Keith S.
United States
Dallas/Fort Worth
Texas
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My wife first heard of Pillars when the Reelz Channel aired a 9-part mini-series based on the book. She then found the game of the same name right here on Board Game Geek, and asked for it for Christmas. If my wife is interested enough in a game to actually look it up on BGG herself, I know I've got a must-buy on my hands. It made it under the tree with her name on it.
Pillars of the Earth, the book, mini-series and game, are all based on the story of the building of Kingsbridge Cathedral in Kingsbridge, England, in the midst of and sometimes despite everything else happening in the world; a fight between two contenders for the English throne, backstabbing, intrigue and general everyday politics within the church and between it and the throne, and conflicts between the builders in their personal lives. The game is centered primarily on the building of the cathedral itself, and less on all the other events that give the book and series their appeal; you are one of the master builders of the cathedral, and are trying to contribute the most to its construction.
If I had to explain the game in terms of other well-known titles here at the Geek, I would say it's roughly equal parts Stone Age, Agricola and Power Grid; that's one game my wife likes, and two she absolutely cannot stand. Does the mix make for a winner? We'll see.
The game comes with a quarter-fold board, 6 cathedral pieces, player piece sets in 4 colors (each set is 7 small workers, one boss worker, three master builders, and two scoring markers), 5 additional worker pieces (4 grey and 1 black, used in special circumstances), one taxation die, a set of various gameplay event cards, and a supply of three different resources; stone, wood and sand.
The basic flow of the game is a bit more complex than many we've tried, but after a round or two it really does flow. Each round has 3 phases; in phase 1, you choose from the 9 cards beneath the board (craftsmen and resources), using a combination of your money and workers, not unlike Stone Age's resource drafting. Then, the Master Builders are placed on action spaces on the board, like Agricola, but with a twist that each builder is drawn from a bag, and the player must then decide if they want to pay for the privilege of placing the builder and taking the action now, or if they want to pass and place that Master Builder after other players have had the opportunity to "buy" placements. As the player who has their color builder drawn from the bag first must pay the highest cost in gold to take the first action, "play or pass" is often a key decision. Then, all the actions of the round are resolved; random things happen based on event cards, the players get craftsmen, privilege cards, VPs and resources based on actions they chose, and then they use their resources and their craftsmen to earn the bulk of their VPs, somewhat like Power Grid's power generation phase.
My wife and I made setting up the board harder than it had to be. The various pieces and cards had to be identified, and as she was reading the instructions to me while I followed them (it is her game, after all) I didn't have the benefit of the graphics. That made understanding the layout a bit daunting until I wised up and had her put the instructions between us. There are a few quirks that threw us on the first round; for instance, the initial setup has you choose a subset of the Event and Privilege cards for the game, and the rest are removed from the game for the entire play. Similarly, unpicked or retired privilege and craftsman cards are removed from the game after the round in which they're put on the board, and you never see them again. But then, while you once again use a subset of the available resource cards for each round, you pick from the full pool each time; the unused cards are simply laid aside and mixed back in when shuffling for the next round. It's also recommended that actions be resolved in a specific order moving clockwise around the board, instead of as the players choose or as actions are chosen. However, like I said, after the first couple of rounds getting used to it, the game does flow very nicely.
Despite having significant elements of two games that my wife all but refuses to play - Agricola and Power Grid - my wife was able to get into this game and really enjoyed its gameplay. The instructions were easy to read, though sometimes we had to go back and re-read a rule for clarity, or look up special notes on a card ("does the toolmaker give you two gold for EACH metal you have?" Answer: no; you get two gold if you have any metal, but the amount of it doesn't matter). The game does very well with two players; a third and fourth player would probably increase the claustrophobia of the game considerably in a Stone Age-like fashion. I liked the idea, as mentioned by others, of having not one but six Starting Player tokens; each piece of the cathedral is taken by the starting player for a particular round at the beginning of that round, and placed on the board in its proper position at the end of said round. In an odd mix of Stone Age and Agricola, the starting player rotates to the left each time, UNLESS someone uses a Master Builder to claim the starting player spot for the next round. By the end of the game, Kingsbridge Cathedral is sitting there in the middle of the board, a proud achievement that all players helped to build, but only one will gain the favor of king and church for being the primary contributor.
All in all, it does sometimes feel like you're playing three different games. What's marvelous is that the various mechanics, even different flavors of the same type of mechanic (like variable-meeple placement for resources, then single-worker placement in a seperate phase for actions), blends very harmoniously without any one mechanic feeling "bolted-on". This game was a hit with the wife (who won the first game 44 to 39, BTW), and I'm sure it will hit the table many times in the coming months and years.
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Craig Liken
New Zealand
Christchurch
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Good review - I was kind of wondering how it was similar to Power Grid when your first mentioned it, but see now with the resource conversion etc.
I like the game - one of the first "euros" I bought. You will find it much more tense with 3 or 4 players - it is harder to get the resources and placements you need and you have to scramble a bit more - the market also comes into play more.
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Hal Jordan
United States
North Carolina
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I think once you play it with 3-4 you will fall in love with it all over again. It's just a much more strategic game with more then 2. Every placement matters and not everything is available all the time.
And then check out the expansion as well. You can expand over 4 players and then the REAL fun comes. More spaces more chaos and more strategy. Just a great game.
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Jake Waltier
United States
Seattle
Washington
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liken@xtra.co.nz wrote: I like the game - one of the first "euros" I bought. You will find it much more tense with 3 or 4 players - it is harder to get the resources and placements you need and you have to scramble a bit more - the market also comes into play more.
There is a pretty great 2-player variant bouncing around here. I highly recommend it if you enjoy the tension of the 3-4 player game.
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John Herrera
United States
San Jacinto
California
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GeekJock wrote: I think once you play it with 3-4 you will fall in love with it all over again. It's just a much more strategic game with more then 2. Every placement matters and not everything is available all the time.
And then check out the expansion as well. You can expand over 4 players and then the REAL fun comes. More spaces more chaos and more strategy. Just a great game.
Agreed. Also, after watching the mini-series it helped me understand the characters in the game (not that you need to know to play the game but for me, the background of the characters brought more theme).
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The Redheaded Pharmacist
United States
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To me this game is at it's best with the expansion and more than 4 players. I played one of those larger games and I really enjoyed it. I can't wait to play this game again. It is no accident I added this game to my wishlist. It's a great game!
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Posted Mon Dec 26, 2011 8:56 am
