Amun Re province evaluation

This is my comments/thoughts about each of the provinces in Amun Re. I have played the game 8 times now, so I have a fair amount of experience with it. (And I am a bit of a shark at this game, which could explain why I like it so much).

I've given a rating grade for the provinces based on which round you get them in. The first is the grade for getting the province in round 1, the second in round 2, the third in round 3. Rounds 4/5/6 are about the same as 1/2/3, except of course that there are pyramids, which effect the province value greatly. So that factor is often more important in the second half.

For example, a farmer heavy province is of much more value early in the half than late. Provinces with free stuff are better later (rounds 3 and 6) Temples should be considered free points, in this regard.

The rating system is a standard A through F rating system (A is an excellent province, C is average, F is terrible) I have tried to make the average be a C rating (not a B rating like in the inflated grades given in many american schools. It ended up being slightly inflated towards the high end, but not by much. Its mainly the relative ratings between the provinces you are bidding on that matters anyway).

Of course, there are many factors which will determine the province's worth, and I will discuss these. So the value of a province migh be a B, with a comment that is weaker in certain cases and stronger in others. My ratings are still of course, a bit arbitrary. Whats the difference between a C and a C-, probably not much at all, but I was trying to
make the point that it was slightly worse than some other comparable province. If you feel something is rated significantly different than your experiences, feel free to comment. If its a minor difference, then its not really a big deal.

Most of the extreme grades will come in rounds 1 and 3, here certain provinces are either very good (provinces with great long term benefits in round 1, those with good one time bonus goodies and temples in round 3). Round 2 is more balanced between the two extremes.





The heavy farmer provinces:


Mendes: 6 farmer slots, 0 powercards

Rating (round 1, 2, 3): A-/D/F

The most extreme farmer heavy province. Great in the first round, as you can get a lot of farmer income out of it. You will not get any powercards that round, but the farmers more than make up for it. In round 2 you are paying a lot for armers without getting as much in return for them, so its not nearly as strong. In round 3 its terrible, as you'll never make much money off most of the farmer spaces. If you could purchase a powercard, it would be a solid A in round 1. As it is, you spend a fair amount to get the farmers going, for a bit more return than others will get in their income provinces.

This province is stronger if other farming heavy provinces come out, and much weaker if the camel provinces come out.

And of course, all the farmer provinces are better if you have a bonus card for scoring if you have 9 or more farmers.

If you get Mendes in round 1 it is important to play it the following way:
Buy 3 farmers on your turn (not 4!), and then bid highest on the sacrifice (probably 5, from my experience). Take 3 free farmers from winning the sacrifice. The goal is to make lots of money on farming, not to spend lots of money to make a little bit more. Focus on getting the temple above 2, hopefully twice in the half. This increases your advantage and denies money to the camel players, giving you a huge lead on them. Reaching 3 twice in the round is better than 2 twice and 4 once.


Buto: 5 farmer slots, 0 powercards, 1 bonus powercard.

Rating: B/D+/D-

Not quite as good as Mendes in round 1 but almost there. The bonus card makes it a bit better in rounds 2 and 3, when you dont really have as much incentive to max the farmers
anyway. Same comments as for Mendes.


Baharya: 4 farmer slots, 1 powercard, 2 free farmers
(I lumped this in with the farmer heavy provinces because it gives you free farmers. Thebes is also in the farmer heavy province category, with 4 farmers, while Amarna is in the termple provinces category. These three are a bit borderline, but thats where I put them.)

Rating: B-, C-, C-

Not as great at the start as the provinces with more farmer slots, but the free farmers certainly help save you some cash. Getting two free farmers also makes it better later
on in the round, as you are getting some free money (essentially).

Same comments about when its stronger/weaker, but not as extreme (since there are less farmer spots)

Getting Baharya is helpful in winning most pyramids on one side of the river, as it gives you income without much cost for the farmers, so you can focus on building stones.


Thebes: 4 farmer slots, 2 powercards, 2 free powercards

Rating: B, B-, C-

I prefer the two powercards and purchasin ability of two powercards of Thebes to the 2 free farmers, 1 powercard purchase of Baharya. In round 1, you can generally buy 2-3
farmers and max them out during the sacrifice phase, so the two bonus farmers arent as big of a deal. Getting more powercards, however, is great for getting more free things,
income, points, etc.


With all of these provinces, the more of them that come out, the stronger they all are. And the more camel provinces, the weaker. You want to be doing the same thing as the majority of the people in Amun Re, so that the sacrifice works well for you without a bunch of effort. If the four provinces that come out first in a four player game are three farmer heavy provinces and one camel province, you dont want the camel! You are likely to have the temple pushed above 2 at least once by the farmer players, denying you income.

The combination of farmers and lots of powercards is great, as it increases the chance you will get the free farmer cards and +1 per farmer cards, as well as the farmer
scoring card.


The Temple Provinces:


Damanhur: 2 farmer slots, 1 powercard, 2 temples.

Rating: C, B+, A+

A very strong region, however in round 1 it will hurt you because you will be short on cash for the rest of the game. You will likely be in a position where you want to bid -3
for rounds 1 and 2, and then drive it up in round 3 for temple points. You should be careful with your money, and not try to compete for most pyramids on a side if you get
Damanhur in round 1. Instead, you should take the 4 points as being worth about as much as getting most pyramids, and save your money, which will be hard to come by. Played poorly, getting Damanhur in round 1 can be very bad. Its also very bad to bid 3 to get it in round 1, as that exaggerates your cash problem. In round 4, if you have saved up money from the first half, Damanhur can be a fine buy.

This region is extremely strong if you get it in rounds 2 or 3 after getting heavy farmer provinces. You can then push up the temple and benefit both in terms of money and points.
At that point, the fact that it has only two farmer spaces is irrelevant, since you didnt really want to spend the money on a bunch more anyway.

