Episode 255: Amritsar – The Golden Temple

Amritsar, India is home to The Golden Temple, a spectacular building that is world-renowned and viewed as a sacred place for the Sikh community - as well as one of the most famous pilgrimage destinations on Earth.  After being demolished several times, Maharaja Ranjit Singh rebuilt it using marble, copper and 750 kilos of pure gold, hence its name - The Golden Temple.

In Amritsar, the players will represent the different personalities of the time who helped the Maharaja of the Sikh Empire with the reconstruction of the Golden Temple.

Using a clever mechanic based on classic mancala games, players will use the different workers and their very own elephant to carry out the necessary tasks. On your turn, you will be able to perform 1-3 actions depending on how well you have coordinated the workers and your elephant. 

These actions will consist of collecting resources in the quarry - The blue tiles in the game allow you to collect valuable resources which you’ll use to improve your personal board, make donations or invest in your mahout (or Elephant Rider).

The yellow tiles in the game represent the market, which players can utilize to purchase and sell goods.  When out of stock goods are sold back to the market, players also receive those all valuable prestige points!  

Using a white tile will allow players to advance on the different paths of knowledge - These tracks often grant instant benefits (such as free resources and coin) and occasionally grant players income at the beginning of future rounds.

The build action resides on green tiles and these will allow players to improve their personal board. These upgrades augment resource and coin storage, adds end game victory point achievements and of course the ability to add those powerful Mahout upgrades.

The final, and arguably most important moment in every round is turning to your mahout (that all important elephant rider) for help, potentially earning yourself some free resources or the most important action in the game, the ability to make donations to the temple with the aim of obtaining as many prestige points as possible. 

A little more on the Mahout and why upgrading their actions are so important.. Mahout upgrades are assigned to an individual color when they come into play. This upgrade becomes a bonus action every time another player triggers the color that you have your Mahout upgrade assigned to. 4 colors and 6 different upgrade tiles means that players can explore many different strategies in relation to these Mahout, or “follow” actions.

Amritsar takes place over 3 decades, each decade consists of 4 rounds. At the end of each decade the active temple tile is scored - This is a familiar area-control mechanic that awards the controlling player a substantial amount of points… Those Donations we mentioned earlier are just about to pay off… My question is why does this thing look like a family tree?! 

Players then have to pay taxes each Decade based on how many upgrade tiles they have added to their player board.  Once taxes are paid, income is awarded.  At the completion of the third decade the final score is tallied and the player with the most prestige is declared the winner of the game and the most prestigious and accomplished builder of Amritsar: The Golden Temple.