Game: Oh Pharaoh

Thread: Re: thief leaves unscorable legal pyramid?

Puquak — 2008-07-17T07:35:49+00:00

It would not be able to expand if you cannot add to the width of the pyramid. See my questions/comments here: http://boardgamegeek.com/article/2477798#2477798

Thread: Re: Adding to your pyramid

Puquak — 2008-07-17T07:34:03+00:00

The rules for the version we played (Uberplay, I believe) clearly states you can add to the top or the bottom of your pyramid. What they don't state is if you can add to the width.

..5
.4.4
3.3.3

If I have a 3,4,5,6 can I play all of these cards to expand my pyramid? That is how we interpreted the rules. But the comment in the other rules question (http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/248865) leads me to believe that may not be right.

Also it states you can start a pyramid or expand. So you can only build on one pyramid per turn, correct?

The "or" for the listing of being able to play thief or tax collector is not italicized and it later states you can play as many of those cards as you wish. So I'm guessing the italicized or for building would imply you can only choose one of the actions.

Thread: Re: A misunderstood and incorrectly played game.

Puquak — 2008-07-17T07:08:51+00:00

steveoliverc wrote:
Kobra1 wrote:
I can see it lasting an hour if they do this. But is that so bad?

Nope, not a bad thing at all.

So those who have played this game multiple times, a question:

Is it necessary to add the end game card and shuffle the deck when the pawn hits the last scoring tile? Or can the game just end when the pawn reaches the end with little change to the strategy or gameplay feel?

Thread: Re: I ran out of cards

curtc — 2008-05-28T07:09:21+00:00

I just recently picked up this game and immediately ran into card shortages. I missed the 12 card rule. I'll have to back and look at the rules, as I'm surprised that I would have missed it.

But now I'm really confused. If the limit is 12 cards, that means the max height of a pyramid is 4, right? In that case, who would EVER make a pyramid starting at 1? I'll have to try it again with the correct rules, but I'm skeptical.

Thread: A nice game for classrooms and kids

Jim K — 2008-05-13T16:20:36+00:00

Uberplay has some good titles out there, that are small compact games, and play quickly and provide surprising amounts of strategy and fun. Saga, Hansa and China are good examples of these. Oh Pharaoh is a bit different. It's more juvenile, takes a bit longer to play, and doesn't involve too much strategy. All in all, it's a decent game for a night with the kids, but we don't normally take it out more than once every few months.

The goal of the game is to build pyramids using number cards. Each card has a number from 1-9, with a couple wilds thrown in. These cards must be arranged in a pyramid shape, the lowest number on the bottom, next highest number on the next level, and so on. Pyramids can be 2 levels or higher, consisting of 3 cards or more. You can build on to the pyramid as much as you want, but you run the risk of someone playing a Thief card as stealing part of your pyramid (see below). At the beginning of your turn, you have the option of scoring your pyramid. When you do, those cards are discarded, and you add the different numbers used to build the pyramid, and multiply it by the number of levels in your pyramid. You can also trade and barter with other players in order to get the cards you need.

In addition, there are special cards: Thief, Tax Collector and the Pharaoh. The Thief allows you to steal a stone from another player's existing pyramid. You roll the dice, and the roll must exceed the amount of levels on their pyramid. The Tax Collector allows you to steal a card from an opponent's hand. The Pharaoh is a defense against somebody trying to use a Thief or Tax Collector on you.

The timing of the game is kept by a board with a pawn. Each time someone scores a pyramid, the pawn is advanced one space, until it gets to the end. Then the endgame begins. A "game end" card is shuffled into the deck, and once someone draws it, the game ends. Whoever has the most points is the winner.

The components are decent for a $10 game. The cards are small (they have to be, otherwise with everyone building pyramids with them, you'd need a pretty big table); they are the same size as the cards from Pillars of the Earth and St. Petersburg. The small gameboard is good quality, and the artwork is light, amusing and colorful.

All in all, if you have children 12 and under, this is worth the $10. They can play it on their own, and even if you get roped into playing it, it's not very bad (I can think of games I'd hate playing much more). But neither is it tons of fun; you'll feel like you're drawing cards every turn just to get the one(s) you need to make a decent pyramid, and then discarding back to 7 cards in your hand.
The Thief/Pharaoh cards add a bit of conflict to it though, so it doesn't feel like it's multi-player solitaire the whole time, and the trading/bartering element is nice as well. Again, it's a nice game to have on hand for children who are learning arithmetic; I can see this being a great game to have in the classroom for 2nd-5th graders.

