Game: Mykerinos

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bartlevy — 2008-11-23T20:39:32+00:00

Mykerinos in Zuntzu

Thread: Re: 2 player game - Dummy placement

jearles — 2008-11-01T18:41:39+00:00

Yes, with neutral cubes you can either start a new neutral excavation (action A), or extend a pre-existing neutral excavation (action B), following the cube placing rules.

Edit: If extending you can use 2 neutral cubes.

Thread: 2 player game - Dummy placement

Snake1 — 2008-11-01T17:49:58+00:00

When placing cubes for the dummy player, can you place two consecutive cubes if starting next to an existing dummy cube or are you only allowed to place 1 per turn?

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Grimwold — 2008-10-18T16:35:13+00:00

Box Dimensions - 27.5cm x 19.1cm x 6.0cm

Thread: Re: Pleasingly deep for the time; probably not broken, but...

Demo_Boy — 2008-10-05T16:19:14+00:00

I have used this variant frequently.
It takes some power out of the castle, so late game field control is worth more. Since field value is worth more, the early game value of non-brown cards is enhanced.

I had played 1,2,3,4x but this drove action on the fields too much.

Thread: Re: Pleasingly deep for the time; probably not broken, but...

darker — 2008-09-30T18:19:42+00:00

Demo_Boy wrote:
Multiply points on the cards using the following chart:

Round --> Multiplier
1 --> 1
2 --> 1
3 --> 2
4 --> 3

Interesting idea. Do you frequently play this way? How does it change the dynamic of your games?

[Speculating offhand, I'd imagine it would change a number of things: It'd certainly allow people who've been locked out of the museum a better shot at winning. It would also make early-game patrons less critical, which could be interesting/useful with four players. In late-game, it would be much more worthwhile sniping point-granting patrons even if one doesn't have museum space for them. ]

[However, in the process of all this, it seems like it'd notably devalue the museum relative to board points, and museum placement is a fun and interesting part of the game - just (apparently) too easy/low-cost with Sir Brown. I also imagine it'd inject a fair amount of swinginess/chaos to the late-game (as the value spread between various available tiles could be huge) - not something I object to in general, but neither is it something I expect I'd enjoy in this particular game.]

Thread: Re: Pleasingly deep for the time; probably not broken, but...

Demo_Boy — 2008-09-30T17:07:07+00:00

Multiply points on the cards using the following chart:

Round --> Multiplier
1 --> 1
2 --> 1
3 --> 2
4 --> 3

Thread: Re: Pleasingly deep for the time; probably not broken, but...

darker — 2008-09-15T13:53:21+00:00

jearles wrote:
If you find yourself overly concerned with Mr. Brown's ability you may want to take a look at the Mykerinos expansion, Mykerinos: The Nile.

*nod* I'd recalled that there was an expansion, but not that Gov. Greenwish's power helped to counteract Sir Brown's. Thanks for the reminder! I'm still apt to experiment with house-rules for the moment, but may spring for The Nile eventually.

(For the curious - the expansion rules are online at http://www.ystari.com/mykerinos/MykNilUS.pdf, and it seems orderable from FunGamesCafe, but not anyplace else I checked. Their shipping policies make ordering just the expansion a fairly expensive proposition for those of us in the US, alas.)

(ETA: Perhaps not quite as expensive as I'd first thought; see this thread.)

Thread: Re: Pleasingly deep for the time; probably not broken, but...

jearles — 2008-09-15T13:13:46+00:00

If you find yourself overly concerned with Mr. Brown's ability you may want to take a look at the Mykerinos expansion, Mykerinos: The Nile.

In addition to offering new gameplay tiles and rules there is a new character, Governor Greenwish. He allows you to reserve a place either in the museum or in an excavation.

Thread: Re: Pleasingly deep for the time; probably not broken, but...

Barad_the_dwarf — 2008-09-15T10:40:31+00:00

good review, enjoyed reading it.

Thread: Re: Pleasingly deep for the time; probably not broken, but...

EmperorJacob — 2008-09-14T18:32:28+00:00

If you come up with a variant you like, please post. Thanks!

Thread: Pleasingly deep for the time; probably not broken, but...

darker — 2008-09-14T06:13:05+00:00

Where I'm coming from: I've played the game 6-8 times - usually 4-player, rarely 3, never 2.

I. Rules and Play
Overview
The core of the game is competition over patrons and museum space for those patrons. At the start of each round, you make a small board out of randomly-chosen face-down patron tiles, grouped into parcels of two tiles (12 squares) each.

Close-up of a board. Note the colored icon in the center of each tile; it indicates which patron is on the reverse.
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During the round, influence (represented by cubes) is placed across this board. Once finished, player ranking for each parcel is resolved in turn. Players who rank well may gain immediate points, patron tiles, or claim rooms in the museum.

Patron tiles provide a special ability during subsequent rounds, and are worth points at game end. You may use each of your tiles once per later round, so you'll get the most use out of your earliest patrons.

(Example: in round 1, you win two Lady Violet tiles and a Lord Lemon. In round 2, you can use two Lady Violet actions and one Lord Lemon action. In round 3, you can use them all again, along with whatever you won in round 2. In round 4, you can use them all again, plus whatever you won in rounds 2 and 3.)

After four rounds, the game ends. Each patron tile is worth 1 point by default. Having museum space for a particular patron will increase that patron's tiles to be worth 2, 3, or even 5 points each. There is a mild bonus (5 points) for collecting sets of all five patrons.

