Emira is one of the more interestingly themed games we've played recently - Arab sheiks acquiring wives to join their harem. I've seen quite a lot of comments suggesting that this theme is offensive. Many of these comments come from the same people who have no problem playing games that allow you to blow seven shades of shit out of your opponents, take the role of an evil dictator, or even assign slaves to man the coffee fields . Make your own mind up which is most offensive. Of course, the theme is also prime material for immature men to make rude and sexist jokes. Given that our sheep jokes in Settlers were becoming old and boring and the average maturity age of our group is rapidly approaching puberty, it's no surprise that Emira's theme went down well with the rest of my group (although, I'm above all that!). In the end though, it's just a game and should be treated as such - in my eyes, it certainly makes a change from trading goods round the Med or building a palace in renaissance Italy.

Despite the theme, the game is very much a "Eurogame", and one at the heavier end of the scale, at least in terms of length. It's closest sibling is probably Princes of Florence but it could also be compared to the likes of Goa or the recent Leonardo. The object of the game is to attract a given number of wives (dependant on the number of players) into your Harem. Emira (princesses) are the potential wives and are represented by cards and come with a number of skills such as cookery, housekeeping and romance (now there's a euphemism if ever I heard one). If the wives that you attract bring the skills that you particularly want in your Harem (determined at the start of the game) then you can get away with winning the game with fewer wives than if, for example, they were all intelligent but what you really wanted was someone to cook you a slap up meal.

Now here's where anyone who wants to argue against the morals of the game will come unstuck. The wives aren't simply "acquired". They are free-spirits who have their own needs and will choose which Sheikh they wish to spend their rest of their life with. (Actually this argument is sort of flawed because they can't choose the "I'm going to remain single" option and always have to join one sheikh or another). Some like wealth, some like status or appearance and good manners while others just go for the size of the sheikh's palace (ok, ok I can't avoid slipping the innuendos in....).

The core mechanic of the game is the auction in which players bid to get the choice of selecting from six actions. Each action can only be chosen once each turn so whoever gets first pick will be assured of being able to select the action they wish while the others may end up with an inferior choice. Three of the actions allow the players to improve their status, appearance or palace size, all of which will give you more chance of pulling the women. Two actions allow spice trades to be launched which will bring in revenue in future turns and the final action increases your herd of camels which give discounts on future bidding rounds. All of these actions also cost money in addition to the auction fee and, as you also have to pay upkeep for your wives at the end of the turn, this means that typically money can be in short supply and you need to manage your income and expenditure carefully in order to make sure you can attract new wives and make sure the existing ones don't run away.

The basic flow of the game therefore is - a new Emira arrives on the scene, players bid for the right to chose their action, they select their action and the princess then joins the Harem of the sheikh who is most able to provide her with what she wants. Each Emira has a first and a second preference so if there is a tie for the first preference she will chose her second preference from amongst the tied sheiks. If there is still a tie she hangs around until one of the sheiks improves his position enough to satisfy her demands uniquely. This mechanism works quite well and the fact that the Emira is turned up prior to the auction means that players will have a good idea where the princess is likely to end up although they do have the chance to influence that accordingly.

There are a few additional rules such as event cards that can be purchased which tweak the rules slightly and some of the Emira also come with a special ability (or penalty) but the basic mechanic is still bid, select action, princess joins sheikh. Lather, rinse, repeat. This is ok but can get a bit tedious - the box says playing time is 75 mins but I would be amazed if a game finished in that time and 2-2.5 hours will be the norm. In my view this is 30-45 minutes too long for this type of game.

The main problem as I see it, revolves around the introduction of the Emira cards. Yes, you get to see each one at the start of the turn but often you will have no chance of securing her services and if princesses with these same preferences come out several turns running (as can quite easily happen) then your chances of winning are severely reduced. In addition, whether or not the ones you do end up with have the skills you need on your goal card is totally down to chance. This means you might end up having to acquire 6 wives where someone else may be lucky and get away with 4. There are event cards that allow you to alter the Emira deck slightly but the option doesn't seem as powerful as, for example, the similar opportunity in rearranging the invention deck in Leonardo, or altering the order in which Palaces are visited in Maharaja and, in any case, there is no guarantee you will get hold of the appropriate event card. I guess I would like to have seen this manipulation as one of the actions available which would allow players the opportunity to control the randomness of the appearance of the Emira.

Other than that, I think the game works pretty well. There are plenty of decisions to be made, cash management is not easy, each player starts with a slightly different set-up/advantage which is a nice touch and the theme is refreshingly different and fits the mechanics very well. However, the laborious nature of the auctions (the winner of which is often obvious) and the large luck element for a game of this length is not to my liking when there are so many other better games that just don’t have these issues vying for my attention. Rating 5