Thread: Re: thief leaves unscorable legal pyramid?

moorwild — 2008-01-11T09:09:40+00:00

sparr0 wrote:

If the thief steals a 2 then the rules say that the 2-1-1(-1) pyramid should be left, but that pyramid can never get to a 3rd level to be scored. We house-ruled that the player could pick up all the cards in that scenario. Opinions?

I dont understand ... Why can it never get to a 3rd level???? There's no need whatsoever to finish a pyramid in one turn ....

I don't think this house rule is good, as the requirement to leave (leftovers of )the pyramid there makes the game more mean.

Thread: Re: thief leaves unscorable legal pyramid?

gamesfortony — 2007-12-27T18:19:47+00:00

Nice house rule! I think we will do that next time playing this. We ran into the same problem. I agree.

Thread: Re: I ran out of cards

Spielguy — 2007-11-30T17:58:41+00:00

Running out of cards is certainly possible. We did in a four player game playing by the correct rules.

Thread: thief leaves unscorable legal pyramid?

sparr0 — 2007-11-30T16:43:14+00:00

[c]
3
2 2
1 1 1
[/c]

If the thief steals a 2 then the rules say that the 2-1-1(-1) pyramid should be left, but that pyramid can never get to a 3rd level to be scored. We house-ruled that the player could pick up all the cards in that scenario. Opinions?

Thread: First time play session

r0xjo0 — 2007-05-26T04:54:15+00:00

This was our first time playing Oh Pharoah. There were three of us, including my wife, my 12 year old son, and myself. After a 10 minute scan of the rules, we felt ready to play. We stumbled around for the first couple of rounds just making sure we were following the rules correctly. There seemed to be some ambiguity about when certain events should occur (should we be allowed to build, then use a thief card, then build again?), but after a couple of "house rules" we came to an agreement on all areas of play. I feel that the rules could have been worded a bit better for clarity.

I took off to an early lead on the first game, after deciding that it might be better to just score a smaller pyramid and get quick points rather than wait to build a larger one. The rest of the group quickly caught up to me with a few larger pyramids they were working on. After about an hour, we finally managed to reach the endgame. I then consulted the rules once again, and explained to everyone that I was going to shuffle the endgame card into the deck, and once it was pulled, that would mean the end of the game. I just so happened to be in the lead at the time.

Once the endgame card was shuffled, and play was ready to resume, the very first card pulled from the deck was the endgame card. No fingers were pointed, even though I was in the lead, and was the one shuffling the cards (no foul play afoot here, just pure luck).

My semi-gamer wife was up for another game to attempt to redeem herself, so we readied the board, and began game two.

The second game went much quicker than the first, as we all had a good grasp of the game mechanics.

I again took off to a quick lead with a massive 72 point pyramid. This lead remained until the last few rounds, when I was up by nearly 100 points. At this point, I had two pyramids in play, and unfortunatly, they were both competing against each other for 7's. I drew for about 8 rounds, and never pulled any of the cards I needed. Furthermore, neither of my opponents were playin any wild cards I could attempt to steal. This delay allowed my wife to take a slim 9 point lead when we entered the end game, with my son a not too distant third.

The endgame card was shuffled into the deck again, and this time, to prevent any crys of fould play, I made sure to have my wife cut the deck (usually we skip cutting the deck, because we are all honest gamers, and would not feel any of the others would attempt any tomfoolery.)

The deck was cut, and lo and behold, the first card drawn again this time was the endgame card! Two games in a row! Crazy!!!

All in all, we all had a good time. The games went by quickly, and were interactive, and enjoyable. We will probably pull this one out again from time to time.

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ArtEmiSa64 — 2007-03-19T19:56:10+00:00

http://simplyfun.com/products/pharaoh/

Thread: Re: Question

dingo262 — 2007-01-11T18:50:34+00:00

Hi Fem eref,

If you look in the instructions, you have a listing of all the game components. The card breakdowns are in the list. And yes, there are more cards of the lower numbers.

Hope this helps...
Kara Rupp, Senior Consultant
http://kara.simplyfun.com

Thread: Question

femeref — 2007-01-10T11:24:34+00:00

How many cards of each number are in the deck??

couse I supose that there are more 1-card than 2-card, more 2-card than 3-card, and so on...

