Praga Caput Regni

Praga Caput Regni is a heavy Eurogame which tells the story of the city of Prague, in particular during the middle ages when many of its important buildings and infrastructure were constructed. Players produce resources - stone, gold and eggs (yes, eggs) - and use them to construct walls, buildings and the king's road. There are many things to do and many ways to score points. 

The core mechanism is this wheel on the right. Six action tiles are attached to notches along its edge. Every action tile has two halves. On your turn you must pick an action tile and decide which half to use. That will be the action you perform. Depending on where that action tile is positioned on the wheel, you may need to pay money (the red section), you may gain points (the blue section), and you will gain some benefit (the icons in the inner part of the wheel). The wheel is rotated at the end of your turn. All action tiles become cheaper to use or offer victory points if no one has picked them for long enough. The action tile you have just used goes to the most expensive notch before the next player's turn. 

This is one of your player boards, called the action board. The central bit is just a tiny reference section to remind you what you can do with silver and gold windows. The six hexes around that represent the six action types in the game. One of them is to produce stone or increase your stone production. Another action works the same way but is for gold. The next three actions are for the three structures you can construct - wall, building and the king's road. The last action is placing an upgrade on this action board. When you have an upgrade, you gain some benefit whenever you perform that upgraded action. 

The game board is busy and intimidating. When you construct a building, you place a hex tile onto the board. Buildings give you immediate benefits. They may allow you to contribute towards constructing the cathedral. They may also allow you to place an influence cube. Influence cubes are used for claiming benefits from surrounded plazas. Whenever a plaza is surrounded by buildings, it awards prizes to players who have influence cubes next to it. 

On the top right of this screenshot above you can see three types of hex tiles. The first row are upgrades which can you get for your personal action board. The second row are walls you can construct around your action board. The third row are buildings you can construct on the main game board. 

When you build the king's road, which runs through the city, you don't place any tile. You just advance your pawn along the path. Every time you advance, you have the option to spend resources to get something else. You want to make sure you have some eggs ready, because eggs will get you good stuff. According to legend, eggs were used in the mortar for the bridge at the end of the king's road. 

This is the other player board on which you track your production level for both stone and gold, and also the quantities in hand. Quantities are tracked using those two wheels. When the quantities exceed certain levels, the planks protruding from the wheels will knock those influence cubes off, making them available to you. You also get different bonuses for exceeding these thresholds.

These two tables track your contribution towards the Hunger Wall and the cathedral. Your marker starts in a corner and you want to move it towards the opposite corner. Moving up requires silver windows, and doing so gives you points. Moving sideways requires constructing certain wall and building tiles. Moving sideways increases the value of Hunger Wall or cathedral tokens you collect during the game. 

There is quite a lot to digest before you can play this game. So many different mechanisms! You have 16 actions for the whole game. You may get more if you are able to collect silver and gold windows. 16 actions is not a lot. There are so many things to do. You need actions to upgrade your production levels, and separate actions to perform the actual production. There are many things you can construct, and you have to choose. It is impossible to do everything well. You have to choose some aspects to maximise. 

I feel this is a theme-first game. If I were a tourist visiting Prague, this would be a great souvenir because many important historical structures are covered. Of course, the average tourist wouldn't be a heavy boardgamer, so I can't imagine this being sold at a museum. I find the game highly enjoyable. I like how there are many opportunities to plan clever moves. When you select your main action, often it also allows you to gain smaller side benefits. These smaller benefits do add up, and you can use them to support you in whichever main strategies you want to pursue. Being able to orchestrate these small benefits to amount to something bigger is satisfying.