Pyramidice: A Heavy Lift

One of life’s great mysteries is how on earth the ancient Egyptians constructed the pyramids. How were they able to lift those giant stone blocks into place?

In Pyramidice by designer Luigi Ferrini and published by Ares Games, you and up to three other players (age 13+) vie for the title of the best architect in ancient Egypt. Worship the gods and build the pyramids via stone dice. The game takes 30-60 minutes.

Setup

Setup definitely takes some time in Pyramidice. Before constructing the pyramids, you’ll need to construct the play area.

Lay out the pyramid boards based on the number of players (there are additional boards for three or four player games). This is where players will place stone dice to build the great pyramids of Giza.

Below the pyramid board(s), place the Sphinx board. Then, place the Quarry tile board in the appropriate slot for player count. Set the Gods board underneath that with the Quarry tile slotting in as well. Finally, take the four yellow-brown Prayer dice and place them on the Quarry tile.

Take the stack of Rest tiles and shuffle them. Fill the spaces in between the Sphinx board and the Gods board with the appropriate number based on player count. Return the rest to the box.

Shuffle the God cards and remove the appropriate number of cards, again, based on player count. Return the rest to the box. Finally, lay out the first three God cards at the corresponding spots underneath the Gods board. Leave room for a discard pile to the right of them.

Place the Pharaoh tile in the middle of the table with the end-game conditions facing up for all players to see.

Take the appropriate number of off-white Stone dice (depending on player count!) and put them in a pile within reach of all players to create the supply.

Create the supply of the worker and cat meeples (except for the Golden cat). Then each player takes a player board, Fame token, and +50/+100 token of the matching color. Each player will place their Fame token on the five spot on the Sphinx scoring track.

Each player takes four Workers, one Cat, and one Stone die from the respective supplies. Place these resources on their Player boards in the resource spots.

Each player then takes a random Project card with end-game scoring conditions. These Project cards stay face-down and secret until the end of the game.

At last, each player will take two Scarab cards and pick one. These are unique player powers that give each player a special ability to be used during the game. One of these Scarab cards allows a player to take the Golden cat meeple mentioned above.

Gameplay

On a player’s turn, they will either Rest or Work.

Rest

The Rest action allows a player to draft a Rest tile from under the Sphinx board and take the corresponding resources on the tile.

Players only have three slots for Rest tiles on their board. When a player drafts their third Rest tile they must return all three Rest tiles to the supply after they claim the resources. Then, they discard the rightmost God card, move the remaining cards to the right, and reveal a new God card.

Work

If a player takes the Work action, they add any Stone dice from their player board to the Quarry tile. Then they can roll any combination of dice from the Quarry tile – up to the number of Workers they have on their player board.

They can then use the dice and their resources to worship (purchase) any number of God cards. The varied God cards have many types of bonuses.

Players can also build the Pyramids using Stone dice and paying the cost of workers needed as shown on the Pyramid boards. Players advance their Fame tracker based on the value of the die they played plus any bonuses available on the Pyramid boards for the layer they built on.

Workers are the primary resource in Pyramidice. They determine how many dice players can roll during a Work action and help pay to build the Pyramids. The Cats are a supplemental resource – spent to purchase God cards, or to change a die up or down one value..

At the end of a work turn, players must check their resources and God cards. If they have more God cards than resources, they must discard a God card.

Play continues until all Stone dice are removed from the supply or all Pyramids are fully built. Then, flip the Pharaoh tile and place it in front of the player who completed the end-game objective. Each player gets one more turn, including the player who triggered the end-game condition.

After players add any end-game scoring bonuses, whoever has the highest Fame score is the best architect in all of ancient Egypt and gains the Pharaoh’s admiration.

Solo Mode

Pyramidice also has a solo mode, pitting a player against one of four iconic Great Architects of ancient Egypt. Each architect has a unique power, much like the Scarab cards in the normal game. Unfortunately, the solo player will not have a Scarab card to help boost performance.

The Solo mode is quite hard! The architect takes a God card and either a Rest tile or building the Pyramid every turn. And the architect prioritizes the God card with the highest end-game scoring bonus as well.

Impressions

Pyramidice is quite thematic. You and your fellow players are building the Great Pyramids of Giza. You’re actually stacking the Stone dice to create a three-dimensional pyramid. All of the God cards are ancient Egyptian gods. The rule book even briefly describes what the Egyptians believed about each of the gods.

But make no mistake, Pyramidice is not a typical family-weight game. There are a lot of decisions to be made, juggling gathering resources through resting versus working to build the pyramids and worship the gods. You also have to walk a tightrope balancing the number of resources and God cards at the end of every Work turn.

Does that mean it’s a bad game? I don’t think so, and neither does my 13-year-old. We’ve enjoyed it once we’ve gotten into the game. The setup is time-consuming, which makes it hard to get to the table. But, when we did he and I enjoyed our plays.

My wife, on the other hand, did not enjoy it at all. Part of that is the seeming mismatch (for her) of the cute meeples and quasi-dexterity aspect of stacking dice to make the pyramids against the tough decisions in gameplay. They just don’t mesh for her.

There is no question in my mind that this game is, at minimum, meant for 13-year-olds and older. We didn’t even try to introduce this game to my 11-year-old daughter because she might have gotten overwhelmed by the decisions and lost focus over the length of the game. In all fairness, Ares Games does list Pyramidice as a 13+ game.

If you and your teens want a thinky game with a good production value that doesn’t take hours on end, Pyramidice might just be a fit for you. Especially if you’ve got a soft spot for historical themes or grew up fascinated by the archaeological exploration of the Pyramids and reading about pharaohs, like me.

You can get Pyramidice directly from Ares Games, on Amazon, or at your friendly local game store.

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Ares Games provided The Family Gamers with a promotional copy of Pyramidice for this review.

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