Getting this region in round 3 (or 6), is probably the best purchase of the game (provided you didnt pay too much for it). Of course, in the second half, pyramids on provinces
change their value a lot.

All of the temple provinces are strengthened a bit by having more heavy farmer provinces out, and less camel provinces, since this means it is more likely to score above 2 points in the final sacrifice of the half. This only matters in a 3 or 4 player game, of course, as in 5 player, all the provinces will be out by the time this matters.


Edfu: 3 farmer slots, 1 powercard, 1 free powercard, 1 temple.

Rating: C-, B, B+

Similar to Damanhur, but better early on due to the extra farmer slot, and weaker later, since the extra powercard isnt as good as the temple. Still a great buy later in the round.


Amarna: 4 farmer slots, 1 powercard, 1 temple.

Rating: C+, B-, B

Now you trade the free powercard for another farmer slot. This makes it stronger at the start, but a bit weaker later on when you dont really need that many farmers. Still,
this is a great province for a farmer strategy, as you can bit high early to get income, and late to get both income and a temple bonus.



The free stones/heavy powercards provinces:

Memphis: 3 farmer slots, 3 powercards, 2 free building stones.

Rating: C, B, B+

Getting two free stones can really help you to win most pyramids on one side of the river, which is a very important consideration. The fact that you can buy 3 powercards isnt much better than 2, since getting the third one at 3 gold isnt a big deal. Of course, if you have the right scoring card, this is great.


Abydos: 3 farmer slots, 4 powercards, 1 free building stone.

Rating: D, C-, C+

You trade a free stone for the ability to get a fourth powercard at 4 gold, which is rarely good. The only time this province is much good is when you have the powercard
that scores 3 points for 7 or more powercard symbols.


The automatic income provinces:

Berenike: 0 farmer slots, 1 powercard, 8 income per turn.

Rating: B+, B-, C

This is a great province early on, as you can get good income and then drive down the value of farmers (which you dont have), by bidding -3, to deny others money. At the end, it isnt terrible either, since you still get money, and dont waste money on farmers that likely wont pay out very much. Basically, you are getting your goodies in the form of money at the end of the round. Certainly weaker than Dakhla, but not terrible.
It is less risky that the farmer heavy strategies, but the potential payoff is less as well. When you take Berenike, your goal is to keep the amount of money in the game low, while getting a decent amount yourself.

Later on its still not terrible, as you get free income, and you didnt really need farmer slots as much anyway. The fact that you dont have to pay to get your income, and can focus on building pyramids, and that you can buy a powercard, gives it the edge over the farmer heavy provinces in my opinion. Especially if you bid -3 when you have this province. One important thing to note: if you have this province, you wont be spending money on farmers, and you'll likely be stealing money in the sacrifice phase. It can be a good idea to build 4 building stones per turn (even during the first half), to make up for the fact that you arent getting free stones in the sacrifice. Hopefully you can get a pyramid setup of 2/1/1 in your provinces and win on one side of the river, or even 2+some stones/1/1. You can of course bid higher in the last sacrifice phase to get more stones and win most pyramids on a side.

However, if your group tends to have someone focus heavily on winning sides of the river, with 3+ pyramids in a province in the first half (neglecting a set to do it), then you are better off getting just 3 stones a turn, not getting the +5 in the first half but instead saving your money, and then using it to buy the province(s) with lots of pyramids in the second half. This could be thought of as the "comeback" strategy.


Abu: 3 farmer slots, 2 powercards, 4 income per turn.

Rating: A, B-, D

My favorite province for round 1. You get both income and farmer spaces, so you dont have to go overboard building farmers, but you still get all the benefit. Throw in the
ability to purchase two powercards, and its a great province. Later in the round, its value falls, but its still a great round 2 buy.

Add to that the fact that you are unpredictable in the sacrifice phase. You could go high to try and get free stuff (building stones mainly, to try and win most Pyramids on one side), or you could go low to deny money to others, while still getting some yourself.

I would bid 3 for this in round 1, but I would be hesitant to bid 6 (for almost anything, in the first half), unless other stuff was also getting bid up a lot.



The camel provinces:

Avaris: 1 farmer slot, 1 powercard, 8 income per turn if the temple is on 1 or 2.

Rating: B, C, D

Camel provinces are the most risky, in that you desperately need the temple to be low, or else you will get almost no money while others rake in huge amounts. Avaris is the
most extreme of the three, giving a payout of 8, but having little else going for it.

Camel provinces are greatly improved when other camel provinces are also in play, when there aren't as many farmer heavy provinces, and when you have either the 8 gold
powercard or the sacrifice adjustment powercard. (The 8 gold because you can still get money if the temple went high, and the sacrifice adjustment to keep it low when you
fear it will be bid up). They are especially risky in round 3, when the temple province players are likely to bid it up in the sacrifice. Also, players competing over most
pyramids on one side often get in a position where whichever one bids highest in the sacrifice gets the 5 points, which can greatly increase the sacrifice bidding.

I would absolutley bid -3 with a camel province, in almost all cases. In the third round, if I was incompetition for most pyramids, and needed some free stuff from the sacrifice, and/or had other decent farming provinces or temples, I could bid it up a bit.


Sawu: 1 farmer slot, 2 powercards, 7 income per turn if the temple is on 1 or 2.

Rating: B-, C, D

Almost identical to Avaris, but with 1 less coin on the camel, and 1 more powercard purchaseable. I would prefer it slightly in round 1, to buy two cards, and prefer Avaris
slightly in round 3, since I likely have a province with 2 powercards already. But the difference is tiny.


Kharga: 2 farmer slots, 2 powercards, 5 income per turn if the temple is on 1 or 2.

