Introduction
Nefertiti is a quick-paced tactical game for 3-4 players where it is important to find many, but original, gifts for Akhenaton to give to his wife Nefertiti for their wedding anniversary.

Gameplay
The game board displays the most important markets of upper and lower Egypt (Gizeh, Louqsor, Akhet-Aton and Abou Simbel).


Image by Matthieu P.

As you can see, each market consists of two stalls, one of which will be covered by the corresponding "market reserve" board. Additionally, the second stall of the Louqsor market will be covered by the "market closed" board, thus this market is completely closed at the beginning of the game.

All open markets receive 4 gift cards. Each gift card displays the number of these cards present in the game (its rarity) and its value when any number of players owns gifts of this type (its originality).


Image by Thomas Cauet

A royal seal token is placed on the top gift card of each market. These seals can be spend to use a character card. Each character card represents a different powerful action, but each of them can easily turn the tide in your favour in an instant, making the royal seals very desirable.


Image by Thomas Cauet

So, how does one aqcuire gift cards and royal seals? At the beginning of the game, each player recieves 4 servant pawns and an amount of money (depending on the number of players this could range from 8 to 10 Deben).
Every turn each player has to place a servant of his on one of the numbered squares displayed in one of the open markets. This servant is essentially his bid for some of the gift cards on this market. All players place servants in turn on the open markets and may even place lower bids on markets were a servant is already present.

The bids on a market stall are settled when it closes. Each stall has different closing conditions (for example: 3 servants of a different color present or the total amount of the bids is equal to or exceeds 17). The player with the highest bid HAS to pay the amount of Deben of his bid to the market and then chooses to either take the top gift card with a Royal Seal or two of the lower gift cards. All players with a lower bid on the market then have a choice of paying the amount of their bid to the market to receive one of the leftover gift cards or receive half of the gold on the market (rounded up). In this way every player aqcuires either new gift cards or money to spend on new gift cards in other markets.

When a stall is closed, the "market reserve" board on it is moved to the adjacent stall of the market, and the "market closed" board is now placed on the stall that just closed (thus opening the previously closed market). A newly opened market receives new gift cards to ensure there are always 4 gift cards available on each open market. If the 'Akhenaton' card is revealed during the placement of the gift cards (which is always in the bottom 4 cards of the stack), the endgame begins and no new markets are opened during the game.

If a player acquired a Royal Seal during a previous turn, he is allowed to spend it at the start of his turn to select one of the character cards available. Like I already stated at the beginning, these are very important for a good endscore. The ablities are very different and always have interesting consequences: some force all players to get rid of a gift card of a type of your choice, thus increasing the originality of gift cards of that type, while others reward diversity in gift types.

The scoring of the game is not that difficult. For each gift card you have at the end of the game you receive the points printed on the card based on the number of other players that have a gift card of the same type. You also receive 1 point for every two Deben and 3 points for unused every Royal Seal at the end of the game. Scoring happens during the game only by means of some of the character cards and these cards have a special symbol on them that indicates immediate scoring.

Components
The board is made of sturdy cardboard, is nicely illustrated and easy to read. A score track to 100 points is printed along the edges.
The "market reserve" boards, the "market closed" board, the deben coins and royal seal are also made of sturdy cardboard and colourful.
The 46 gift cards come in 7 different types. They are small (similar to the original Ticket to Ride cards) and not really thick, but they don't feel very cheap. The 13 character cards arme made of the same material and come in 7 different types.

The servant pawns and score counters are made of wood and thus the standard quality you've come to expect of these type of games. The box also contains two small wooden dice which are only used to determine the starting player and the closing conditions of one market. They could have been heavier, but it's not that big a deal since they are not that critical to the gameplay.

The closing conditions of each stall are not that difficult to remember once you know the symbols, but a detailed description of each of them is given on a Market sheet. The other side of this sheet details the abilities of each character and is probably used more often for reference. I found the rulebook to be clear and concise, but I might be biased since I'm responsible for the Dutch translation of the rules (you have been warned).

I have only one minor quibble about the box. It has a simple insert, which allows the board to move around a little when you carry the box with you. The size of the box is good, which in my opinion is rare since I find most boxes to be too large.



Entertainment
Nefertiti is a quick-paced tactical game with easy rules that has a high replayablity factor. It's possible to start the game with other market stalls revealed then displayed in the example, which makes the starting conditions of the game different. Besides this, each game never feels the same because of the random distribution of the Gift cards. This does contribute to a mild luck-factor, but this just is more of a tactical than strategical game.

The only downtime in Nefertit comes from getting to know the closing conditions of the markets and the abilities of the characters. Since the game comes with reference sheet, it should be no problem for a new player to quickly look up any questions related to them. Once you know the workings of the markets and characers, there should be almost no downtime at all and you probably will never exceed the printed playing time of 45 minutes. However, the low downtime doesn't mean that there aren't any interesting decisions to make or that it's predictable. It's just that you don't have to struggle with a lot of rules and exceptions to the rules.

The simplicity of the rules and the low downtime make Nefertiti suitable as a gateway game, although games using a bidding system can always be a little awkward when playing with a mix of experienced and new players.




EDITS:
- Sentence structure of conclusion for better readability