I’d like to share my review of this wonderful, unique game with you. As fun as this game is, it doesn’t look like it gets played as much as it should. I think people will be pleasantly surprised to find that this game is much more fun than what games played shows.

Maharaja is a game with incredible player interaction. There are no cards or dice; all effects in the game are determined by the players themselves. The theme is present as the players are all competing to impress the Maharaja the most by building beautiful palaces in the cities of India prior to his visit.

Each player controls an Architect, who travels from city to city building houses and palaces. The Maharaja’s itinerary is determined by the governor’s track (the only random element of the game), which players can manipulate.

Architects must travel between cities by way of villages, sometimes having to pay gold to other players. Once in a city, the Architect may then spend gold to build houses, or, if wealthy enough, a palace. Once all players have had a chance to move and build, the Maharaja then rewards the players based on how impressive they built structures in that city. Players then use this gold to travel and build in other cities, ahead of the Maharaja’s visit. The first Architect to visit a city has an advantage, because he can build a palace on the best land (visible from afar), thereby earning more prestige from the ‘raja.

Each player also controls a special character that will determine the order of play, as well as some special benefit in the game. Just as with the governor track, players can change characters during the game by spending one of their two permitted actions per turn. The changes take effect immediately, so swapping characters with another player can significantly alter that other player’s plans. These changes are what make the game so dynamic.

In addition to changing the itinerary and changing characters, players also have the options of building houses and/or palaces, and earning a small amount of gold. All players select their two actions in secret, but not revealing their decision until just before taking their respective turn.

The strategies can vary in this game, and the options seem endless. (This can lead to slower players over-analyzing things, especially when first learning the game.) For example, a player might want to focus on quickly building as many houses as possible in villages, in order to earn gold from other players traveling through. Or, a player might want to build up mostly in one or two cities, and then keep changing the governor track so the Maharaja will skip other cities and head back to that one. Of course, whatever strategy you choose, it won’t go as planned, because the other players will affect it with their actions.

This game is fairly simple to learn and play, but can be expanded by using the alternate rules included in the rule book. The game has tons of replayability, as each game will be different. What I love about this game is the player interaction, lack of luck, and the dynamics. The game board and pieces are not only good quality, but detailed and pleasing to look at on the table. The gold coins can easily be used in other games that don’t have the design detail that these have.

The game can be played in a couple of hours, even with the maximum five players. There is also an alternate rule to include for a shorter game. Setup time is within five minutes or so. The theme is present, but not overpowering, and it complements the gameplay well.

The only criticism I have is that some icons on the player wheel (actions) are easy to mistake for others. Because of this, you may end up choosing an action that wasn’t what you intended. This will be negligible after the first game or so, so it isn’t a big deal.

This makes for a great family-type game, but maybe not as an introduction game to complete non-gamers. Serious gamers, however, will still enjoy what this game has to offer. If you like lots of player interaction, low-luck and lots of dynamics, then this if the game to go for!