OBELISK
Publisher: MNKY Entertainment | Co-author: Arjan van Houwelingen | Design: John van Es | Ages: 8-99 | Players: 2-5 | Playing time: 30-45 min.
Links: Game explanation video (long)
The pharaohs of Ancient Egypt were honored by creating a commemorative pillar in their name: a granite column with a square base, tapering upwards with a blunt top shaped like a pyramid. On these so-called obelisks all the pharaohs names and titles were engraved in hieroglyphics.
The players are stonemasons obtaining large blocks of granite from the quarry of Aswan, to shape into obelisks. To get the right pieces of granite you are dependent on what the supervisor of the stone pit makes available. You need several pieces of the same color granite to create an obelisk.
Parts you cannot use could serve as pedestals, or can be sold to other players. If you offer interesting pieces you might help other players, but you will also gain camels, which enables you to buy what you need.
Obelisk is an easy-to-learn strategic card game in which players trade parts of obelisks, which in turn can be used to build obelisks of different sizes.
Game rules
In Obelisk, you make the overseer of the quarry move around, in order to make the desired blocks of granite available. With these blocks/cards you can build obelisks of different heights, but each turn you also have to put a card in your personal market. Your market can be bought by your opponents, who pay for it with camels. Camels that enable you to buy other players’ markets. Finishing obelisks, i.e. furnishing them with a point, gives you tactical action cards that you can use in a turn of your choice to build faster or better.