Rating: B-, C, D-

Here, we trade two gold on the camel for an extra farmer slot. This increases our cost by a bit, to buy the second farmer, but decreases the risk, since we arent in quite
as bad shape if the temple hits 3 or 4.
I prefer it at round 3, when the camel is more likely to be worthless, but its still a poor pick, since you arent getting anything free, and the camel has a good chance of
being worth nothing.


The Desert:

Dakhla: 0 farmer slots, 2 powercards, 1 free powercard, 12 free gold.

Rating: F, D+, A

The most unique of the provinces, Dakhla shines in the third round, where its 12 free gold is a huge help at winning most pyramids on one side, and its downside of having no farmer
spaces is minor. In round 1 however, Dakhla is terrible, as its 12 free gold could be thought of as 4 per round over 3 rounds, like Abu, yet without the three farmer spaces
to give you income.

If you get Dakhla in round 1, you better not have paid for it! And in round 3, you will often you will have to bid 6 for it, cutting your winnings in half. (At 6, its not so
great even in round 3. It would be pretty good at 3).

The presence of Dakhla decreases the value of farmer provinces, of course, as the Dakhla player will want to steal money from the sacrifice to make up for the fact that they get nothing in the income phase, and to drive down the farmer value.


Overall ratings by round:


Round 1:

Abu: A
Mendes: A-
Berenike: B+
Thebes: B
Avaris: B
Buto: B
Sawu: B-
Kharga: B-
Baharya: B-
Amarna: C+
Memphis: C
Edfu: C-
Damanhur: C-
Abydos: D
Dakhla: F

Basically, round 1 is about income. Whatever gets good income is best. I realize that the grades are weighted towards the good side of the scale. I guess that tells us that most of the provinces are at least decent at
generating some income. Mentally lower all grades by one half if that bothers you. I do feel that there is a bit of a bunching of pretty good provinces for round 1, with a few sub-par ones, and a couple bad ones. This ensures that most players will be in at least a decent position at the start of the game. And whoever gets stuck with the bad ones better have bid up the others to even it out!!

Round 2:

Damanhur: B+
Memphis: B
Edfu: B
Thebes: B-
Amarna: B-
Berenike: B-
Abu: B-
Avaris: C
Sawu: C
Kharga: C
Baharya: C-
Abydos: C-
Buto: D+
Dakhla: D+
Mendes: D

The smaller spread is indicative of the greater balance between income/farmers and free stuff in the second round. In round 3, the balance will tip towards free stuff. Nothing is truly terrible in round 2. Having a lot of farmer spaces isnt important anymore, but having 2 or 3 is helpful. Bonus goodies take on greater importance, and temples are good, because you are only giving up income for 2 rounds instead of 3 to get them at this point. Extreme provinces such as Dakhla, Mendes and Buto are probably the worst at this point, as its too late to take advantage of that many farmers, and too early for Dakhla's bonus to override its downside.


Round 3:

Damanhur: A+
Dakhla: A
Memphis: B+
Edfu: B+
Amarna: B
Abydos: C+
Berenike: C
Baharya: C-
Thebes: C-
Abu: D
Avaris: D
Sawu: D
Kharga: D-
Buto: D-
Mendes: F

Free stuff and temples (free points) are emphasized here, where lots of farmer spaces are worthless, and camels are weakened by the fact that bidding has a much higher
chance of breaking 2 in this round.



I hope this was helpful, and will help you to choose what provinces to bid on in Amun Re in the future! In the second half of the game, the number of pyramids in a province has
a lot of weight as well, but the same factors apply there as in the first half, they are just less important. And again, you want to be with the majority of the people, so that
the sacrifice works in your favor. If everyone else but you has lots of farmers in round 1, you could be in trouble, and probably shouldve avoided that province. But if there are two camel provinces, you probably want to get one of them, and should avoid a farmer heavy strategy!

Interesting. And hard to argue with that analysis.

I guess the question is how to quantify it. Is an A province worth bidding 10 on if the option is getting
the D one for free? And how much does your situation
change things --- if you need farmers to avoid being
the only player using a camel strategy, should you take
the C farmer-oriented province over a B+ province without
much help in this area?

I wouldnt bid that much to avoid a bad province in the start.

I'd say in round 1 the difference between an A and a D province on my rating might be a bid of 6 on the A vs 0 on the D. Still, you can usually get something decent for not much under 3 usually!) early on. And a bid of 3 on round 1 is an almost guaranteed buy.

If there was both Abu and Mendes in round 1, and 2 poor provinces (ones that have much less income potential), I would bid 1 or 3 on Abu. If outbid, I would bid on Mendes.


Re: Camels vs Farmers. I think that not being in the minority in the type of provinces that come up is highly important. My ratings were kindof based on a average expectations. Provinces like Abu and Berenike are better than Mendes and Buto often becasue they are more versatile. You put less into them, and thus there is much less risk of being screwed if others bid -3 in the sacrifice. I would definitely try to go with the crowd regarding farmers/camels.

Also: in a recent game, in round 1, Mendes, Abu, and 2 ok provinces (Baharya & Amarna) came up in round 1. I grabbed Abu and consistently bid -3 in the sacrifice to drive down the temple income. It worked well, as I ended up with the most money, because the Mendes player had to spend more to buy the farmers, while not getting any more than I was (since the 4 automatic from Abu + some farmers was equaling his haul from 6 farmers), and I took in more money than those with the 4 farmer / no other income provinces. Abu is my favorite for orund 1 due to its versatility. If farmers come up, you can bid -3 and get more than them. If camels come up, you can bid high and win lots of free stuff, and get more farmer income than them...