Thanks

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FitisGames.be — 2007-01-05T13:57:50+00:00

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FitisGames.be — 2007-01-05T13:57:44+00:00

Thread: Re: English rules?

bwildrick — 2006-07-12T20:48:45+00:00

I'm looking for a copy of the English rules as well, if anyone could post them.

Thread: Re: 2-player variant or is there a need for one?

HaoleBoy — 2006-07-10T15:00:55+00:00

We played last night, and it was cut-throat. We were at 202-201 going in to the finaly round, so it was everything either of us could do to tear down pyramids and hope for that final card to pop up. Wonderful game and great ending (I lost!), but we'll have to play it a few more times to see if two players really works.

I should add that we didn't have any trades, and perhaps that's an important point. For a 30-minute game and a full draw deck, we seemed content to take our chances picking up cards.

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Boomer — 2006-06-11T20:31:38+00:00

rules

Thread: Re: I ran out of cards

Elianto — 2006-03-08T17:44:36+00:00

With the 11card rule, the pyramid building rules and the thieves i think it's really hard to ran out of card...

Thread: Re: English rules?

Elianto — 2006-03-07T15:25:51+00:00

Kobra1 wrote:
I will SCAN the english rules for you, give me a day or two.

Can I ask you to scan them? I need the english version since german is not very helpfull. Thanks

Thread: Re: English rules?

GeoMan — 2006-02-03T17:16:04+00:00

Kobra1 wrote:
I will SCAN the english rules for you, give me a day or two.

I got the rules already. Thanks for the offer.

Thread: Re: I ran out of cards

Kobra1 — 2006-02-03T03:06:17+00:00

As an update, I don't think it is possible to run out of cards.. We've got close to 10 plays with 4 players now, and have never come close to running out of cards.

Thread: Re: A misunderstood and incorrectly played game.

Kobra1 — 2006-02-03T03:05:04+00:00

This one continues to RISE in ratings for us.. Played with 4 people that totally understand the game, and this is quite stunning in execution! 4 aggressive traders, and it becomes bliss!

Raised to a 9 in my ratings, about the top it can be for me considering the sloppy rules.

Thread: Re: English rules?

Kobra1 — 2006-02-03T03:03:28+00:00

I will SCAN the english rules for you, give me a day or two.

Thread: Re: An overlooked gem.

Kobra1 — 2006-02-01T03:03:30+00:00

My rating on this game has increased after further plays, with more competative groups. The negotiation aspect is quite good in this game, and the gameplay is competative and cutthroat with 3-4 people that understand the game fully.

Thread: English rules?

GeoMan — 2006-01-26T19:10:41+00:00

Can anyone post an English translation? I got it as a present but it is the German edition.

Thread: Re: A misunderstood and incorrectly played game.

steveoliverc — 2006-01-10T03:53:29+00:00

Kobra1 wrote:
I can see it lasting an hour if they do this. But is that so bad?

Nope, not a bad thing at all.

Thread: Re: A misunderstood and incorrectly played game.

Kobra1 — 2006-01-09T05:33:40+00:00

steveoliverc wrote:
The game does drag on a bit though, at least with students (my group is 10 year olds). They get into the negotiation part quite a lot, and also there's the counting and re-counting of their pyramids (a good thing for a math game!). It takes the full hour to get through the game.

I can see it lasting an hour if they do this. But is that so bad? Ticket to Ride can last 1-2 hours, and offers almost no interaction, and is essentially a "Go through the motions" solitare game for most of it.

Another important thing to remember is that Oh Pharaoh never makes the claim to be a Fluffy-Light and fast filler. The game packs so many mechanics, and good solid gameplay, we consider it a staple non-filler around here.

With that being said, we can STILL get through most games in 30 minutes or so with 3-4 people that have at least played it once or twice.

Thread: Re: A misunderstood and incorrectly played game.

steveoliverc — 2006-01-07T13:58:16+00:00

Denise wrote:
One thing you don't mention that seems to put a lot of casual gamers off is the math in the scoring. Add the digits, then multiply by the number of rows - doesn't seem to phase us geeky ol' hardcore gamers but it's a little more math than most non-gamers seem to enjoy.

Good point! This is exactly why I got the game in the first place because I teach the game to my daughter's fifth grade class during the weekly math games hour. The combination of basic math and repetition make it very useful as a math drill, but the gameply and cartoonish graphics are what attract the students to play the game. I can see where some older players might not appreciate all the math, but the kids love this game. Another way that we get in some math is that each player keeps score for everyone. This is not only a little extra practice, but serves as a reminder to how they are doing in the game.