Details
Round setup
Each player takes 11 cubes (8 with four players) of their color from the general supply. In the first three rounds, four parcels of two tiles each are laid out. In the final round, six parcels are placed.

Placing influence
Taking turns, players execute one action, chosen from:
1. Start a new camp: Place a single cube on an open (non-pyramid) square;
2. Expand an existing camp: Place two cubes on open squares - the first must be adjacent to an existing cube, the second must be adjacent to the first. Note that the parcels are considered adjacent to each other - while they're scored in 2-tile units, for purposes of placement they're all one big map;
3. Use the special ability of a single patron tile (won in a previous round);
4. Pass, after which the player takes no further actions this round. Once all but one player has passed, that player gets just one action, after which they must also pass. This is important.

Players do not need to use all their influence cubes, and often will not want to. Pass order is relevant for two things:
1. Ties on a parcel are broken in favor of whichever player passed earlier.
2. Whomever passed last goes first in the next round.

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Resolving parcels
Parcels are resolved one at a time, in a fixed order determined at game start. Rank the players who have influence on the parcel, with pass order resolving ties. The first-place player may either take one of the two patron tiles from that parcel (and perhaps some immediate bonus points, if the tile shows a number), or claim a space in the museum. The second-place player then gets the same choice. If there are any tiles left, then the third-place player may take one - but they never get the museum option; similarly for fourth place.

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Museum placement
There are three types of room in the museum:
* "2" rooms are between two patron symbols. If you claim such a room, both those patrons will be worth 2 points to you.
* "3" rooms are for a single patron, which is then worth 3 points at game end.
* "5" rooms are for a single patron, which is then worth 5 points at game end. You must have either a "3" room or a "2" room for a patron before you can claim their "5" room.

You only benefit from the best room you have for a given patron. Cubes added to the museum during parcel resolution come from the general supply - not your personal stash.

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Patron powers
The five patron special powers are as follows. All require your action to use:
* Lady Violet gives you a cube from the general supply, after which you to take an ordinary placement of either sort;
* Mrs. Blackmore lets you place a new camp (cubes unconnected to your earlier ones) of two cubes instead of one;
* Col. Tangerine lets you extend a camp (placing from existing cubes) with three cubes instead of two;
* Lord Lemon lets you take an ordinary placement of either sort, in which one of the cubes may be placed atop a pyramid (normally an obstacle / dead square);
* Sir Brown lets you take a cube from your personal supply and place it immediately in the museum, following the normal museum placement rules (ie, no 5 unless you have a 2 or 3 for that patron already). Obviously, this will put you at a disadvantage in claiming parcels that round, but it also lets you secure museum space early and without having to forego claiming a patron tile sometime.

Two-player games
Two-player games involve a "dummy" third player, which can be extended by either of the two human players and which always takes the #2 pass slot. I have no experience with the two-player game, and so won't comment upon it.

Notes on Tiles
The tiles which have grant immediate bonus points have more open layouts (ie, fewer pyramids). This allows greater room for contention over the more-valuable tiles.

Each of the five different patrons shows up seven times, for 35 of the 36 tiles. The remaining tile is worth 5 points immediately upon claiming, but grants no patron (so no points at endgame, and no special power).

II. Judgement
Components
The rulebook gets a minus for putting atmospheric hieroglyphics behind the text, making the rules much more difficult to read (or skim quickly, if you're trying to reference something in your first game or two).

The tiles get a plus for being sturdy and well-designed - the icons representing different characters are easily distinguished and colorblind-friendly, and the portrait sides are also easily distinguishable. (The power-reminder icons aren't necessarily instantly intuitive, but seem to do the trick after a single verbal reminder.)

The game's box is modestly sized, which is nice for hauling it places.

I know some folks dislike the cubes (for being small) and score-track markers (for being large); I don't find either problematic.

Theme
The theme informs the artwork and visual design of the game, but really, it's all about the mechanics.

Well, actually, that's something of a lie - the apparent theme of excavation and archaeology doesn't inform the mechanics or feel of the game at all; but the real theme of cutthroat patronage politics does come through in the museum mechanic, and in the fact that the actual archaeology is pretty much irrelevant (abstracted away to "points") except as it gains you the favor of your patrons.

Still, if you're looking for deep immersion, this ain't it.

How Does It Play?
Each round feels like a set of linked competitions/placement-puzzles - passing earlier is generally an advantage, so there's a reasonable incentive to play by expanding (adding 2 cubes at a time) rather than founding new camps with just 1 cube. I believe this dynamic is really what makes the game shine - without it, it'd just be a set of unlinked area-control competitions, with tempo of placement in different areas the only real interplay between them. But since expanding from an existing position is valuable, blocking other players becomes useful, pyramids/board edges need to be taken into consideration, and placement which permits expansion onto multiple parcels you wish to contest is extremely useful.

(The scoring phase for each round has some interesting decisions, too - the choice between museum placement and tile can often be quite tough, especially when museum placement would grant a tile to someone who wouldn't otherwise get one, and major strokes of inspiration / blunders are certainly possible - but I feel like the meat of the game is during influence placement.)

As has been praised elsewhere, Mykerinos is fast for the depth you get: it takes about an hour or so, and I could well imagine playing a game in 30-40 minutes with veteran players. There is some capacity for AP (one's moves are significant, and involve consideration of other people's likely priorities and plans - both good things, really) but that potential is mitigated by making each turn a small "do one simple thing" decision rather than a lengthy endeavor.

