Imhotep

Imhotep was the Pharaoh's chancellor in ancient Egypt. He was a high priest, and most probably also a master architect. In Egyptian history, he was one of very few commoners who was deified. The game Imhotep is from Phil Walker-Harding. You play master builders working on multiple construction projects for the Pharaoh. Everyone contributes to every project, but the stones you supply are in your colour, so you can keep track of who has contributed to which part of the projects. Although you are technically working together for the same boss, ultimately there can only be one winner - whoever has scored the most points from his contributions. 

Everyone has his own warehouse, in which you can keep at most 5 stone blocks. There are only three basic actions you can perform in this game. The first one is to move three stones from the quarry to your warehouse. The second one is to move one block from your warehouse to one of the ships which has not sailed yet. Ships have different capacities. You can place your block on any available spot. There is a minimum quantity before a ship is allowed to sail. The spot in which you place your block is something you need to consider carefully. When the ship sails and arrives at a construction site, the blocks unload in a specific order, from bow to stern. The blocks are added to the structure following this order, and the location you block eventually rests determines the points you score.  

Your third possible action is to sail. You may choose any ship which has enough blocks, and you may sail it to any construction site which has not had a delivery yet this round. There are four ships and five construction sites. This means one of the construction sites will get no delivery in the current round.

The first site is actually not a construction site. It is the market where you can sell your blocks and earn special ability cards. Some are single-use special actions. Some help you score additional points at game end. The second site is for a pyramid. It must be constructed following a strict sequence. Blocks will be added to the structure in the order they arrive, and each space gives a specific number of points. The third site is for a temple. This is built like a wall. You fill the bottom layer, and once that is done you start filling the second layer. This site scores every round, based on the colours you see from above. What this means is when you start a new layer, the previous layer will gradually be covered and it will not score anymore once covered. Only the topmost blocks will score points.

The fourth site is the burial chamber. Here, you want your blocks to be connected. At the end of the game, when you have a large group of connected blocks, you will score many points. The fifth site is for obelisks. You stack your blocks into a tall pillar. At the end of the game, you score points based on who has the tallest obelisk.

The game appears simple, but behind the simple actions there are several tactical considerations. It is generally good to load your blocks onto ships, because as a general rule blocks which get delivered to sites will do you some good. However you are always a little anxious when loading a ship, because on the next player's turn maybe he will ship that block where you don't want it to go, or someone will place another block on the same ship and mess up your plan. Shipping other people's blocks can be a nasty thing to do, for example someone already has the tallest obelisk by far. Sending more of his blocks there will just be a waste. Similarly if you are far behind in obelisks, sending more of your blocks won't help either, so that would be a waste too. In this game you will be constantly evaluating the possibilities of which ship might go where and the order the blocks would get unloaded. 

Sailing is the action which makes you feel the most in control. You get to decide which ship to sail, and to which site. If you are doing well at a particular site and don't want others to mess with you, you can send a ship there which has only your blocks, or few of others blocks, so that your position is not compromised. It is tempting to do sailing because of that feeling of power. However, you can't just sail all the time. If you are not loading your blocks and they are are not being delivered, you won't score points. 

The game mechanisms are simple, but they create many interesting tactical dilemmas. Which ship should you load your block to? And to which spot on the ship? This is an open information game. That means when you plan one move, you can easily look ahead to see how your opponents may spoil your plans. It is anxiety-inducing. Your opponents may not always do the worst you imagine. Sometimes the motivation to help oneself is larger than that to hurt others. I find that this game can be played with two different mindsets. You can play defensively, or you can play ambitiously. Defensive play means you are always thinking about the worst your opponents will do to you, and you play to protect yourself against this. You also try to sabotage your opponents at every opportunity. To play ambitiously means trying to maximise your own score without bothering to mess with others too much. My game was a two-player game, and I played rather defensively. I felt like a rather negative person and a jerk, always expecting the worst, and always being nasty. I think this is precisely because it was a two-player game. Being nasty to your opponent means being good to yourself. 

Imhotep is a clever and light strategy game. I find it charming.