Episode 214: Tabannusi-Builders of Ur

Tabannusi-Builders of Ur designed by David Spada & Daniele Tascini. Published by Board and Dice. 1-4 players, 120min Players work to build the Great City of Ur and establish themselves as powerful builders. The game consists of 5 rounds but don’t be fooled; these rounds can go quickly as the game progresses. Once all five rounds are completed, end game scoring happens. There are public decree cards which once completed players earn points and there are hidden urban cards that if completed by the end of the game earn you points. Each turn, your assistant will activate one of the 5 districts. When activating a district, you must first take a die from the district. This die matches the color of the district and serves two functions: 1) The die itself becomes a resource of its color 2) The value of the die determines which district your architect will activate on the following turn. On your turn you will choose 2 actions that are available in the district. If you are in one of the three common districts, you will place projects and turn them into buildings to score points or flood the districts in order to build gardens for points and the ability to move up the mastery tracks. If it is in the Ziggurat district you will construct houses to earn favor for huge end game scoring multipliers and allow you to advance on the mastery tracks, which is in turn going to matter when the common districts are scored. And in the port district you can claim ships with important persistent abilities (if you’ve played Teotihuacan, it’s similar to what happens when you gain access to Technologies) and for scoring victory points. When you’re done with actions, your assistant follows their boss, the architect, onto the next district. The moment a district is emptied of dice, a round ends and scoring will occur for that particular district.