A further analysis:

This time, I tried to add up the value of the various goodies you get from each province. Piers Shepperson sent me an email saying that he tried to calculate their values this way, and some thoughts. I decided to try and come up with some good values for what each bonus is worth, in terms of money, by round. Of course as always, multiple camel provinces increase each other's value, and camel's decrease farming, and heavy farming decreases camels.


Most of the things we can think of in terms of how much money they create.

So farmer spot 1 will cost 1 gold to make the farmer. Lets say you expect a payout of 2/round (generally the case, but it sometimes breaks higher, especially if there are not camels). So farmer spot #1 is worth 5/3/1 depending on round number, or maybe a little more. Lets say 5.5/3.25/1

Farmer spot 2 is 4.5/2.25/.25, #3 is 3.25/1.25/0, #4 is 2.25/.25/0. (Just guessing at some numbers) However, you can get bonus farmers during the sacrifice phase for cheaper, if you want to do it that way, so extra farmers in early rounds arent actually quite so bad. I am just making um numbers which are estimates, but not too far off.

I'd say for round #1, farmer spots (having 1 through 6) are worth: 5.5/4.5/3.25/3/3/3 (since I plan to win the sacrifice and drop 3 farmers down, and buy only 3 farmers). Without that plan, its weaker, but played correctly I value it like that. Also, without camel provinces, and with more farming province,s they are a ltitle better, as the possibility of getting 3 is increased.

Getting it in round #2: 3.5/2.25/1.5/1/1/1 I would say.

Round 3: 1.5/.5/0/0/0/0 or so probably...just making up some numbers

So 1 farmer spot is like 5/3/1. (Without many farmers, chances are it wont go above 2, since you wont be trying to make it go above 2).

2 farmer spots is 9/6/2

3 is 13/7/2

4 is 16/8/2

5 is 18/9/2

6 is 21/10/2

In order to get the full value out of the higher numbered farmer spots, you basically must take free farmers in the sacrifice phase.

Free income of X is of course: 3X/2X/X

Camel income is a bit weaker, I would say Camel X is maybe 2.25X, 1.5X, .75X. Modified up near the automatic amount if there arent heavy farmer provinces, down if there are multiple heavy farmer provinces.

Powercards could be thought of being worth about 3-4 or so, but sometimes they dont help. So lets go 3.5 on average. So purchasing of the first card gains 2, the second gains 1, the third, maybe you might want to at some point, .5. However, once you have a province with cards already, you must subtract from the value of other provinces however much the card purchas is worth. So I think this should be lower...maybe for round 1,one card purchase is worth 2.5, but not valuable in the next rounds, since almost everything gives at least 1. Purchase of 2 is worth 4 for round 1, and say 1 more for later rounds, since you probably wont get much more out of it, so 5. Purchase of 3-4, you wont beat this, so its 4.5 for what you get round 1, and another 1.5 for later value, so 6 or so. So round 1 they are 2/4/6 for 1/2/3 cards purchasable. round 2: 0/2/3 round 3: 0/1/2 just to make up some numbers. SO 1 card purchasable is worht 2/0/0 based on round (since you'll get a better or equal one after round 1), two cards is 4/2/1, three cards is 6/3/2.

So 1 card purchase is 2/0/0
2 cards purchase is 4/2/0
3+ is 6/4/2

A free card is 3 we'll say.

Free bricks: I usually buy at least 3 bricks a turn, so extra ones wouldve cost 4 or 5. I would consider 1 free brick worth 4-5 depending on how many you were going to buy, and 2 bricks 9 or so.

I figure a temple is often 2 points, occasionally more, especially if you can personally drive it up). I'd say thats probably worth 6 or so. So maybe 6 per temple, as a guess.

The two free Baharya farmers probably save you 7 in round 1, 5 in round 2 (since you wouldve only gone to 3), and 4 in round 3 in that they give you 4 income, but you wouldnt have bought them otherwise. So 7/5/4 for the free farmers in Baharya.

Adding up the scores by round.

Mendes (6 farmers): 21/10/2 (to get this one to be good, you MUST drive it above 2. Given that you can plan for that, its probably a bit higher in round 1. I am rounding numbers to a while number.

Buto (5 farmers, free bonus card): 21/12/5

Abu (3 farmers, 4 bucks, 2 powercard purchase): 12/8/4 for the 4, plus 13/7/2 for the farmers, plus 4/2/1 for the cards = 29/17/7 As I thought, Abu rocks in this scale in round 1. Its the best.

Berenike (8 bucks, 2 cards): 24/16/8 + 4/2/1 = 28/18/9. Abu is slightly better due to the chance of the temple going over 3. Also, due to the possibility of playing a +1 per farmer card. This makes sense to me, so this scale is at least decent.

Amarna (4 farmers, temple, 1 card): 15/8/2 for the farmers, 6 for the temple, 2/0/0 for the card = 23/14/8. Either my values are off for farmer values, or my intuition for how good different provinces are is off, or something... Now that I think about it, Amarna probably IS better than Buto and Mendes in round 1. Wow. It has just slightly less farmer spots, the powercard purchase ability helps, and the temple is certainly good.

Edfu (3 farmers, temple, 1 card, 1 bonus free card): 13/7/2 for farmers, 6 for temple, 2/0/0 for card, 3 for bonus card = 24/16/11. Scoring higher than Amarna in round 1! I guess it makes sense. A free card is probably a bit better than a 4th farmer slot, as that farmer is expensive. If you drew a free farmer, for example, its purely better, since that guy was free.

Damanhur (2 farmers, 2 temples, 1 card): 10/6/2 for farmers, 12 for temples, 2/0/0 for card = 24/18/14. I'd actually give it a couple more points for the temples at the end, since if you get it late and had more income, the chance of driving up the temple is higher. Maybe 24/18/16. That this would rate so highly in round 1 is interesting. I would put it a bit lower. I think my farmer valuations seem low, but actually I think they are logical. Perhaps I was overvaluing farmer spots previous to making this.

