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Das Gold des Pharao
Author: Arthur Tebbe
Publisher: Californian Products / Identity Games
Year: 2007


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1922, the Valley of the Kings. Does everybody have his TomTom calibrated and at hand? The golden mask of Tutanchamon, together with thousands of treasures, must be hidden somewhere in this pyramid, but where? Four archaeologists with their assistants try to beat each other to discover this valuable treasure. The quest is dangerous, because the pyramid is haunted with ancient curses, intended to discourage tomb raiders, and in addition the whole place is booby-trapped! As soon as the mask is removed from the tomb, the whole pyramid will collapse. So, teams: get in fast, but get out even faster!

Each player has one archaeologist and one assistant, and a set of five lamps in his colour. The game board is constructed of pyramid tiles displaying the corridors of the maze. The tiles are first placed face-down in a six by six grid. Each turn, a player can spend up to three action points. The action points can be divided between the archaeologist and the assistant; both characters have different characteristics that come in handy for the treasure hunt. For one action point the archaeologist can turn over an adjacent, face-down pyramid tile; the other side shows a section of the maze. Also, the archaeologist can walk through the uncovered part of the pyramid for one action point per tile. The assistant can also walk through the pyramid, or he can rotate an adjacent pyramid tile to alter the corridors in the maze for one action point per tile. Finally, for one action point the assistant may place or remove a lamp. These lamps enable the archaeologist and the assistant to walk through the pyramid a lot faster: all tiles that contain a lamp of the player’s colour can be crossed at no cost.

In the pyramid five treasure rooms are hidden. As soon as a treasure room is uncovered, a picture is taken from the photo camera. This picture shows how many treasures there are in the treasure room, and whether any curses or living mummies are encountered. The picture goes to the player that discovered the treasure room at the end of the game, this picture is worth one point. The treasures that are worth 2 or 3 points are placed in the treasure room. As soon as an archaeologist leaves the room, he may choose to carry along one of the treasures. Assistants are not allowed to carry treasures! Carrying a treasure does not cost any additional action points. When an archaeologist ends up on the same tile as another player’s archaeologist that is carrying a treasure, the active player’s archaeologist may steal the treasure. Who said that the tomb raiding business is fair? Only when the archaeologist brings the treasure to the entrance of the pyramid, the treasure is safe.

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When a mummy is encountered in the treasure room, it dashes out of the pyramid via the shortest route. All playing figures that the mummy ran into on his way out got so frightened that they all g back to the entrance of the pyramid. If an ancient curse happens to haunt the treasure room, this curse also wanders out via the shortest route, bowing out all the lamps it encounters on its way. The lamps are returned to the stock.
The mask of Tutanchamon is always placed in the fifth and last treasure room. It can be carried around by the archaeologists like any other treasure, and at the end of the game the mask is worth 5 points. However, as soon as the mask is removed from its tomb, a self-destruction mechanism is activated! In the first turn, the treasure room itself is blown up. In the net turn of the player carrying the mask, all tiles adjacent to the former treasure room are also blown up, and in the next turn, all tiles adjacent to those tiles and so on, until the entire pyramid is gone! All playing figures that are located on an exploding tile are removed from the game. Players that lose their archaeologist get two minus points, and players that lose their assistant get one minus point. So, it is very important to get both characters to the entrance of the pyramid as soon as possible! Then, it pays off if you have put some lamps in the corridors, because it takes less action points to get out!
And how about leaving the mask right where it is, in order to leave the pyramid intact? But unfortunately it doesn’t work like that: if the mask is not removed from the treasure room within three rounds after it has been discovered, the self-destruction mechanism will be triggered anyway… In the latter case, the mask is destroyed together with the treasure room.
When the last tile of the pyramid is gone the game is over and the points are scored: players add the points of their pictures and treasures, and subtract points for any of their characters that got lost in the explosions. The player with the highest score has the privilege to call himself the most successful team leader!
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'Das Gold des Pharao' is nicely produced: it has a appealing tin box, and the archaeologists, the assistants and the lamps are large plastic pieces with a lot of detail. Also the plastic camera that contains the pictures of the treasure rooms is a nice touch. An interesting element of the game is that each player has two playing figures with different characteristics.
'Pharao' is a remake of 'Tomb Raider' (Winning Moves/Identity Games, 2003). The biggest difference between these two games is that in 'Tomb Raider' the players form teams: two ‘good guys’ against two ‘bad guys’, while in 'Pharao' each player gets one team composed of two members. 'Tomb Raider' can be a very frustrating game, because your character can be shot down by a member of the opposing team, and you’re out of the game for one turn. That element is no longer present in 'Pharao', and the movement rules have been simplified: in 'Tomb Raider', it takes one action point to play a movement card that allows you to move a certain number of steps, while in 'Pharao' the simple rule ‘one action point per step’ is used. For the rest, the game is basically the same.
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'Pharao' can definitely be considered an improvement, and it’s much more suitable as a family game compared to 'Tomb Raider'. Because the characters are not shot down all the time, 'Pharao' is a much quicker game, and also the faster movement using the lamps keeps the pace of the game high. And since you don’t have to consult your fellow team member all the time about the optimal strategy, there’s also a lot less chattering and shouting about the table.
Despite these improvements, there’s still a lot of luck involved in this game. You can spend many action points on discovering new tiles, but never find a treasure room, and when one of your opponents discovers one, you are of course too far away to get any of the treasures. Or you are too close, and you happen to be in the path of the curses and mummies. All these things are very difficult to control.
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Also the fact that your treasures can be stolen by an opponent that happens to be passing by feels very unfair. Actually, it only pays to pick up a treasure if you can manage to bring it to the entrance in the same turn! And if you are in an inconvenient location at the moment the self-destruct mechanism of the pyramid is activated, chances are that you will not be able to get out alive at all… For regular players that are looking for depth and strategy, 'Pharao' doesn’t have enough to offer; it is too luck dependent. But for those who do not care about this, it might be a nice game that doesn’t take too long to play.
© 2007 Barbara van Vugt

Das Gold des Pharao, Arthur Tebbe, Californian Products / Identity Games, 2007 - 2 to 4 players, 8 years and up, 45 minutes


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