Ben Pinchback
United States
Romeo
Michigan
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I know 75th is a good rating in the grand scheme of things, but honestly my gaming group and I love this game. It's right up there in every aspect with the higher rated top 20 games. Great components, great integrated theme, the two auctions are fantastic, the new/old kingdom bit is genius. The only thing I can think of is that the power cards are kind of dumb. That has to be it. I'm guessing those silly power cards dropped this game at least 50 spots.
Well here's a free tip. Play this game! It absolutely holds up with every other highly ranked game with 4 or 5 players.
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ackmondual
United States
Virginia
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I enjoy this game too, but the reasons are many and counting:
--I thought this game was OOP for a while. That's enough to knock any game off rankings (see Glory To Rome).
--it has a highball playtime of 2 hours. Perhaps even longer
--many of my groups won't play this 3p or 4p. 5p is not only the ideal #, but also the ONLY # of players it should take. (I personally don't mind if not all of the Provinces will abe available for auction, but try telling that to those in the "5p camp"). Compare to Ra... some of my groups won't play Ra with 5p, fewer won't with lesser # of players, but I've seen the whole player range done. Even the 2p variant.
--higher learning curve. Than your typical game.
--It got canned from SbW. Online game portals (especially when they're freee to play) have always had their hand in promoting their physical counterparts.
--Some minor complaints that the Power cards are too swingy and too much luck factor
--Not intuitive in function. You need to consult the rulebook for reference. Extra reference sheets would've bene nice.
bno70_1 wrote: I know 75th is a good rating in the grand scheme of things, but honestly my gaming group and I love this game. It's right up there in every aspect with the higher rated top 20 games. Great components, great integrated theme, the two auctions are fantastic, the new/old kingdom bit is genius. The only thing I can think of is that the power cards are kind of dumb. That has to be it. I'm guessing those silly power cards dropped this game at least 50 spots.
Well here's a free tip. Play this game! It absolutely holds up with every other highly ranked game with 4 or 5 players.
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brian
United States
Cedar Lake
Indiana
Mourning the end of the Manning era.
Welcome baby brother Toby James, 03/24, 8 lb. 15 oz.
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More likely because it is almost 8 years old. The cult of teh new keeps pushing the latest releases up there and decent games keep getting pushed down, or never break into the higher atmosphere.
The rankings are not a reflection on the quality of the game. It is just a general opinion based on subjective ratings that every defines for themselves.
As long as you and your gaming group like it, who cares if it 75, 750, or 7500? If you recommend it to others, and they try it and like it, bully for you!
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ackmondual
United States
Virginia
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ColtsFan76 wrote: More likely because it is almost 8 years old. The cult of teh new keeps pushing the latest releases up there and decent games keep getting pushed down, or never break into the higher atmosphere.
The rankings are not a reflection on the quality of the game. It is just a general opinion based on subjective ratings that every defines for themselves.
As long as you and your gaming group like it, who cares if it 75, 750, or 7500? If you recommend it to others, and they try it and like it, bully for you! It's always about rankings. Even when it isn't, it still is
Even great games will get less exposure one day when they get pushed beyond a certain rank and can only be accessed by clicking through 11 pages of ranked games.
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Max Maloney
United States
Portland
Oregon
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ColtsFan76 wrote: More likely because it is almost 8 years old. The cult of teh new keeps pushing the latest releases up there and decent games keep getting pushed down, or never break into the higher atmosphere.
I agree. I think this has dropped at a good 10 spots since I first starting reading BGG less than a year ago. Some new games shoot up very quickly on buzz factor.
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suPUR DUEper
United States
Villa Hills
Kentucky
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I agree- this game is awesome. I tend to group it with Puerto Rico, Princes of Florence, Goa and Genoa. Games that if I had to prune my collection to the best of the best, would be the last ones standing.
I do think that needing 5 to be at its best keeps it from being played enough or played optimally.
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Fraser
Australia
Melbourne
Yep that was 12 Power Grid maps back to back over two days. Worth doing, but possibly not in such a concentrated burst.
Ooh yes, now a little to the left - my nose is itchy. No, no the other left! Now what colour is 12 supporter badge going to be I wonder?
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An excellent game and sadly missed at SBW.
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Christopher Dearlove
United Kingdom
Chelmsford
Essex
SoRCon 5 2-4 Feb 2012 http://www.sorcon.co.uk
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Karlsen wrote: An excellent game and sadly missed at SBW.
I don't know who SBW are, but assuming them to be a club of some sort, why? Whether it's in or out of print I, and by extension any club I'm a member of, still have a copy. What's different about SBW?
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ackmondual
United States
Virginia
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Dearlove wrote: Karlsen wrote: An excellent game and sadly missed at SBW. I don't know who SBW are, but assuming them to be a club of some sort, why? Whether it's in or out of print I, and by extension any club I'm a member of, still have a copy. What's different about SBW? 
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Johan L
United Kingdom
Buckinghamshire
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Dearlove wrote: Karlsen wrote: An excellent game and sadly missed at SBW. I don't know who SBW are, but assuming them to be a club of some sort, why? Whether it's in or out of print I, and by extension any club I'm a member of, still have a copy. What's different about SBW?
