quickly. Components are excellent and the graphic design is top-notch. Your player power does somewhat strongly drive your best path to victory, but your card play and even the other player's choices also factor in to your winning strategy. There are many civilizations to try, each with their own strengths to challenge you.

I bought rather as an experiment when it was on sale, and lo and behold, it turns out to be a really wonderful game!! It has a lot of replay value and is thinky without being so difficult. It was easy to teach and yet has lots of choices. My game group asks for it! We have played it only twice so far, but it is clear we will be playing it more. They keep asking where I bought it and why, since we had never heard of it before. I am so glad I bought this, and now I know how enjoyable it is, would have paid more than I did. It has drafting and the turns are fast, but do give meaty decisions. We are looking forward to playing it much more!

Khora adds a dice rolling element to the 7 Wonders (imo) unique way of everyone taking their turns at once. It's very fun!