Episode 182: Apocrypha
October 19, 2020
Episode 184: Lost Ruins of Arnak
November 16, 20201) The Pegs discuss their recent game plays including Kokopelli, Trekking the World, One Small Step and many more;
2) All the Pegs review Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sun; and
3) Look back at Flotilla.
Join in the conversation for this episode over at our Board Game Geek guild.
Show Notes
00:01:08 – Patrick’s creepy trivia
Banter
00:04:37 – Frosthaven Contest
00:06:14 – Patrick Catch Up
00:08:09 – BPPP Discord
00:11:23 – BPPP Secret Santa
00:12:35 – Patrick on Mita Pelataan?
00:16:02 – Jeremy on Brambeard Gaming
00:19:35 – Jeremy has a Post-Pugmire Lecture
00:22:45 – Christina and Harper learn new, old rules
00:26:25 – Patrick Culling his Collection
00:29:26 – Patrick Casts the Welcome to Centreville Lady
Plays
00:32:15 – Kokopelli [Buy] – Queen Games; Designer: Stefan Feld; Art: Markus Erdt;
00:41:49 – One Small Step [Buy] – Academy Games, Inc.; Designer: James DuMond, Gunter Eickert, James Schoch; Art: Jarek Nocoń;
00:50:58 – Trekking the World [Buy] – Underdog Games; Designer: Charlie Bink; Art: Csaba Bernáth, Sebastián Koziner, Marta Danecka, Aleksey Shirokikh, Alexey Shirokikh;
01:13:16 – Inner Compass [Buy] – Alderac Entertainment Group; Designer: Asger Harding Granerud, Daniel Skjold Pedersen; Art: Stephanie Gustafsson, Jeremy Nguyen;
01:11:10 – A Word from Our Sponsor: Queen Games
01:12:29 – Caylus 1303 [Buy] – Space Cowboys; Designer: William Attia; Art: Andrew Bosley;
01:18:15 – Fluttering Souls [Buy] – Good Games Publishing; Designer: Joel Lewis; Art: Dejana Louise Storey;
News
01:25:57 – Patrick discusses his most anticipated Essen games, Robb discusses new Terra Mystica: Innovations, Christina discusses Mandala Stones, Sabotage at Lucky Llama Land, Essen Spiel feedback
01:43:55 – Darkest Dungeon Kickstarter
01:49:15 – Feed the Kraken Kickstarter
01:53:39 – Paper Dungeons
01:53:39 – Descent: Legends of the Dark
02:00:30 – Catan Swag
02:03:14 – And Now a Word from Our Sponsor: Grand Gamers Guild
REVIEW: Tekhenu
02:04:12 – Rules Breakdown
Tekhenu is a 2 to 4 player action selection game designed by Daniele Tascini and Dávid Turczi, with art by Jakub Fajtanowski, Michał Długaj, Zbigniew Umgelter and Alexander Zawada, and published in 2020 by Board&Dice. In Tekhenu, the players are competing to contribute to the temple of Amun-Ra, expanding buildings, building statues, growing workshops, and advancing the population of the temple and the happiness of the people.
The primary feature of the board is the obelisk – an actual plastic obelisk on a rotating circular tile. This tile is segmented into several sections indicating dark, dusk, and light – thematically, indicating the side of the obelisk facing the sun and the resulting shadows and darkness cast around it – and these segments line up with action spaces outside of the rotating tile.
At the start of the game and several routes thereafter, dice will be rolled and placed into each of the action spaces, with the shaded segment of the rotating tile indicating where within the action box dice will be placed. As the obelisk rotates throughout the game, dice remaining in these action areas will move accordingly.
Dice will be placed in one of three sections within each action: Pure, Tainted, and Forbidden. Forbidden dice cannot be used to take actions except in very narrow circumstances, while the other dice may be used freely.
On a players turn, they must select a die from one of the action boxes. Dice can be used for two purposes: to gain resources, or to take the God action of that action space. Any time a die is claimed, the player must place it on either the Pure or Tainted side of the scale on their player board – ultimately, with the hope of being able to balance these sides out by the time the obelisk rotates.
When gaining resources, the player will collect a resource – bread, paper, granite, or limestone – matching the color of the selected die, and a quantity indicated by the pips on the die AND up to their production capacity as indicated on their player board. If a die is selected with more pips than production capacity, the excess capacity is stored on the Tainted side of the player’s scales.
When taking the God action of the space, the color of the die does not matter, but the value of the die will have various impacts depending on what space is taken. When taking the Hathor action, for example, the pips will indicate how many population the player gains after constructing a building, while in the case of the Osiris action the pips indicate which row of workshops you can place a building on, with higher-value rows providing both more immediate resources and more growth in production capacity than lower-value rows. In addition, each God action will generally require some kind of resource to use in order to complete it.
After each player takes two dice the obelisk is rotated and new dice are added. After each player takes four dice, the obelisk is rotated again and the Maat phase commences where players balance their scales, with the player(s) closest to perfect balance going higher in the new turn order. Players will score on the 2nd and 4th Maat phase, with the 4th Maat phase also ending the game.
Points are scored in a variety of ways, and generally each God area on the board has some kind of scoring method, often determined by building majorities or positions along various tracks. Points are also scored based on unlocking buildings and statues from the player board, reaching maximum production in a resource, and from Decree cards, which are end-game secret objectives. After the fourth Maat phase is scored, including decrees, the player with the most points is declared the winner.
02:07:55 – Review
02:31:35 – Ratings
ReRoll
02:41:22 – Flotilla [Buy] – WizKids; Designer: J.B. Howell, Michael Mihealsick; Art: Bartek Fedyczak;
Check out our original review for Flotilla during Episode 158.
Gameplay Photos
* Disclosure: These titles were received free of charge by the publishers or distributors. If you are interested in submitting a title for review, please read our Review Policy.
