The simple setup and playtime helps keep her interested and even though the theme is not one that really shines through, the game has enough fun and depth to keep all levels of gamers invested throughout the play time. Century: Spice Road is a 2017 table-top strategy game designed by Emerson Matsuuchi and distributed by Plan B Games. The game is a simulation of fifteenth-century spice trading, and each player competes for points as they buy and sell spices represented by colored cubes.

At the end of your turn, if you have more spices on your caravan than you can transport, you must return spices of your choice into the bowls until your upper limit is reached. Isle of Man, Isle of Wight, Northern Ireland and the Scottish Highlands) may take longer to reach you. The last type is a trade card, which allows the player to exchange spices for other spices (usually stronger ones). The trade can be done multiple times if the player desires to do so. All merchant cards can only be played again if you rest.You can only have at most 10 spices at the end of your turn, and must discard any excess. You can choose which spices you want to discard from your hand. Century: Spice Road casts players as merchants leading caravans in search of precious spices. Photograph: Owen Duffy/The Guardian Play a card from your hand. These may be an upgrade card which allows you to upgrade a spice cube to the next level or a Spice Card where you collect a set amount of spices.

Last of all, there’s just enough thyme for a few winning tips (okay, that’s the last of the awful spice puns, we promise)… The clever thing about these three games is that as well as being excellent gateway games in their own right, any two of the three can amalgamate, providing a new bumper-game, entirely. However, in this tutorial we’re only focusing on how to play the one that set the ball rolling – Century: Spice Road. So clamber onto your camel, join the caravan and let’s trade some spices… Century: Spice Road - Set-Up In Sagrada, players become artisans competing to create beautiful stained glass windows. Photograph: Owen Duffy/The Guardian Century: Spice Road has quality components and the artwork is great. The only bad points I can see to this game is that the theme is a bit on the bland side (pun intended) and at no point do you feel like a spice trader (Splendor has the same problem) and the game does feel like a solitaire experience as no real player interaction is involved.If you take the first or second point card from the left, take 1 gold or silver coin from above it. If you have taken the last gold coin, move the remaining silver coins from above the second card above the first card. Caravan Limit To make things more challenging, though, you won’t be able to place dice of the same colour or number next to one another. Each player works to complete a different design, and the result is a game that feels a bit like sudoku on steroids. You’ll have to spot ways to maximise your score while avoiding painting yourself into a corner and ending up unable to finish your masterpiece. Golem Edition: Players can also play with the golem edition. In that case, the crystal ranks from low to high are: Put twice as many gold coins as there are players playing above the leftmost scoring card. C Place the same number of silver coins above the second card from the left. D

If a card is taken, immediately replace it and move any old cards to the left to fill the gap. The new card goes on the far right.

Game Components and Rules

Across all the games of Spice Road that I played, I never felt as if anything was left to chance. I was occasionally beaten to a lucrative contract by another player, but because you can see each players caravan and the cards they have played, and because resting takes an entire turn, you have lots of advance warning. If you think you’ll lose a race to reach a contract, then it’s best just to switch to another target. Across about twenty rounds of Spice Road featuring two, three and four players, most games ended closely, and at no point did anyone appear to be getting left behind or frustrated. Place the four red spice ‘pinch bowls’ (thematic, we like it!) in a vertical row. Pour the yellow spice cubes (turmeric) into the bottom bowl, then the red spice (safran) into the bowl above it. Next, the green cardamom, with the brown cinnamon into the bowl at the top. If you play a conversion card, you may convert spices on your caravan into the next most valuable spice (i.e. yellow (turmeric), red (saffron), green (cardamom) , brown (cinnamon)) the number of times depicted on the card. Place golden coins above the Point cards – specifically, the first (left-most) card in this row. Put as many gold coins here as the number of players, multiplied by two (eight, for example, in a four-player game). Place the same number of silver coins above the second card. The game-end triggers once any player completes five Points cards (in a four- or five-player game; six Points cards in a two- or three-player game). Play resumes, however, until the end of the round – so each player has the same number of turns. Now the value of each player’s Points cards are added up. Additionally, gold coins earned are worth three points each; silver coins are one point each; and any non-turmeric cubes left in player’s Caravans are one point each, too. Most points wins! Sage Advise

Another review at Ars Technica states that it is "slightly more complex" than Splendor, and that it is "an absolute joy to play". [1] Expansions [ edit ] These coins are metal (just try to resist that delightful clink) and, like everything else in the box, contribute to Spice Road’s universally breathtaking visual panache, from its gorgeous cards to the spices, which come with four diddly bowls to tidy up unruly heaps of cubes.If a player has his fifth point card (with 2 or 3 players, his sixth), the game ends after the current round. Each player earns the points on their scoring cards.