Abydos (3 farmers, 1 brick, 4 cards): 13/7/2 for farmers, 4 for the brick, 6/4/2 for the cards = 23/15/8. Everything keeps beating Buto and Mendes! Again, either my farmer valuations are too low for having lots of them (since you can drive it up to 3 I guess, but that costs a lot, and only gains you a few bucks over the others)...
Also, the farmer provinces are probably so low since they dont let you buy powercards. Interesting ,I'll have to never get them ever again.

Memphis (3 farmers, 2 bricks, 3 cards): 13/7/2 + 9 + 6/4/2 = 27/19/12. Those bricks really are great for getting most pyramdids on a side for the 5 bonus. And good cards and decent farmers too, I can see this...

Thebes (4 farmers, 2 cards, 2 free cards): Farmers 16/8/2 + cards 4/2/0 + 6 for the free cards = 26/16/8.

Avaris (8 camel, 1 farmer, 1 card): 18/12/6 for camel, 5/3/1 for farmer, 2/0/0 for card = 25/15/7.

Sawu (7 camel, 1 farmer, 2 cards): 16/11/5 for camel, 5/3/1 for farmer, 4/2/0 for cards = 25/16/6.

Kharga (5 camel, 2 farmer, 2 cards): 12/8/4 for camel, 9/5/2 for farmers, 4/2/0 cards = 25/15/6. All the camel provinces are really similar. Which makes sense. Kharga is most balanced, least risky, but with the least reward. Avaris is most extreme, but pays off the best if it works.

Baharya (4 farmers, 2 free farmers, 1 card): 15/8/2 for farmers, 7/5/4 for getting two of the farmers without paying for them, 2/0/0 for card = 24/13/6.

Dakhla (12 coins, 1 free card, 2 cards): 3 for the free card, 4/2/0 for the cards, 12 for the money = 19/17/15. 15 is a very strong third round score, of course. But its very bad in round 1.


So an ordering. The number in parenthesis is how much better it is than the worst province in the round.

Round 1:

Abu 29 (10)
Berenike 28 (9)
Memphis 27 (8)
Thebes 26 (7)
Avaris 25 (6)
Buto 25 (6)
Kharga 25 (6)
Baharya 24 (5)
Edfu 24 (5)
Damanhur 24 (5)
Amarna 23 (4)
Abydos 23 (4)
Buto 21 (2)
Mendes 21 (2)
Dakhla 19 (0)

Remember that to get the full results out of more than 3 farmer locations early, you really have to be buying them as free stuff at the end of the round, not paying 4+ for them. And bidding 1 and getting 1 free thing (instead of 3 gold for stealing) is really a cost of 4, so that isnt great either. You want to get multiple free things, without paying too much for them, to really work the farmers. I have learned from this that heavy farmer provinces seem to be quite bad. However, if there were a lot of farmer spots on the boar,d and not camels, then farmers get good ,as it is likely that the farmer payout goes above 2, and the farmer values go up a lot. Remember also that if you have a farmer low province, and others are farmer heavy, that you should bid -3 and drive down the value of their farmers.

I also dont really know what to put for temple value. 6 was just a guess. Also, the value of powercards really depends on which ones you draw. If you draw bad ones for you, they are only worth 1.

The ordering I got for the provinces in round 1 REALLY surprised me. But I think my valuations are decent.


Round 2:

Memphis 19 (9)
Damanhur 18 (8)
Berenike 18 (8)
Dakhla 17 (7)
Abu 17 (7)
Amarna 17 (7)
Edfu 16 (6)
Thebes 16 (6)
Abydos 15 (5)
Avaris 15 (5)
Sawu 15 (5)
Kharga 15 (5)
Baharya 13 (3)
Buto 12 (2)
Mendes 10 (0)


Round 3:

Dakhla 15 (13)
Damanhur 14 (12)
Memphis 12 (10)
Edfu 11 (9)
Berenike 9 (7)
Amarna 8 (6)
Abydos 8 (6)
Thebes 8 (6)
Abu 7 (5)
Avaris 7 (5)
Sawu 6 (4)
Kharga 6 (4)
Baharya 6 (4)
Buto 5 (3)
Mendes 2 (0)


Some very interesting results, I think. Namely that heavy farmers arent all that great, which makes sense becasue to make lots of money off them you must pay a lot for them . Still, it makes the +1 per farmer cards better. For Buto and Mendes however that still isnt a big deal, since you cant buy cards there anyways! SO you will get less cards, and less chance of drawing those ones you need. Depending on how much you choose to value temples, free stones, and other things, your values may be a bit different. My values are just educated guesses, and averages of what I think things will usually be worth. Of course, the province distribution and other factors also play a role.

In the second half, I would consider an extra pyramid in a province to be about 12-15 or so in value. Thats because to build 3 extra bricks more would cost about that much, on top of what you were going to build. Of course, whether it ends up being worth that much depends on how things work out for you in terms of sets, and winning most pyramids on a side.

I think the values I had there for the bonus building stones are a bit overvalued. They are only worth 4-5 if you are really going to build that many stones, which people generally only due if they have the money to. If you gave me and extra 9 gold in round 1, I wouldnt buy two more stones that round with it. So 9 for the 2 building stones in Memphis is too high. Because this province doesnt give good income, you are going to have to buld less stones to compensate. basically, the two build stones will probably save you only 6-7 or so, not 9. And probably just 3 not 4 for Abydos.

So I'd reduce the value of Memphis by 2 and Abydos by 1. The exception of course is that if you already have plenty of money (say its the second half for example), and you wanted to build lots of stones (like 2 pyramids a round, to get to 3 sets). Then, the stones could be worth more, as above).