As Robert says, it's important to explain the game to new players since it's so easy to overlook the many options and the need for negotiation. And with the changing scoring requirements, it's important to sit in the entire game to make sure they continue to get things right. The end-game with the shuffling of the pharaoh card is another rule that's easy to miss.

The game does drag on a bit though, at least with students (my group is 10 year olds). They get into the negotiation part quite a lot, and also there's the counting and re-counting of their pyramids (a good thing for a math game!). It takes the full hour to get through the game.

Thread: Re: A misunderstood and incorrectly played game.

Kobra1 — 2006-01-07T07:30:20+00:00

I agree on all points. This game is fairly complex, and each turn has many options available, which throws off people. Furthermore, the options and strategies aren't readily apparent until you wrap your head around it.

A couple plays really isn't enough to grasp it, especially when I find MOST people play it incorrectly, or get several rules wrong.

I taught this game again last night, the people I instructed really enjoyed the game. I'm not a SimplyFun consultant, but just so happens I wanted to teach it to a new gaming group I started. Anyway, the consensus was, this game is really really cool once you understand how turns take place.

Thread: Re: A misunderstood and incorrectly played game.

Denise — 2006-01-05T10:55:39+00:00

I agree, this game isn't nearly as bad as people think. It doesn't rate quite as high for me as it does for you, but I enjoy it.

I used to sell SimplyFun (not anymore, real life got too busy) and taught this game to a LOT of people. One thing you don't mention that seems to put a lot of casual gamers off is the math in the scoring. Add the digits, then multiply by the number of rows - doesn't seem to phase us geeky ol' hardcore gamers but it's a little more math than most non-gamers seem to enjoy.

One thing with the 11 Card Rule - you don't IMMEDIATELY score any pyramid that hit 12 cards, you do it at the beginning of your turn only. If you start the turn with an 12+ card pyramid, you must score it before you can do anything else on your turn. But if you start the turn with a pyramid of 11, you can build it up as big as you can for that one turn only and you will score it at the beginning of your next turn. Theoretically you could build as high as 19 cards! (11 plus the 7 in your hand plus the 1 you draw during your turn, but this is extraordinarily unlikely that ALL these would be playable.)

This is actually one of the nicer points of the game, especially with the negotiation aspect. The other players aren't going to trade you that 8 to top off your pyramid so readily when you already have a big pyramid! So you try to arrange things so you can have as many of the cards you need for that last big push by the turn BEFORE, then do your trading before you lay down your usable cards in hand. And even then, your opponents get wary pretty quick!! In this way, you can potentially build one of those mega-pyramids, but it will take you several turns to set it up. And if your opponents are going for smaller but high point pyramids in the meantime, it may well not be worth it, especially if your mega-pyramid consists of a lot of low numbers.

I've seen people win building a few mega-pyramids, and I've seen people win building lots of smaller ones, both strategies seem to have advantages. The real key is to focus on the higher point cards, the strategy you pursue should have more to do with what will work best to maximize your higher point cards. Sometimes that will be lots of small pyramids, sometimes a few big ones, just depends on the other cards in your hand. Either way tho, it's all good - or at least a lot better than a lot of people seem to think!

Thread: A misunderstood and incorrectly played game.

Kobra1 — 2006-01-05T04:39:56+00:00

I've come to the conclusion that this game is entirely undeserving of its poor rating here. Talking with people, and carefully listening to their complaints, i've found that the people that score this game low, fall into one or more of the following camps.

1) People that misunderstood or misinterpreted the rules. (I can see why they do, the rules are vague, require study, and perhaps clarification)

2) People that ignored the critical "11 Card" rule. (Meaning you MUST score a pyramid over 11 cards immediately)

3) People that neglect the incredibly fun, and all important "Negotiation" phase of the game. (doing this, is like gutting 25% of the game, considering some games are based entirely off a similar system, it would be silly to think you could ignore this. Its a LOT of fun too!)

Generally, i've yet to run into ANYONE that rated it poorly that I wasn't able to put into one of these camps. Heck, one guy I talked to said "I did the math, there aren't enough cards! So I rated the game low based on my figures.".

Some people complain of game length, which is puzzling given that the time of the game is measured by how often you score pyramids. I think this MAY tie into the common mistake of people hording and continuing with illegal super-pyramids ignoring the 11 card rule - thus breaking the game. Generally when we play, we've scored 6-7 pyramids within the first 20 minutes of play, putting us about 75% through with the game! Our sessions generally clock in at 30 minutes, but can be pushed out to 45 minutes if we add in a new player or two that needs to check our turn-aid every 2 seconds.