The four-player game feels considerably more crowded than with three players, and seems somewhat less forgiving - especially for new players, it's all too possible to end up with just one patron and no museum space after the first round, which can be a painful start.

Strategy thoughts
Early patrons are very, very useful. While there are certainly game situations in which you'll want to strategically keep cubes for use later on, don't give away too much in the early game.

The set bonus for collecting all five patrons should not be a primary goal - it only really makes each of those five patrons worth 2 points instead of one, which is nowhere near as good as, say, getting 4-5 of a single patron along with the 3- or 5-point museum space for that patron. If you happen to be near getting a set anyhow, then sure, go for it - 5 points is a nice bonus - but don't go into the game expecting that's how you'll win.

As mentioned above, passing early is usually advantageous. Barring Lady Violet, every player gets exactly the same number of cubes over the game, and passing early means that anyone wishing to beat you must spend greater effort for the same result, giving you an advantage elsewhere/later. Of course, you also want to avoid placing useless cubes (which only take 3rd/4th place when 1st/2nd take tiles rather than museum), and passing early can expose you to being overtaken, so thought / judging of others' intentions + moves is certainly required.

There can arise situations which overturn the usual "passing first is good" dynamic: if two players have substantially more cubes available than the other 1-2 players, you can end up in a situation where some players have passed, and the other two are alternating turns to achieve victory / 2nd place against the passed players by exactly-required margins, rather than blowing cubes competing with each other. (This is more possible in the final round, which has 50% more space available.) In this instance, passing earlier may not be desirable; while you'll win ties, you'll lose the ability to react. In this case, the only advantage to faster-play powers becomes the ability to quickly get a parcel to a point where you can't lose it, or to respond to someone else attempting to get a similar lock.

As in any limited-influence area-control game, inefficiency is to be avoided whenever possible. One obvious form of inefficiency is cubes which come in a useless 3rd or 4th place, but another is overkill when winning. Playing far more influence than necessary may intimidate others out of contesting you - but they will simply play those cubes elsewhere, likely to your net detriment, unless what you've secured is extremely valuable for you. On average, a player who takes calculated risks is apt to do better than a player who values certainty-of-victory in particular parcels above overall game position.

Claiming space in the museum is a critical part of the game - not just to make your own patrons score more (though that's most important) but also to deny points to other players.

Third place is more likely to pay out on parcels without bonus points, since bonus points give 1st/2nd place an incentive to take patron tiles rather than museum space.

The different patrons result in different tempo dynamics for the parcel placements - Black and Tangerine speed up their player, by placing more quickly; Lemon is neutral, changing only what spaces are legal; Violet is kinda neutral but benefits from longer play-length (you can't play those additional cubes if everyone else passes); and Brown slows down his player (by spending a turn only using a single cube, and not even on the parcels). Which brings us nicely to...

The Disputably Disreputable Sir Brown
Sir Brown's special ability - to place a cube from your supply into the museum - is certainly valuable. There have been multiple discussions about whether it's too valuable.

My experience is thus: in every game I've played, the winner has always been one of the players to capture one of the earlier Brown tiles which came out. This has been true even when I warned players about this effect, and early Brown tiles were bitterly disputed. Getting Sir Brown does not guarantee a win, but completely lacking Sir Brown seems like a major, major handicap.

Admittedly, most of my games have been 4-player, in which museum space tends to be tighter. Most of my games have also been with people who've played 0-2 times before. Using Sir Brown carries indisputable costs: a cube from your supply, and tempo on the parcels. I concede it entirely possible that among more experienced players, Sir Brown is perfectly balanced; after all, plenty of beginning players have thought that shipping corn was an unbeatable Puerto Rico strategy. And Mykerinos is the sort of game where I expect expertise to grant substantial advantage over beginning play.

All that being said, I've seen multiple novices put off of the game due to the discouragement / frustration of getting utterly hammered in the museum - as often as not by other novices, and as often as not by the end of round two, giving the victims a feeling of helpless pointlessness for the second half of the game.

Conclusions
I've enjoyed Mykerinos more and more with every play; each round is its own unique, competitive little territory microgame with varying motivations, incentives, and powers thrown into the mix. Sir Brown's power is the one sore spot in a system which otherwise feels very tight; while I can accept that it might possibly be balanced as-is, for practical reasons, I'm going to start house-ruling it in games with new or inexperienced players. I can imagine that some would find the game overly bland, and others simply uninspiring, but if you enjoy positional maneuverings and don't mind the abstractness, give it a try.

[Edited (x2) to fix/clarify a few confusing sentences + omissions caused by posting this rather late in the evening.]

Thread: 6 Patrons and 5 Museum Wings?

Goldenturkey — 2008-09-06T23:32:16+00:00

I'm due to play my first game on Monday and I'm wondering about the 6th Patron (from the Nile expansion).

The game normally assumes that the original 5 control the museum wings, but why not draw randomly for 5 patrons, thus one patron will not score in the museum, will still count for wildcards, but will not be as desirable for planning end game scoring.

This un-allotted patron would might make it easier for lagging players to acquire easy parcels as other players fight over scoring patrons. It would add a little variation to each game, jumbling the desire to go for abilities rather than parcels.

It might add another level of dilema if your game winning ability is the unscoring patron - do you take a parcel to help you gain an advantage or consider the end game.

