Ankh’or Review

Travel back to Ancient Egypt and purchase tokens to build a structure of like-symbols and like-colors to score as set collections.

Was this game sent for review or self-purchased?: Sent for review by 25th Century Games.

In two sentences, what do you do in the game: There are two stages to this game, collecting three colorful tokens or purchasing a tile with those tokens. Groups of like-color or like-type tokens that are placed next to each other score points at end game, triggered when one player placed their 13th tile.

Have we played any other titles by this publisher?: Yes, we’ve played many games by this publisher.

What was surprising about this title: As the price of the tiles constantly changes as the tiles under the prices are shifted, it adds a good amount of strategy to the game planning when to purchase tiles but also risking potentially missing out.

How likely is this to return to the game table?: Very likely, it was easy to bring to the table and fun to strategize using the special effect pieces such as the Ankh token (which allows you to refresh tiles or move one of your tiles) or the Scribe tiles (allowing you to take a bonus turn).

Game length: About a half hour, give or take. The amount of tiles you can have on your board before end game is triggered helps to keep the game concise.

Language Barrier Playability: Great. Once the rules are explained, most of this game is symbols based.

Artwork: Beautiful. The designs are like modern drawings of ancient Egyptian themes. The color scheme pops and also makes the tiles easy to sort for scoring.

Quality: Sturdy. Nice tiles that will last, what I’d describe as good cardboard.

Strategy: Good. When to buy and when to save up tokens are the main strategies, then using special tiles and the Ankh tokens add another layer to the strategy.

Instruction Manual: Fantastic. The best part of the manual are the clear image examples that really help to learn the game.

Organization: Nice. Everything has a place, the tiles and tokens have their own columns and the board sits nicely on one side.