So is 30-45 minutes too long? No.. Ticket to Ride, which offers less interaction, less mechanics, and very little player interaction can last 60-90 minutes. So why critisize this game for lasting 30-45 when it has more mechanics and systems?

I think after further sessions in this game, my rating will actually INCREASE from 8 on this one. We'll see how it holds up over the long term, but the desire for it to hit the table is intense around our game group.

Thread: Re: An overlooked gem.

Kobra1 — 2005-12-31T01:56:40+00:00

I think it is understandable that we assumed it was a "Translation" issue with the instructions to the game. Thats how we labeled it given what we knew, and how it appeared to be written. If that was incorrect (which it appears to be), then the blame is Uberplays for allowing such a poor manual and not providing their translators with a copy to play prior to writing the instructions..

As for the FAQ, when I located it from the archives, it didn't have any credit or author on it. I'd of been happy to credit someone, if there was any indication of who did it - and there wasn't. As such, I updated the FAQ a week ago or so to reflect this. In addition I will credit myself on it, because up to this point it was considered "lost" until I dug it up. Based on my geekmail response, many people were happy to see it back.

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sikeospi — 2005-12-30T20:37:43+00:00

Attempt at spelling out the words "Board Game Geek"

Thread: Re: An overlooked gem.

TomVasel — 2005-12-23T18:35:22+00:00

Patrick Korner, the translator, offers this rebuttal (from www.boardgamenews.com)

"On to something else, and I won’t spend much time on this but I felt I should at least comment. Recently, I cam across a review of Oh Pharaoh! (the Uberplay / Kosmos game) that had some rather scathing remarks about the quality of the English translation – essentially saying that it was so horrible and vague that an auto-translator must have been used.

Well.

Seeing as how I spent several hours working on said translation, and seeing as how I’m most certainly NOT a machine, I thought I’d mention here that the translation was as accurate as the German edition was, and that any vagueness in the rules was not the result of my translation effort but rather the original text. It’s a fact of the industry that 99 times out of 100, the translator (such as myself) does not have access to the game being translated – in fact, most of the time we get a Word document to work off of and nothing else – no graphics, no art. Under those circumstances, it’s difficult to predict where the rules will need additional effort and where they’re just fine.

Oh, and to that same individual who ‘borrowed’ the verbatim text of the FAQ I wrote on Uberplay’s behalf for the game and is passing it off as his own: I don’t really mind, and since Uberplay no longer has the file on their website it’s good that it’s available somewhere, but perhaps some credit where it’s due could be provided… "

Thought that this was pertinent enough to post here.

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Kobra1 — 2005-12-21T15:53:22+00:00

Pictured with turn aids from boardgamespiel.com.

Thread: An overlooked gem.

Kobra1 — 2005-12-18T03:35:55+00:00

Oh Pharaoh

The Components (Bits):
This game oozes great production quality throughout. The box, cards, board and bits are all of superb quality. Absolutely no complaints here, and the cards are even smaller sized to make room for giant pyramids players will build. The only downside here is the lack of player aid/turn cards to guide players through their turn process. (more on that later)

The Setup and Rules:
Unfortunately I can’t say the same for the rules, they are horribly translated and very confusing. Most people I see rate this game low are victims of the poorly written and vague rules, and I can’t fault them on that. Whoever translated Oh Pharaoh’s rulebook seems to have used an auto translation tool, which is the only way I can explain how poorly they are written. (more on the rules later) Setup is a breeze, shuffle and deal some cards, and the game starts.

The Theme:
The theme is strong with this game, you build pyramids, win favour from the Pharaoh, and achieve victory. The artwork is extremely well done and thematically fitting for the game. Each card number has a unique character on it and are really fun to look at and draw you in to the theme. Absolutely no complaints in this area, a strong showing on all accounts.