SBW is Spielbyweb.com, a site which used to have an (excellent) online implementation.
Edit: I'm too slow typing on the phone. 
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Tim Stellmach
United States
Arlington
Massachusetts
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bno70_1 wrote: I know 75th is a good rating in the grand scheme of things,
No, I'm sorry, but apparently you don't.
Every single game in the Top 100 is the absolute favorite game of quite a lot of people. Amun-Re just happens to be yours.
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Gary Heidenreich
United States
Milwaukee
Wisconsin
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TedW wrote: I agree- this game is awesome. I tend to group it with Puerto Rico, Princes of Florence, Goa and Genoa. Games that if I had to prune my collection to the best of the best, would be the last ones standing.
I do think that needing 5 to be at its best keeps it from being played enough or played optimally.
Five is probably when it's at it's absolute best, but it really plays excellent with 3 and 4 players, as well, and is just as intense in the second phase of the game.
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Gary Heidenreich
United States
Milwaukee
Wisconsin
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timstellmach wrote: bno70_1 wrote: I know 75th is a good rating in the grand scheme of things, No, I'm sorry, but apparently you don't. Every single game in the Top 100 is the absolute favorite game of quite a lot of people. Amun-Re just happens to be yours.
75th of 6,000 ranked games is OUTSTANDING. And when you look at the differences in points, it gets down to the hundreths of a point.
Ratings are fun and they do serve a purpose (but I read more comments than anything). BUT, to dismiss games because they are ranked 500, 1,500, etc. is doing yourself a disservice on missing out many, excellent titles that have dropped over the passage of time.
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Todd Redden
United States
Manchester
Connecticut
"Don't pray in my school, I won't think in your church."
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I'm more likely to use the rating system to see how many are playing a game I like than I am to use the rating system to assist in deciding what game or games I should be playing. I must admit I was a little surprised when I just took a peek and discovered Twilight Struggle is currently number one! I like the game a lot, but in my fairly large local game group I seldom find the time for 2 player games any more (including favorites like Chess and Go) and only 3 of the top 10 on the list do I play a lot and really like (Agricola, Power Grid and Caylus.) I've never been a big fan of Puerto Rico (which has taken top place over a long time span) nor Dominion, and have said I would never waste 5 hours of my life on a table with Through the Ages again. I haven't played Le Havre any where near as much as I'd like to and would really love to learn and play Brass. So much for the top 10.
I like Amun-Re but really don't play it very much in the grand scheme of things. You can look way up on the list and find favorite games, like my favorite 3 player game Flaschenteufel currently number 496. So, REALLY: don't think the user rating on BGG defines how good a game is. It DOESN'T.
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Ben Pinchback
United States
Romeo
Michigan
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timstellmach wrote: bno70_1 wrote: I know 75th is a good rating in the grand scheme of things, No, I'm sorry, but apparently you don't. Every single game in the Top 100 is the absolute favorite game of quite a lot of people. Amun-Re just happens to be yours.
Not my favorite, but it's on the short list. I'm not actually sure I have a favorite. It all depends on my mood and the gaming group. With a serious group though, Amun-Re holds its own.
Also, I enjoy it with 4. I don't see the big deal in mandating 5 players.
Also, also, I agree with whomever said some player cards with power card explanations could have been included. Passing around the rules is annoying. Making your own is also annoying.
Also, also, also, that starting player token is weak. That's prolly a 5 spot drop right there.
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Mark Engelberg
United States
Everett
Washington
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Yes, the power cards are really annoying.
I also think the blind, simultaneous sacrifice is a weak point of the game.
My rating of the game would be much higher were it not for those two things.
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Shawn Low
Australia
Footscray
Victoria
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1) BGG has always perpetuated the 'hotness' of games. It used to be Top 10 games then expanded to Top 20. Look on your left of the browser? What's there? HOTNESS.
2) As long as your group likes this game, who cares?
3) It is a superb Knizia. I'm not a huge fan of Herr Doctor but this is one of the games I like. Has some new mechanics and more thematic than some of his other games.
4) Interesting trivia. The power cards weren't in the original design. HiG asked Knizia to develop them and add them in!
5) This game has classic Franz Vohwinkle design. Sadly, since his design prowess seems to have faded since the 90s and early 2000s.
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Matias Vierimaa
Finland
Oulu
Oulu
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I have given this game a 10 rating. I have no trouble with game being 86th at the moment but I can see that newer players might miss this gem due to focusing to top 25.
Simply put, auction mechanism is excellent work of genius and is simple way both to balance the game and create catch up mechanism if you are lagging behind.
I have only two main negative issues. In my gaming group people soon realized that too harsh competition in the first round tends to lead to problems in second. So, people started to play co-operatively in the first round which led to situation where some people felt game was less fun. Of course, playing against different players would solve this but our gaming group was 5 people so being nice in one game created favors in forthcoming game and so on.
Second is random cards mechanism. When people learned how to play, the difference between victory and loss was in some cases dictated by cards. Auction does solve this problem slightly but not completely, but for me this was not a problem, i can accept certain randomness.
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