Any thoughts?

CHRIS

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Goldenturkey — 2008-08-31T20:09:18+00:00

Alternate character cards

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Goldenturkey — 2008-08-31T18:31:30+00:00

Yet another Mykerinos board (plus Greenwish)

Thread: Re: Poll- Would you prefer this game the way it is or with little men and some plastic artifacts instead of cubes, etc?

Motorkopf — 2008-07-27T19:42:33+00:00

The cubes are much too small, and so is the board.

Ans by re-sizing it, you could as well use meeples instead of cubes

Thread: Re: Poll- Would you prefer this game the way it is or with little men and some plastic artifacts instead of cubes, etc?

Frank Hamrick — 2008-07-27T12:35:55+00:00

I prefer it the way it is, with larger board, tiles and cubes. But then, you increase the costs significantly. So, I think they got it about right.

Thread: Re: Poll- Would you prefer this game the way it is or with little men and some plastic artifacts instead of cubes, etc?

Karlsen — 2008-07-27T09:55:50+00:00

I'd prefer it if the rules could be distinguished from the background graphic art.

Thread: Re: Poll- Would you prefer this game the way it is or with little men and some plastic artifacts instead of cubes, etc?

wizardless — 2008-07-27T09:50:37+00:00

well I voted the way it is. I don't want to Ameri-trash it by adding plastic figures. But what bothers me is the art-work. I love the illustrations of the personalities. But all that hieroglyphic stuff in the background gives me a headache! I reckon if there was a redesign, with bigger board (and cubes) and maybe more stylier illustration for the main board maybe even the parcels, I'd snap it up in a second!
wiz

Thread: Re: Poll- Would you prefer this game the way it is or with little men and some plastic artifacts instead of cubes, etc?

Newsh — 2008-07-27T08:14:09+00:00

There is no confusion caused by having cubes instead of meeples etc., and I suspect it keeps costs lower to have the generic rather than something specialised.

Mykerinos is a great game, and I think the theming works well as it is.

In this case, I vote for cubes on the basis that it keeps the game affordable.

Thread: Re: Poll- Would you prefer this game the way it is or with little men and some plastic artifacts instead of cubes, etc?

Liumas — 2008-07-27T08:05:44+00:00

The board is too small, no question.

But the cards are fine the way they are.

Thread: Re: Poll- Would you prefer this game the way it is or with little men and some plastic artifacts instead of cubes, etc?

Grudunza — 2008-07-27T06:02:34+00:00

I don't know that I care so much about having meeples and plastic artifacts, but I voted for that only because the size of the cubes is so tiny, and that is really the only drawback of an otherwise terrific game. So I would prefer to play it with either larger cubes, or, as you say, other substitutes like meeples.

Thread: Poll- Would you prefer this game the way it is or with little men and some plastic artifacts instead of cubes, etc?

Duglis — 2008-07-27T05:55:27+00:00

[poll=11676]

Thread: Re: Rules interpretation regarding the use of patrons

Karis — 2008-05-30T23:59:19+00:00

Exactly.

I think you understood the wrong thing because you mix TURN and SEASON.

One SEASON is composed of several TURNS

In one TURN, each player will play once. During his turn, a player may use exactly one patron card...

REgards,
Cyril

Thread: Re: Rules interpretation regarding the use of patrons

Grudunza — 2008-05-30T19:37:30+00:00

Okay, I was confusing the terms "turn" and "season". So it is worded correctly in the rules... Each time your turn comes up you can only play one card, period (or none at all). But during each season (which comprises several "turns") you can play any number of different cards, as able.

Thread: Re: Rules interpretation regarding the use of patrons

Websteria — 2008-05-30T18:18:34+00:00

Still, I can only use one card of ANY type during my turn.... it states only one card may be tilted, meaning I couldn't use two Lord Lemons on my turn if I wanted to expand over two pyramids...

Thread: Re: Rules interpretation regarding the use of patrons

warrenac — 2008-05-30T17:57:01+00:00

The terminology is a bit confusing - a turn in this case is choosing one of the four actions during the Excavation Phase. Then the next player gets a turn and does one action, and so on around until gets back to you again - and then you get another turn.

So what they're talking about with only one patron per turn is that when you choose action (D), appealing to a patron, you can only activate one patron - basically, you can't combo the patrons, like using Mrs. Blackmore to place two cubes and Lord Lemon to place on a pyramid at once at the same time. You have to wait until it gets around to your turn again to activate another patron (but you can keep using patrons as long as you get turns and have untilted patrons)

Thread: Re: Rules interpretation regarding the use of patrons

Websteria — 2008-05-30T16:26:46+00:00

Wow. The rules really need clarification on this because it didn't seem that way from my interpretation of the rule. Very odd....

Thanks for the clarification!
Jeff

Thread: Re: Rules interpretation regarding the use of patrons

Grildensnork — 2008-05-30T16:24:09+00:00

You can use ALL the cards every season but only once per card. So in your example you could use Brown's power twice, Lemon's power twice and Violet's power twice per season. So you have six opportunities to use a Parton power in your example. OK?

Kevin

EDIT - Beaten!

Thread: Re: Rules interpretation regarding the use of patrons

Grudunza — 2008-05-30T16:22:34+00:00

You can use the powers of as many cards of all types as you want during one season, as long as you have those cards or multiples of those cards in your possession. You can only use the power of a single card once in a season... once it's used you tilt it to indicate it's been used. But you can use more than one of that type of card, as well as cards of other types, during the season.