So that pushes Memphis down significantly...which I think is accurate. This really isnt an amazing province for round 1, since it often leaves you starved for money.

I find that in round 1, abydos and memphis are actually poor, especially abydos.

You simply dont have the income necessary to build a lot of stones, and really make use of the extra stones you get, or all the powercards you can buy.

I think I'd stick with my original thoughts more, except that I have come to prefer camel provinces over the heavy farming provinces, except in times where there are no camels (where the farmers become very good, since less people bid -3)

Alexfrog (#17827),

I agree Abydos is relatively poor in Round 1 no matter what the distribution of the other provinces out in the 1st round. However, Memphis I feel is an OK province in Round 1. Though only slightly different from Abydos the additional brick just makes it a reasonable choice. The extra Power Card buyable in Abydos is usually a luxury you can't afford whereas you might make use of Memphis's limit of 3. The 2 starting bricks in Memphis give you a very good chance of largest pyramid on one side of the nile for a much reduced cost.

Jamesdcfc (#17867),

I agree memphis is ok in round 1, given that you arent spending money to acquire it (since you cant really afford to). Its not as good as most of the income based provinces, but its not terrible. The 2 bricks are nice, and save you some money.

Abydos is poor pretty much always, because the 4 card buy limit is a waste. You dont want to be spending 4 for a card. 3 is a bit expensive, it can be worth it if you get a useful one, but it can also waste 2 gold...so the 3 buy capacity is worth SOMETHING, but not much.

Alexfrog (#17882),
4 card buy limit can be useful if you have the 7 power card means 3 victory point power card. Otherwise, yeah,
it's overkill.

Alexfrog (#10301),

Something that wasn't considered in your analysis of province values is the cashflow effect of the likely sacrifice bid for each province. My starting point in realizing this was your assertion that bidding more than 3 in round 1 tends to cripple long-term cash flow. Consulting your value estimates for round 1, I saw a range that would seem to require bids of 6 in order to balance the difference between Dakhla and Abu (for example). I just couldn't believe Reiner would be so sloppy, so I started looking for a hole in the valuation that would even this out.

The gap is that the valuation doesn't include the income Dakhla gives when the -3 card is played. That amounts to at least 4 gold over the positive-bid alternative. Conversely, the owner of Mendes has much less (essentially zero) access to that source of gold. In the case of provinces like Abu, it's harder to estimate how much cash one can expect to give up or get from the sacrifice bid. Looking over the list again, it seems that it doesn't "fix" the values in the way I had hoped (bids greater than 3 still seem to be necessary to offset the range of province values), but it does seem to reduce the range.

My guess is that as your strategy of stealing frequently (3-5 times a game) developed, that reinforced your conclusion that you were underrating the camel provinces in your first attempt at valuation. I'd be interested in any comments you might have about how this can or should affect valuation.

I have some concern that the adverse effects of bidding higher than 6 on turn 1 may make it hard to get a fair start to a game, meaning that it is perhaps likely that the person who bids first will gain a significant advantage. Adding just a small amount to the initial cash could fix this; probably an increase from 20 to 25 would take care of this problem without causing any other ill effects.

Increasing the available starting funds might make the farmer provinces better....

The player with farmers can bid -3 just as the player with a camel can, for the income, but it causes them many more problems. Similarly, the camel player cannot bid high in order to gain free bricks or powercards, without hurting themself. The bidding players receive compensation for their bid in he form of free stuff, if they bid well. The threat of running out of early funds makes it such that players cannot afford to bid much at all in the province acquisition phase for provinces that require large sacrifice bids later on.



Its true that bids of at least 6 or even 10 may be necessary to separate the best provinces from the worst, depending upon the draw. Obviously you dont always want the best, you want the one where the gain of its value minus what you must pay is the best.
There are other considerations as well, such as how drawing an 8 gold powercard can turn Dakhla from poor to very good.


I guess if I had to update these values, I would reduce the value of the farming spaces becasue you cant really get as much as I said without effort, you must put money into the sacrifice in order to receive that much out. Similarly, the camels are stronger because you can gain further income by stealing. While the players sacrificing gold will receive compensations, these will generally be powercards (or the needed farmers), or building stones leading to points. And the value of the extra money is generally greater, as it allows the scoring of even more points in the second half.

Hi Guys! I'm a newcomer to the forums, but I'm on about my 80th game of Amun Re (what can I say, I love this game), so here are a couple thoughts on things I have discovered about the province valuation, especially on round 1.

* The value of a province (even, or perhaps especially on turn 1) is -highly- dependent on which -other- provinces are available. If provinces have a "standard" value in a "normal" mix, you need to promote them or demote them depending on what else comes up. Here are some examples:

- If NO caravans appear (and no Berenike/Dakhla), heavy farming provinces like Mendes/Buto are really cool. If only ONE caravan appears (and no B/D) farming is pretty safe and it's a little dangerous to take the caravan against 4 farming players, even though caravans are normally very safe early on.

- If it's turn 1 and a province is the ONLY one available on a particular side of the river, that province is GREAT, because it pretty much guarantees you "first place" on that side if you want it-- you build a pyramid this turn, and you're a full pyramid ahead before anyone else even gets a chance.

- If all 3 Caravans (or 2 caravans and Berenike or Dakhla) come up, any farming province is terrible, since you'll likely get a lot of -3's.

- If for example Dakhla (definitely terrible if you're not planning on getting lucky and drawing an 8 card) comes up on turn one, the premium for Dakhla-avoidance is going to be higher; if all the provinces are "good", you may be able to get a nice one for much less.