The Gameplay:
Gameplay consists of a combination of card drafting, set collection, pyramid building, negotiation/trading and take-that action card play. The game starts with you deciding if you would like to score a pyramid, if not, then you draw a card. (Pyramids over 11 cards must be scored) After this, you can do any of the following actions – Make Deals/Trade, Build or Expand a pyramid, or play an action card in the form of tax collectors or thieves. This section is followed by an optional card discard, and then drawing your hand back up to seven cards. Then the turn passes to the person on your left, and continues around the table. As you score pyramids you move the progress marker on the board up to the next block. At various points on the board the gameplay slightly changes, for example once four pyramids are scored you can have two pyramids on the table at once. After eight are scored, all pyramids must be three levels or higher to be scored. Play progresses until the pharaoh is reached, then the pharaoh card is shuffled back into the combined stack of discards and draw cards, and play progresses until the pharaoh is drawn again – at which point all pyramids are scored and the game ends.

The Depth and Tactics:
Oh Pharaoh is packed to the brim with tension filled gameplay and light tactics. As you build your pyramid you are potentially under constant assault by your opponents thieves, risking your pyramid from falling apart. Do you use your pharaoh card to block an incoming attack, or save it until your pyramid is large and ready to be scored? Plenty of decisions to make on each turn, and a wary eye must be kept on the other players. Good hand management needs to take place in order to carefully construct and advance your pyramids for scoring. The player that wins most of the time when we play scores lots of small pyramids as opposed to large elaborate ones. This serves to reduce the risk from coming under attack, and helps him rack up a large amount of points rather early on. There are plenty of opportunities for screwage in this game, and I highly recommend people that don’t like “Take-That” games avoid this one. One critical aspect of this game – and also one of the most fun aspects – is the negotiation and trade phases. It is quite fun to made trades and offers for specific cards, and enhances the dialog and interaction of the package. The excitement of forming a large pyramid while your opponents look on in awe is very pleasing in this game, and the tension of wondering if it will make it around the table intact is sometimes unbearably intense!

Summary:
Oh Pharaoh packs a lot of proven game systems into a small package, and it works equally well with 3 or 4 players. I’ve heard it plays fine with 2 players but I haven’t explored this option. There are absolutely no flaws that I can find in the game other than the vague and poorly written rules (which we’ve corrected – see below). Oh Pharaoh has the signatures of some pretty popular game designers, with some Faidutti chaos thrown into the mix alongside Knizia style scoring. Any fan of Faidutti games will surely like Oh Pharaoh and appreciate the chaotic elements in it. For some reason Oh Pharaoh reminds me of a hybrid containing elements of Rummy, Racko, Pit and Boomtown (all good games in their own right). Building great pyramids and fighting off thieves induces some pretty high pride in this game for me and delivers compelling arguments for this reaching our game table on a regular basis. Bottom line: this is an excellent game that shouldn’t be overlooked, it is pretty, well themed, and packed to the brim with nice game mechanics.

Note: We’ve produced a turn aid and dug up the old Uberplay faq for this game that should greatly improve game speed and clear up any vagueness from the rules. I encourage everyone to visit our site and grab them..

Kobra
www.boardgamespiel.com

Thread: Re: Turn Aid cheatsheet.

steveoliverc — 2005-12-18T00:39:31+00:00

Nice! I guess I can throw out my hand-written index card now

This is one of those card games where the publisher should have printed up a card like this and included it with the deck.

One suggestion, in phase 1 of your turn, you can score more than one pyramid, so perhaps it should read, "Score Pyramid(s) (or don't)"

I like how on phase 3 you point out that players can make any number of trades etc. and in any order -- that isn't clear at first in the rules, but makes sense once you start playing the game.

Thread: Turn Aid and Updated FAQ

Kobra1 — 2005-12-17T21:17:19+00:00

I put together what I feel is an essential tool for playing this game. A cheatsheet for turns.

http://boardgamespiel.com/content/view/38/2/

Let me know what you think, greatly speeded up our games and removed much of the turn confusion.

Thread: Re: I ran out of cards

Kobra1 — 2005-12-17T02:57:17+00:00

We're got 4 plays in on this.. 2 with 3 players, and 2 with 4 players, and never had a card shortage problem.. Usually SOMEONE is scoring something, or theiving something else.

It seemed pretty fluid, I never saw the cards go below about 10 in the draw pile.

From a pure math standpoint, running out of cards may be possible. From a gaming standpoint, it is not only unlikely, but impossibly rare. 4 players having 2 pyramids having exactly 11 cars each? Not going to happen. Besides, everytime i've played, the winner as been the person to score a lot of high value, low stacked pyramids, taking 2 pyramids to 11 ain't gonna win you anything.

Thread: Re: What is a "Complete" Pyramid?

steveoliverc — 2005-12-14T15:29:23+00:00

You mean it's OK to leave a 4/1 pyramid after the thief strikes, right?

