I was lucky enough to play the big-box from Herr Knizia, Amun-Re, last night. I believe many of you have already read about the game play in other reviews, so I'll focus on what I felt during the game-play. It may sound strange or not, but on the whole the game really felt like Princes of Florence to me. Let me explain this further. A game round is composed of several phases, and the major ones are bidding and actions. You bid for land areas, and each area has different properties - some produce more money while others have temples which bring you victory points. After bidding is over, you buy things into your lands. You can buy farmers (who makes money when harvest happens), bricks (three bricks make one pyramid), or cards (which give you various powers). Your money is somewhat limited, due to the bidding, so this phase has the "action-points allowance" feel. You need to make the best of what you have.. After buying things, you make sacrifices to Amun-Re (the Sun god), and according to the sum of sacrifices the amount of money which a farmer can make. You get points by building pyramids, having the most money, having temples in your area, and by meeting the conditions on the bonus cards you buy. Now the similar points: 1) The game is mainly composed of two phases : bidding and action. 2) Bonus cards work in very similar ways : you buy them first, and then try to meet the requirements. 3) Apart from bidding for lands, player interaction is somewhat low. The game was good, but I think that some of the reviews are too generous. All the subsystems are known ones, it's just a new combination. Maybe the rave is because there are not so many new big box games these days. Just my 2 cents. Back to Table of Contents -- Game! # 10 To Game! List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by George Phillies. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com