Götterdämmerung im Wüstensand

Kemet: Blut und Sand

Gods Sobek, Horus, Anubis, Wadjet and Basted are familiar enough from Egyptian mythology. In Kemet: Blut und Sand / Blood and Sand those basically rather pacifist gods are deadly enemies and sick their followers onto each other to determine who is the best among gods, Neither desert nor Nile banks can stop them from sending their creatures into battle, to control temples and towns and to set up pyramids.

Kemet: Blut und Sand is a new edition of Kemet and was originally financed via Kickstarter and is distributed by Pegasus in German-speaking countries. Players who are familiar with the original edition will therefore not learn much that is new here.

Aim for players is to accrue most possible victory points - minimum nine. If you look at board and rules, the first impression is that of an area control game, as you score victory points for occupying temples and pyramids. But ownership is only temporary and can go to other players if they conquer the location.

More important therefore are the permanent victory points which you only collect of you acquire fame and victory in attacking an opponent, or sacrifice troops at the main temple at the end of the day. As the game favors attackers - initially fame can only be won by attacking - entrenching at a position is a difficult thing. Another important factor that you need to consider is that you have to have nine victory points at the start of the next round to win. Therefore, all players will aim to attack the leader to avoid him winning.

This takes us to the combat system, which is relatively simple. Each player has six combat cards and plays two of them in each conflict. After three conflicts, he takes back all six cards in hand. Those cards are identical for all players, and you can only have five units in a troop, which should result in rather straightforward conflict, were there not divine interventions and creatures that can accompany soldiers.

The rest looks like classic area control: In the day phase you give marching orders, deploy troops, acquire mystical abilities, say prayers, and set up pyramids. Combat also takes place in that phase in case of different troops meeting. The night phase provides additional victory points if you, as mentioned above, own the suitable temples. IN addition, you receive a lot of prayer points, the currency in the game, and can use veteran points, that you gain from lost battles, to buy invention cards for the next combat and new troops. Turn order is also determined in that phase.

Especially well implemented is that all players start with the same set up, but that strength diverge during the game. Certain abilities are available only once which results in very varying interaction in the game. You can, for instance, also acquire fame as a defender or enhance movement of troops. Due to the once-only availability of many abilities, you not only must cleverly plan but need also to have a plan B available if Anubis grabs the mummy before you can.

If you talk about Kemet: Blut und Sand, you must mention the opulent components. Troops and creatures come as intricate miniatures, player boards are nicely done and keep everything relevant in order. Contrary to the first edition, the game features pyramids that are assembled. A little bit disappointing is the board which featured a much clearer design in the 2012 edition and therefore also showed sub-units that were easier to distinguish. But all in all, the game is marvelously impressive.

Kemet: Blut und Sand is an excellent interactive game that forces players to constantly forge new alliances. No alliance can work for a long time, and even defeat is not bad, as troops are continually recruited and discharged. Even in a completely conquered home base you can still recruit troops and even discharged troops give you prayer or veteran points. Due to the strong interaction, even weak players have the chance to score points and to win.

The biggest point for criticism is a designer decision - the game is designed for 2-5 players, the board of the game is designed for six players, however, so that a certain part of the board always remains unused. The rules already give hits about the green abilities that you will be able to buy in an expansion, but the box has no room to store those expansion tiles.

If you ignore that somewhat doubtable decision, the game is especially suited to players who do not mind combating for two hours in continually changing alliances. Players who prefer development and consistency, should look for another game.