In your example, you can use 2 Mr. Browns, 2 Violets and 2 Colonel Lemons all in the same season (assuming you're able to use them, per the circumstances).

If anything is misleading, it is this line: "A given player may only tilt one card per turn." Is that really what it says in the rules? It should actually say, "A given player may only tilt a card once per turn."

Thread: Rules interpretation regarding the use of patrons

Websteria — 2008-05-30T15:29:07+00:00

We're having some confusion based on the wording of the rules regarding the use of the patrons.

According to the rules it says you can only use one patron's powers per turn, but as many as you have:

"Thanks to their financial means, the five patrons can help
the players with their specific powers.
At their turn, the player tilts the card featuring the patron
they are interested in. Then, the player acts as indicated
(see below). A given player may only tilt one card per
turn. A tilted card cannot be used again during the same
season, but a player may appeal to the same patron several
times in the same season (as long as the player has
cards left to tilt, with the patron on them)."

So I would guess this means:

If I have 2 Mr. Browns, 2 Violets and 2 Colonel Lemons, I can only use one of the three types, but I Can use all of that type.

So if I use Colonel Lemon then I can ONLY use his powers during the season, I cannot use Mr. Brown or Violet then.

Is this correct?

Thread: Re: Scoring 5 points for set collection - not enough?

Liggur — 2008-05-29T13:50:25+00:00

What people seem to be missing (judging by the posts) is that when using Sir Brown's power, you must follow the standard museum placement rules. (The rules have this in bold too)
So you would have to place in a 2 or 3 room first, before being able to place in a 5 room. That means you would have to have 2 Sir Brown cards to do this.

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spearjr — 2008-04-30T18:24:46+00:00

Online Interface on Mabiweb.com

Thread: Re: Place Neutral Cubes after passing?

JeffyJeff — 2008-04-21T00:47:12+00:00

by the way, the French rules are clear that you can't place neutral cubes after a "pass". Seems to have been left out of the English translation

Thread: Re: passing and then placing neutral cubes

JeffyJeff — 2008-04-15T03:18:52+00:00

cymric wrote:
I checked the French rules, and found the following: Lors de la phase de fouille (Phase 2), le joueur effectue son action normalement puis, s’il n’a pas passé, il peut utiliser les cubes neutres en sa possession pour placer une nouvelle fouille neutre (action A) ou étendre une fouille neutre déjà existante (action B) en respectant les règles de pose.
In other words, placing neutral cubes is subject to not having passed before (as I suspected). The English rules simply omit that crucial phrase: it's obviously a translation error.
yup... just placed for the 1st time with only 2 players... the other player read the English rules that you could still place neutral cubes while I read it that you couldn't... luckily he also could read some French and the English rules are also in the box, so he found the above (no neutral placement if your action is pass).

Thread: Re: Open MaBiWeb Game

Ladislaus — 2008-03-11T18:48:03+00:00

Ladislaus wrote:
A new, open MaBiWeb game has been created. Come one, come all. Mykerinos newbies welcome.
The game has started. Thank you to all of the participants, and good luck.

Thread: Re: Open MaBiWeb Game

punkzter — 2008-03-11T18:44:51+00:00

Awesome. When this is finalized, would you consider adding the expansion?

Thread: Open MaBiWeb Game

Ladislaus — 2008-03-11T17:55:11+00:00

A new, open MaBiWeb game has been created. Come one, come all. Mykerinos newbies welcome.

MaBiWeb
http://www.mabiweb.com
ID: 18267
Title: Apprentice Egyptian Explorers

Thread: Re: Jolly good show old chap, pass me a cup of the Earl Gray.

Barbarossa — 2008-02-29T08:53:32+00:00

citylife wrote:
A number of classical British characters join us adorned in their big dresses and right royal upper crust moustaches.

Yes, but what do the women wear?

Thread: Re: Jolly good show old chap, pass me a cup of the Earl Gray.

Thorwolf — 2008-02-29T04:35:28+00:00

I must agree- I have not played this much, but enjoy it more each time I play. Lots of depth yet can be played during a lunch hour.

Thread: Jolly good show old chap, pass me a cup of the Earl Gray.

citylife — 2008-02-28T22:35:41+00:00

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.

Thread: Re: In beta-testing at MaBiWeb

Grudunza — 2008-02-21T23:49:00+00:00

The beta is public now: http://www.mabiweb.com I've got a few games playing and it works really well. Kind of slow going for a 4 player game... it took about a week to finish the first season... but that's to be expected for play-by-web board games. The interface and implementation is great, though. Thanks, MaBi!

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laiernie — 2008-02-15T17:21:09+00:00

unpunched sheets

Thread: Re: What's up with Mykerinos??

Memphis Mike — 2008-02-10T07:59:34+00:00

Excellent review!

I love this game, but I'm a lousy teacher. I so screwed up teaching it to some others in my gaming group (twice!) that it's got a bad reputation and no one's really interested any more.

This has motivated me to try to right that wrong.

Thread: Re: What's up with Mykerinos??

Daddy-O — 2008-02-10T03:12:18+00:00

An excellent write up. I''ve been mulling over purchasing Mykerinos and now I can see no reason not to.

Thread: Re: What's up with Mykerinos??

wargamer66 — 2008-02-09T19:48:48+00:00

One of my favorite euros. Nice decisions, short-playing time.