- Similarly Mendes-for-0 can work out pretty well if there are other people w/ a few farmer slots: buy 3 farmers, plan to make the highest bid and take 3 more farmers. You won't be rich on the first turn, but you'll collect from those 6 farmers for the rest of the kingdom. On the last turn if there are people that are bidding high because they have temples, you can make a PILE of money going into the next round.

* Value is also relative to what other players are currently offering to pay. A "safe" bid for a good province is 3; a strong bid is 6 (for example for a really good province, or a decent one in a turn where something terrible like a first turn Dakhla is around). Try not to let someone get a "good" province for only 1 or 0, but if everyone else is paying 6, virtually anything for 0 is a good bid. Basically if your opponents are all spending a lot, you can have really strong play in a sub-optimum province; think carefully before you bid 6 for some average province just to avoid Mendes-for-0 or something like that.

* Most of the time, the Nile thingy is going to end up at 2 on the first turn -- it takes an exceptional case to produce a 1 or 3 at this point (such as some described above where there are a lot of farming provinces and only 0-1 caravan, or 3 caravan/barren provinces come up at once). "2" is also pretty normal for turn 2; it's on turn 3 where things often get freaky as people start thinking about temples and the race for most pyramids on a side: 1, 3, and 4 are all definite possibilities depending on how things develop.

* A "normal" spread of provinces is 2 farming provinces, one in-between province, and 2 caravan-or-Berenike-or-Daklha style spaces. If the mix deviates from that, be sure to adjust your bidding accordingly.

* I find it's helpful not to think so much of which province is "best" if purchased for some set price like 3 or 6, but rather what the best "value for money" available is. For example Damanhur-for-6 is a terrible bid on turn one, but Damanhur-for-0 is fantastic! Buy 1 card, 2 farmers and 2 blocks, play your builder card, and play your minus 3 (just because you have 2 farmers don't feel like you have to donate: let the people with more farmer slots do the heavy lifting). Next turn get something else cheap... your goal is to save your money for a big bid on the last turn & try to make 6 points.

* If there are at least two other provinces with 4 or more farmer squares available, then the 3-farmer squares can be really good: bid 1 and let the other players do your heavy lifting on the income.

* The ability to buy at least 2 cards-per-turn is REALLY valuable on turn 1. The first run-through of the deck is critical, because it's when most of the scoring cards get pulled out (and even if you get a dud you can't score, you can save it to score in the second kingdom); you won't get all scoring cards, but the income cards and builder cards are great too. I buy 2 cards per turn whenever possible. I didn't see much discussion of this so I wanted to point it out (but yeah, whoever said Abydos isn't worth much is right: the only time you really need 4-card-bandwidth is to score that one card)

* A key rule of thumb is to AVOID getting TWO caravan provinces, because that can set the other players against you and you may lose all your income when they drive the Nile to 3. Likewise, AVOID at all costs getting both Mendes and Buto, especially if no one else is really farming. AVOID getting 3 temples (e.g. Damanhur AND Amarna) because you likewise set yourself up to be ganged up on. Basically, always try to be in a situation where at least one other player (preferably 2) is going to want to pull the donation level in the same direction you want it to go.


So a couple special notes on the individual provinces:

* Memphis I think you guys are undervaluing on turn 1: it's a strong bid even if you pay 6, since it's a pretty much guaranteed 5 points for most-on-side. If you pay 6 for it, you then buy 2 cards, 2 farmers, and 3 blocks, and play your master builder card. Donate 1 in the offering, taking a 3rd farmer for your freebie, and leaving you with a probable money total for turn 2 of 7 (1 was left over at the end of the turn). You'll need to bid 0 or 1 for your province on turn 2, but you've now got TWO full pyramids in Memphis on turn 1, meaning you're unlikely to be contested for most-on-side and certainly unlikely to lose it (often the best way to win most-on-side is to show enough commitment to it that others don't want to risk racing you). A reasonable case is you end up with 2 or 3 pyramids in Memphis for 7 or 8 pyramid points (note that's more than the 6 points you get for 3 pyramids spread out for a 3-point set); best case is you have 2 pyramids in Memphis plus 1 in each of your other provinces for 12 points: 4 plus 3 plus 5. Also note that your income of 6 could turn out much better if you draw a +1 farmer card or an 8, or if the Nile goes to level 3. (So that's when you have to pay 6 for Memphis... imagine what happens if someone lets you get it for 3!). On later turns Memphis just gets better because the 2 free blocks means you can concentrate your block buys somewhere else to race for first-on-side and still work toward your set at the same time.

* Baharya is a province I like on turn 1 (standard bid 3) if there are 2 other provinces with 3+ farmer slots: I can fill on farmers for 3 gold but take 4 slots of income. Basically it gives you a really cheap turn 1.

* Amarna and Edfu are awesome turn 1 provinces: get a guaranteed temple score without completely sacrificing income. I'll bid 3 for one of these without even thinking, and 6 if there are some really baddies out there. Demote these guys only if there are 3 barren/caravan provinces in play.

* Kharga/Sawu/Avaris: Kharga and Sawu are -significantly- better than Avaris early on because of the 2 "card bandwidth". Kharga is the safest because of the 2 farmer slots allowing it to "go both ways". Note that their value goes DOWN once you own a temple province because that will conflict you in donation phase on the 3rd turn.

* For similar reasons, Thebes is a strong buy for 3 on turn 1: with TWO free cards plus the ability to buy 2, you'll likely get one scoring card and hopefully either a free farmer or a +1 farmer card on turn 1 for a really fast start. The 4 farmer slots give you an adequate income (buy 2 cards, 2 farmers, and 2 blocks, play your master builder, and make a medium-sized bid aiming for 2nd place): solid income for the rest of the kingdom and a whole fistful of cards.