Right.

... and this would mean that all players' pyramids would be scored at game end, correct?

As long as their pyramids are 3 or more rows tall.

Thread: Re: What is a "Complete" Pyramid?

asfhgwt — 2005-12-14T13:50:24+00:00

steveoliverc wrote:
I remember reading somewhere that the example in the rules about the Thief is wrong. (Maybe it was at the Uberplay FAQ site but I notice they have since removed this game from their site, and there is no FAQ for this game at the SimplyFun site.)

It is definitely OK to have a pyramid where the upper level has just 1 card, and the lower level has 4 cards.

Thanks.

You mean it's OK to leave a 4/1 pyramid after the thief strikes, right?

... and this would mean that all players' pyramids would be scored at game end, correct?

Thread: Re: What is a "Complete" Pyramid?

steveoliverc — 2005-12-13T10:59:15+00:00

I remember reading somewhere that the example in the rules about the Thief is wrong. (Maybe it was at the Uberplay FAQ site but I notice they have since removed this game from their site, and there is no FAQ for this game at the SimplyFun site.)

It is definitely OK to have a pyramid where the upper level has just 1 card, and the lower level has 4 cards.

BTW, you posted this question 3 times, you might want to delete the other two, unless they get a better answer than the one I gave

Thread: What is a "Complete" Pyramid?

asfhgwt — 2005-12-12T16:08:35+00:00

One of the examples of a legal pyramid in the rules is (if memory serves) a two-level pyramid with four cards on the bottom tier and a single card on the upper.

Then, in the explanation of the Thief card, it says you can (take all the cards back into your hand or) leave a "complete pyramid" and take back any excess cards. In the example, a two-level pyramid remains on the table, with two cards on the bottom and one on top. However, since it is legal to have a two-level pyramid with a four-card lower level with a one-card upper level, I don't understand why the example player didn't do this.

The only thing I can think of is that the rules meant to say that a "complete" pyramid is a "perfect" pyramid -- i.e., each level is exactly one less card than the one below it. If this is true, then it would affect the final scoring as well, since (if memory serves) the rules state that all players' complete pyramids are scored.

Or is the example in the rules wrong -- and it should have shown the 4/1 pyramid as an option?

Thread: Re: User Review

steveoliverc — 2005-12-05T05:31:54+00:00

There's nothing wrong with the rules as stated in the original review by Chad -- he states the game plays until the End card is drawn, which is correct. And it's a good, complete review, so why pull it?

Sounds like Brady played the game without the end card, but he's still right that the game can go on a little longer than it should. I like this game a lot, and we play it as one of the math games at school, and it always has that feeling in the last 10 or 15 minutes like, "Seems like the game should be over right about now..."

Thread: Re: I ran out of cards

steveoliverc — 2005-12-03T03:02:38+00:00

No, they didn't miss a rule. They are playing by the rules, because each player can have 2 pyramids up to 11 cards each (in the 2-pyramid phase).

With only 79 building cards in the deck, and in the phase where all players can have 2 pyramids, up to 11 cards each (because you must score each at 12 cards), that equals 4 players X 11 cards X 2 pyramids so that's 88 cards. So given the rules, yes, players can run out of building cards.

But that's where the thieves come into play -- players need to steal from other players. Also, with 4 players, usually at least one player wants to score a pyramid rather than have 2 of their pyramids (both of them being of a large size) just sitting around. So I would say that's a pretty risky group of players who let all those large pyramids sit around, and yet conservative at the same time, because they don't send thieves out on each other.

Thread: Re: I ran out of cards

Kobra1 — 2005-12-02T20:52:32+00:00

You missed a rule..

No pyramid may have more than 12 cards, if you go over this, card shortages will occur. This is an extremely important rule that you skipped, which can have a pretty high negative effect on the game.

Image

Shakar — 2005-08-07T15:28:18+00:00

The back of the cards.

Image

Shakar — 2005-08-07T15:28:18+00:00

Special Cards - Pharaohs & Game End.

Image

Shakar — 2005-08-07T15:28:17+00:00

Special Cards - Tax Collector Thief.

Image

Shakar — 2005-08-07T15:28:16+00:00

Building Stone Cards (1 through 9 and a joker).