Thread: What's up with Mykerinos??

Grudunza — 2008-02-09T18:21:47+00:00

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WHAT IS IT?

Mykerinos is an archaeological themed tactical strategy game for 2-4 players, designed by Nicolas Oury, published and distributed by Ystari and Rio Grande.

WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA?

Each player is an archaeologist trying to earn prestige from excavations and museum showings.

WHAT'S IN IT FOR ME?

Mykerinos comes in a smallish box that includes several parcel tiles, a board for the museum, several small wooden cubes of different colors, player markers and a rules sheet.

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WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO WITH THAT?

In each of four game turns, or "seasons", the tiles (called "parcels") are laid out in four groups of two tiles (six groups of two tiles during the final season). The tile groups are considered to be connected for movement purposes, but are scored separately, so they are usually placed with a little space between them to distinguish the sections. Players explore these parcel areas by placing their cubes into the sections, trying to claim a majority of each area. The first placement must be a single cube, but subsequent placements can be two cubes as long as the first of the two cubes can connect to a previously placed cube and the second cube can connect to the cube just placed.

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At any point during a turn, a player may "pass", thus ending their turn and giving other players an extra turn(s). The advantage of passing first is that ties on parcel areas are broken by whoever passed first. Thus, if red, blue and green each have 2 cubes in a parcel, but red passed first, green second and blue last, then red would win the parcel and green would get 2nd place. Also, since you begin each exploration phase by receiving only a set number of cubes from your general supply (11 for a 2 or 3 player game, 8 for a 4 player game), if you pass earlier, you will likely have more cubes available for the following turns, as your unused cubes remain accessible for the next turn.

Once all players have passed, each section is resolved, with the winner having the first option of choosing either one of the two parcel tiles or placing one of their cubes into the museum. The player who finished 2nd in the parcel area will then get to choose from the remaining tile (if the first person took one of them) or to place one of their cubes into the museum. If either the first or second place players chose to place a cube in the museum, then the 3rd place player (if there is one... not all parcels will necessarily have all players' cubes in them) will get to take a tile.

The tiles are significant in that some of them contain prestige points (2-5), which are scored immediately, and all of them except for one (the 5 pointer) allow access to a special "patron", which is pictured on the back of the tile and referred to by symbol on the front of the tile (so you always know which ones you're going for and getting). There are five patrons, and during the exploration phases, you can use your patron tiles to give you special abilities while exploring, as follows:

Lady Violet (purple heart): allows you to take a cube from your general supply (normally not useable) and use it
Lord Lemon (yellow triangle): allows you to place a cube on a pyramid space on a tile, which are otherwise not accessible
Sir Brown (brown circle): allows you to place a cube into the museum, instead of playing onto the parcel tiles
Mrs. Blackmore (black plus sign): allows you to place two cubes onto the parcel area when beginning an exploration
Colonel Tangerine (orange diamond): allows you to place three cubes to extend an exploration, instead of the usual two cubes

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Each of these patrons can only be used once per season per tile that you have, so for example, if you have two Lord Lemon tiles, then twice during each excavation season you will be able to place a cube on a pyramid space. Patron tiles are held and collected throughout the game, so by the fourth turn of the game, each player will likely have a collection of several different patron tiles at their disposal. In addition to their special abilities during excavations and the scoring factors patrons afford in the museum (see below), complete sets of all five patrons are also worth 5 prestige points each.

- The Museum -

Each wing of the museum features one of the five patrons, and the numbers 2, 3 and 5. When adding cubes to the museum, players must first place a cube into either the 2 or the 3 rooms, and then into the 5, provided one of their cubes is already in the adjacent 2 or 3 room. At the end of the game, a player will score their highest numbered occupied room in a wing times the number of patron tiles for that wing that they hold. So if you have 4 or 5 Lady Violet cards, you're going to want to have a cube in the 5 room of Lady Violet's wing in the museum. Or it can work the opposite way, where try to get a cube into the 5 room of Lady Violet's wing early in the game and then try to win as many of her tiles as you can during the excavation phases. Only one cube can occupy any room, so as with the parcel tiles, there can be some tough decisions about when/where to place cubes.

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WHAT TIME IS IT?

Mykerinos seems to fly by, and takes about 40-50 minutes, give or take 5-10 minutes depending on the players and how much time each spends making decisions.

WHAT DO YOU CARE?

I love Mykerinos. I think it's an excellent game with a lot of great tactical decisions throughout. Every aspect of Mykerinos has an important decision that impacts both your own game and what the other players must decide to do; the cube placement on the parcels, which can block off desired paths for other players; the choice of when to pass and thus take the advantage on a tied parcel, forcing another player to choose whether to use their remaining cubes to take it over; the choices of what cards you take during the survey phase; and the choices you make as far as when and where to place your cubes into the museum.

I've played Mykerinos twice with 3 players and once with 2 players. The 2 player version makes good use of a third neutral player, which both players employ cubes for during the excavation phase, allowing for the same kinds of placement challenges that will occur in the 3 player game. The neutral player makes no use of patron cards, but in situations where the neutral player wins or places 2nd on a parcel areas, the decision of what card it takes (removing it from the game) can be important, and the neutral player is always in the 2nd pass position, giving the pass choice the same vital importance as in the 3-4 player game. I think the designer did a particularly good job making the 2 player version play well, and I appreciate that. I think the game is still better with 3 players (and presumably 4) for having the extra mind involved to interact actively in the game, but the 2 player version doesn't lose any of what makes the game enjoyable for me, and that's a really cool thing.