* Abu and Berenike have a strong income situation if bought on turn one, but I'd usually rather have Amarna, Memphis, or Edfu for adequate income plus the guaranteed points at the end of the kingdom. Berenike in particular significantly cuts down the likelihood of a good result on scoring cards.

* Abydos as discussed is quite poor on turn 1 and only mediocre afterwards.

* Damanhur as discussed is risky on turn 1, but can be strong with a bid of 0 or 1 and a money-saving strategy. Pick up a farming province for cheap on turn 2 and get 2-3 more farmers in place so that when you make your big bid on turn 3 you have a chance for some decent income; avoid buying caravans after this because you want a high bid on turn 3. Needless to say this province escalates highly in value toward the end of the kingdom, but be careful you don't overbid for it, because holding this province requires you to have a lot of money to donate.

* Mendes, Buto: playable on turn one at a bid of 0 or 1 (I slightly prefer Buto to Mendes to pick up the card which might even be a +1 farmer). Even playable on turn 2.

* Dakhla: Terrible on turn 1, mediocre on turn 2, and FABULOUS on turn 3--on turn 3 basically lets you take a very strong income (12) early and plunge it into extra pyramids/blocks going into the scoring round. Also: if you've collected one or two "8" income cards in the first 3 turns, Daklha can be very strong for you on turn 1 of the second kingdom: you can probably get it very cheap, and then you'll get a roaring amount of money out of it and a lot of cards.

Hi Bryan. I agree heavily with pretty much everything you've said. Loads of great points!

The only things I dont agree with (mostly turn 1 province evaluations):

Big Huge Brian wrote:
* Memphis I think you guys are undervaluing on turn 1: it's a strong bid even if you pay 6, since it's a pretty much guaranteed 5 points for most-on-side. If you pay 6 for it, you then buy 2 cards, 2 farmers, and 3 blocks, and play your master builder card. Donate 1 in the offering, taking a 3rd farmer for your freebie, and leaving you with a probable money total for turn 2 of 7 (1 was left over at the end of the turn). etc...

I definitely think this is overpaying. 7 is just NOT enough money to have in round 2! Memphis is a low income / high bonus province. Its therefore bad in round 1. It is good in round 3 however, and bidding highly for it then could be good.

I have found that the most important thing in the first half is to get a LOT of money, to take to the second half. This lets you buy the good provinces, build lots of pyramids and get several sets and a side, in the big scoring half. As long as you arent too far behind in the first half, this genreally works.

My general goal is to get either one set of pyramids or most on a side(building everything on one province for 3 pyramids there), plus 'something' (temple or powercard bonus). This will give about 8-11 points in the first half, without too much investment. I then get as much money as I possibly can, and good powercards, and go into the second half in the middle of the pack in score, down a few points on the leader, with the most money, and then perform a comeback using that money.

I dont like Memphis on turn 1 because there is an easier way to get most pyramids on a side than to spend all your money doing it. Its to simply build 1 pyramid a turn, all in one province. This misses the 3 point set bonus, but 3 points isnt bad if you saved a bunch of money to do it. This has a further advantage: it creates one big province with several pyramids, and two crappy provinces with no pyramids, in the next half. Having provinces of wildly different values favors those with lots of money, which is the cornerstone of this strategy...

* Amarna and Edfu are awesome turn 1 provinces: get a guaranteed temple score without completely sacrificing income. I'll bid 3 for one of these without even thinking, and 6 if there are some really baddies out there. Demote these guys only if there are 3 barren/caravan provinces in play.

I dont really like these on round 1. I count the temple as 2 points in the first half, because it ususally is. If its 3, thats only 1 more point. Compare Edfu to Abu. Abu gives 4 a turn, with the same 3 farmers. Thats +12. Then Abu is 2 card buy limit, edfu 1 with a bonus. Thats about even. I would say Abu is better than Edfu by 12 on turn 1! Edfu / Amarna are a bit below average on turn 1 imo.


* Kharga/Sawu/Avaris: Kharga and Sawu are -significantly- better than Avaris early on because of the 2 "card bandwidth". Kharga is the safest because of the 2 farmer slots allowing it to "go both ways". Note that their value goes DOWN once you own a temple province because that will conflict you in donation phase on the 3rd turn.

I actually love Avaris too, and I think they are all about equal. I also wouldnt lower the value if you had a temple. That means less OTHER people are trying to push up the sacrifice in round 3, making it more certain youll get it. Just accept that your goal for that sacrifice is 2, and the temple is worth 2.

I agree on Thebes.


* Abu and Berenike have a strong income situation if bought on turn one, but I'd usually rather have Amarna, Memphis, or Edfu for adequate income plus the guaranteed points at the end of the kingdom. Berenike in particular significantly cuts down the likelihood of a good result on scoring cards.


This I definitely disagree with. Abu is the best! And berenike is good. Again, money is much much MUCH more important than points in the first half. I would rather have 8 more bucks than 3 more points. The provinces give below average income to gain a couple points. Its just not worth it! If you pay 0-1 and the others pay 6 for any income provinces, then it can be good.



Agree on Abydos, its terrible early, ok late, you mainly want it for the 7 cheese symbols card. Memphis really isnt a lot better...its just 1 more brick. Also, that abydos exists with its free brick makes Memphis worse, as there is competition on the side. (Provinces on the other side of the river from these are made a little better, simply because its easier to get most pyramids on that side!)

Now I think Memphis is a lot better in round 4 than round 1...because you dont care about income as much, and you want bricks!


I agree on damanhur, buto, mendes, dakhla.

I will take Dakhla on turn 1 only if everyone else is paying a LOT. And then I pray for an 8 card. I would take it turn 2 if I had an 8 card, or in the second half with 1+ 8 cards (especially with more than 1), it can be great.