Oh my, oh mykerinos I think this is a good game. But do others agree or is this just a small personal preference in a world of hundreds of equally good games? At a current rank of 163 one might question whether it is worth the time to learn a game like this. Let me try and convince you.

Mykerinos is a archaeological expedition into the pyramids of Egypt in search of treasures. A number of classical British characters join us adorned in their big dresses and right royal upper crust moustaches. I am forced to say of the presentation “Jolly good show old chap pass me a cup of the earl gray if you wouldn’t mind”. The portrait style art fits theme and period well and the board and box are relatively small. No space is wasted on the scoring track and museum, and the board is a bunch of tiles which stack easily in the box. Player pieces are small artistic tokens and traditional wooden cubes. Hold the phones though …. There’s no yellow, so if you have the “I play with yellow “ badge then you’re in trouble!

The game itself is mostly area control. A number of tiles representing dig sites are laid out in each round and players place cubes to win the tiles. Winning a tile means getting access to a character power for the next round and scores you points at the end of the game. The trick to Mykerinos is that you may forgo a tile in order to increase the multiplier (place in the museum) on certain types (characters) of tiles. There are five in all. So there is a healthy trade-off there.

The character powers are varied allowing you to gain more cubes or place more cubes in your turn for example. Each tile contains pyramids which cannot be built on and one of the powers allows you to build on a pyramid. The most powerful ability however is the ability to place a single cube in the museum hence increasing the value of your tiles. Certainly the game has drawn some criticism for this unbalanced power, however word has it the recent expansion ‘The Nile’ brings a better balance.

Still that takes nothing away from the game for me. Once played it is a simple play with strategic depth. Do you want to go all out on one or two key tiles or spread yourself more thinly? Do you forgo one tile for the ability to grab that key spot in the museum? In truth all you do is place area control cubes, that is it. Tell me what could be simpler.

So if you are looking for an easy play with good euro depth then look no further than the wonderfully presented Mykerinos. It’s fantastic value for money ... nuf said.