Thread: Re: Adding to your pyramid

steveoliverc — 2005-07-25T02:54:16+00:00

According to the FAQ at the publisher's web site, you can add a new row to the bottom of the pyramid, as long as you add a row that is at least one card longer than the previous bottom row, and also the values of the cards is less. For example, if your bottom row is three 4's, you can play four (or more) 3's under it.

http://uberplay.com/games/ohpharaoh/comments_news.php?id=100...

Thread: Adding to your pyramid

TigerTailz — 2005-07-05T05:38:41+00:00

The rules state you can add to your pyramid to make it larger, can you just add to the bottom row or can you add a lower row to make it larger. If you have a pyramid with 4's at the bottom then 5's and 6's on top, can you just add to the 4's at the bottom or can you add a row of 3's under the 4's making it larger that way.

Thread: Session Report

garrylloyd — 2005-04-16T07:59:48+00:00

With about 40 minutes to go, I decided to try the final Uberplay small box game, released this Spring. For the second time tonight we were building pyramids but, this time, by collecting and laying down numbered cards. A pyramid consists of at least two levels of cards, with cards on the same level being of the same number and cards directly above them being 1 higher in value. Also, each higher level must have at least one fewer card than the level below it. Once laid, the pyramid can, on subsequent turns, be scored or extended. The score is based on the card values in each level and the sum of these is multiplied by the number of levels, so a three level pyramid using cards of values 1,2 and 3 would be worth 18 points. The higher you build the pyramid, the better your score, but others can play cards to try and remove cards from your pyramid so, the more greedy you are, the more likely a target you become. Each time a pyramid is scored, a marker moves the game board and once the 10th pyramid is scored, a Game Over card is shuffled into the draw deck. As soon as this appears the game ends and the person with the most points is victorious.

Despite the suggested playing time of 40 minutes, our game took about double that. However,it was quite good fun and I rate it the best game of the series. It's a game where you need to keep scoring, unless you are able to build a couple of very large pyramids and are able to protect them. Mark K managed to score 5 pyramids as did Mark G, whereas I only managed 4. At the end, my card drawing skills deserted me and, even though I had scored a 120 point pyramid, I still came in last. Both Marks had scoring pyramids at the end but Mark K had the edge.

Players Result Ratings
Mark K 232 7
Mark G 205 7
Garry 175 6

Thread: Re:2-player variant or is there a need for one?

Denise — 2005-02-20T23:29:22+00:00

We have played this two player a couple times & have so far found no rule changes are needed.

Thread: Re:I ran out of cards

Alan Kwan — 2005-01-16T10:10:40+00:00

ropearoni4 (#74865),

I think there is a flaw in the rules. If every player builds two pyramids, each with fewer than 12 cards, then we will run out of cards.

The rules should be corrected to say that, if a player's two pyramids total 12 cards or more, the player must score (or discard) one of them.

Thread: I ran out of cards

ropearoni4 — 2005-01-04T19:24:24+00:00

I seemed to find out that in a 4 player and everyone building pyramids around the 3 tier size, that we ran out of cards, especially after the 2 tower space. Played well with 3, but 4 was a hassle. Am I missing something here?

Thread: Session Report

ropearoni4 — 2005-01-04T16:03:00+00:00

It was a quick game we were after, and having aquired Oh, Pharaoh, recently, I was eager to try it out.
After a quick run-down on the rules (I was the only one who read them before that), we were ready. I went first.
The first 3 cards were two thief cards and a 7, which I quickly took to make my 7,7,8 pyramid. Anna, decided she didn't know exactly what to do, so she chose a thief card and proceeded to knock down a simple 2 level pyramid, destroying my furture.
After about the third turn, everyone figured out what to do, and we were up to the 2 temple space, so things were easier. I was in the lead most of the game, but Anna was building a gigantic 5,6,7,8,9 pyramid that nearly beat my score. Joyce was blowing my chances for much by playing pharaoh cards after each thief attempt. My 3,4,5,6,7 helped me score high enough for the win.
Game end:
Me 279.
Anna 253
Joyce 219

Taking wildcards from opponents pyramids seemed to make or break a game turn. It was fun, and I will definitely play it again, maybe with more players next time.

Thread: 2-player variant or is there a need for one?

ropearoni4 — 2004-12-30T21:35:54+00:00

Has anyone tried it two-player. Is there a need for any changes. I thought it would be vicious, but that was about the only change (sine all cards have one target player)

Thread: Re:strategy

BradyLS — 2004-12-24T15:21:45+00:00

Thanks for the strategy tips and reviewer comments, Alan.

I'll have to reconsider this one!