Another thing I like about the game is its size... It feels like a very substantial game, and yet the box is small, the pieces are small, and it should fit well into the cache of games that my wife and I will be bringing along on our travels in the RV this year.

There is already an expansion for the game called Mykerinos: The Nile, which I am very interested to try out. Considering the theme, I thought it might be fun if there were some kind of "mummy's curse" variant for the game, whereby a cube can be lost during excavation. I'll have to explore the sandy deserts of my brain and see if I can come up with something for that...

Grudunza's rating: 9.5/10

Thread: First plays (3p)... Second time's the charm.

Grudunza — 2008-01-27T17:17:35+00:00

I'd been hoping to play Mykerinos for a while now... the gameplay sounded easy enough to grasp and also intriguing... and last night at our game group, three of us were left over while other games of Shogun and Power Grid began, so that left plenty of time to get in two games of Mykerinos (and also a game of Race for the Galaxy).

The first game suffered a little from the usual "getting to know you" aspects of a first-time play, which is not to say it really suffered... I could tell right away that I loved the game... We made a small mistake in the first season where someone had placed their next two cubes in spaces that were adjacent to ones they'd already placed, but not adjacent to each other, which we realized wasn't right during the next season. And I forgot one crucial rule, that points in the museum are only scored on the highest numbered space where you have a cube in each wing... I kept thinking it was cumulative, so I had placed cubes in the 2, 2, 3 and 5 rooms of one wing, expecting to get 12 points per patron card of that type, when of course I only received 5. Obviously, I should have (and could have) put two of those cubes elsewhere in the museum, but that was my fault as the rule had been mentioned before. It was one of those things where you hear the rules but certain ones that have an effect later in the game are more likely to be forgotten once you focus on playing the game at the beginning. Another rule that we hadn't realized until the end was that you can get a bonus of 5 points if you have a full set of the patron cards. Nobody had a full set, so it didn't really matter, but two of us were close to getting a set so we might have tried to complete a set if we knew about that.

Regardless, I ended up losing by quite a bit... I don't know the exact totals, but I think Nyck, who won, ended up with about 65 points and I had 40-something points. Nyck narrowly beat Tim, who had amassed an enormous set of Lady Violet cards and had more cubes than he was able to use for the final two seasons. Tim had a 5 room cube for Lady Violet's wing, so he got a lot of points from that, but Nyck had a better balance of points all around.

But realizing how quickly that game went, and that neither Shogun nor Power Grid were likely to finish any time soon, and that we liked the game and were eager to try it again now that we all knew what we were doing, we set it up again and had another go. I'm glad we did, because game two was a really great one.

Nobody went into the museum during the first season, opting for a strategy of building up some patron cards to use for subsequent rounds. But as chance would have it, there were no Lord Lemon cards available in the first season, and we ended up with a peculiar array of pyramids during the second season which made connecting cubes to previous expeditions very difficult. I ended up with two Lord Lemon cards from that season, which made pyramid moves on the following turns easier, and I was also able to place a cube in the museum.

Turns three and four weren't quite as difficult in terms of the placement options, but the choices were equally agonizing as we realized the implications of them. Do I place my last cube on this parcel to claim second or pass first and hope to claim it anyway by virtue of the first pass advantage for ties, hoping that my opponent will place his cubes elsewhere? Do I place a cube in the museum and give my opponent, who placed third on a parcel, a patron card that could end up really helping him? We kept remarking to the effect that the first game had only prepared us for the real challenge of this second game.

As the fourth season came to a close, Nyck had a lot of cards but hadn't been placing enough cubes into the museum for them to really pay off. I was able to cap off a set of patrons in the final season and also end up with three cubes in 5 spots in the museum, earning 40 points from patron cards (including 4 Lord Lemons). It wasn't quite enough, though, as Tim beat me by one point... I believe we received almost equal points from the museum, and Tim didn't have a full set of patron cards, but he must have snagged up a few more points from the patron cards during the game and that did the trick.

An agonizing loss, to be sure. But as an example of one of the true tests of a great game, I didn't really care because I enjoyed the game and the experience so much.

At the last game night a few weeks ago, I had played Notre Dame for the first time. I really enjoyed that for what it is, and have played it a few times on BSW since. But I commented last night how I like games like Mykerinos even better because there is so much more going on that affects all of the other players. Co-op games can be a lot of fun and even multi-player solitaire games (which is what Notre Dame seems to be, for the most part) can be really great, too... but a big part of board gaming for me is the competitive aspect between you and the other players, and that is most evident when everything you do can have an impact on what the other players do and will be able to do. Every aspect of Mykerinos has that... the cube placement on the parcels, which can block off desired paths for other players; the choice of when to pass and thus take the advantage on a tied parcel, forcing another player to choose whether to use their remaining cubes to take it over; the choices of what cards you take during the survey phase; and the choices you make as far as when and where to place your cubes into the museum.

Another thing I like about the game is its size... The box is small, the pieces are small, and it should fit well into the cache of games that we bring along on our travels in the RV this year. That is, assuming the Mrs. likes the game, but I have a feeling she will. At least, here's hoping, as this is definitely going on my "must have" list now.

Thread: In beta-testing at MaBiWeb

Drew1365 — 2008-01-26T21:47:21+00:00

Well, . . . awesome.

(http://www.mabiweb.com)

Thread: Re: Fast playing with tactics

Merg — 2008-01-12T21:07:02+00:00

Turjan wrote:
Thanks for the nice review.
Merg wrote:
(e.g. the scoring shits are a bit too big for the scoring mark)I might fall victim to some juvenile humor, but the image forming in my head made me laugh uncontrollably .
D'oh, so much for the spellchecker.

Thread: Re: Fast playing with tactics

Turjan — 2008-01-12T20:28:24+00:00

Thanks for the nice review.
Merg wrote:
(e.g. the scoring shits are a bit too big for the scoring mark)I might fall victim to some juvenile humor, but the image forming in my head made me laugh uncontrollably .

Thread: Fast playing with tactics

Merg — 2008-01-12T18:10:24+00:00

Game components: I'm a component buff, I admit it, but a small minus for me is that the tiles of my copy where cut-through badly aligned, which causes the tiles and patrons to have some off-side shapes. But they still 'function' within the game. The scoring board is has some nice graphics, but the complete feel of the components is a bit 'off'. (e.g. the scoring chits are a bit too big for the scoring mark)

Regions
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Image by Timothy Pinkham

Game flow: The rules are explained in detail and with good examples. The game is played in four seasons, in which each player searches dig-sites in search for artifacts to display in the museum. The excavations are done by placing cubes on the different areas. The first 2 players of an region (those with the most placed cubes) get a tile from the region, or choose a room in the museum. (This last is very important, and may not be overlooked.) Every excavation tile has a patron on the back (save for one, which is worth 5 points). These patrons give extra possibilities from season 2 onwards. These include placing extra cubes, placing cubes on normal prohibited terrain, obtain extra cubes for placement, and (!) placing cubes in the museum before the end of the season (where you need to forfeit a terrain/patron to do so.)

Museum
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Image by Thierry Géraud

Scoring is done during the first 4 seasons by taking tiles with have extra points on them (score right away); and at the end of the game during the museum exhibition where
- each patron card is worth at least one point (but is multiplied by 2/3/5 depending on the number of cubes in the museum room)
- each set of 5 different patron cards is also worth 5 points

The game is easy to explain, but has some nice options. During cube placement one need to consider the cards the other players have, check the number of cubes you can place, make sure you block the path for the other players, take an eye on the museum rooms, don't waste blocks one regions that are as good as taken by the other players, ... I've played it only with 3 players until know, but here the game has more challenges that one would guess at first glance, while it plays fluently, and there is good player interaction.

So, in all a fun, fast game, setup is quick, play is deep. A pity from the components in my copy, the artwork is great with the theme of the game though.

Rating: 7.5/10

Thread: Re: Scoring question

ccmonter — 2008-01-10T13:41:57+00:00

These are seperate scorings/concepts

They are separate scoring concepts, agreed. But the original sentiment still stands. Since you score the value on the card ONCE and then the value of the card based on museum placing ONCE, they can, in effect, be considered together.

In the example, the card will be woth 2 points immediatelly and then n points (min 1, based on museum placement) later. If it helps somebody to think that the card is worth 2 + n, it doesn't change anything.

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TimothyP — 2008-01-09T17:45:19+00:00

Close-up of the dig site at the beginning of a round.

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jsper — 2008-01-04T22:19:27+00:00

Side of the box Ystari edition

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Goodsound — 2007-12-22T11:20:30+00:00

4 Player game with Nile

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spearjr — 2007-12-14T03:53:41+00:00

Museum

Thread: Re: Place Neutral Cubes after passing?

jearles — 2007-10-28T13:32:22+00:00

Your instinct is correct.

Once you have passed your Phase 2 is over, so no more neutral cube can be played during that phase.

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Under Rules: Phase 2 - Excavations

C) Pass
Phase two is over for this player.

Under Rules: 2-player games

During the excavation phase (Phase 2), the player plays normally, then may use their neutral cubes to start a new neutral excavation (Action A), or extend a pre-existing excavation (Action B), following the cube placing rules.

Thread: Place Neutral Cubes after passing?

rockhpi — 2007-10-28T13:22:02+00:00

When playing the 2-player game, the rule states that after your turn you can place a neutral cube. Can you still place a neutral cube after you've passed? I would think no, since you're not taking your turn anymore, but could also see where "after your turn" could mean "after you would take your turn."

Thread: Session Report

Shade_Jon — 2007-10-16T22:00:45+00:00

I rarely get to sit down and play a game with Saarya, for some reason, but we got in a game of Mykerinos last night. This was his first play.

Turned out to be quite a good experience.

In my previous games, all of us rushed to the museum. The groupthink is is that museum space is a finite, scarce resource, while tiles are renewable and less scarce. As a result, the Brown bonus tiles did little good for anybody.

This time I played without rushing to the museum, seeing as it was a 2-player game, anyway. As a result, the Brown tiles became critical in Saarya taking over the game from me.

It seems to me that if you don't go for the museum early, and someone else does, you're essentially screwed. I can't see any reason not to do it.

I do think that the 3 spaces in the museum are somewhat undervalued. And I repeat what I said a long time ago, that an open-ended value track instead of the museum would have made the game a little more strategically interesting.

But it still played well. Most importantly in two-player, all that matters is the point differential for each tile pick or action, so the entire last turn's decisions were entirely calculable. Nevertheless, it was still complex enough to be fun.