Sometimes a game grows beyond its initial incarnation to become something more. Looney Pyramids began in a short story written by a young Andrew Looney in 1987, and over the following 35 years, it has evolved through numerous incarnations to become a full fledged game system. As such, a single review seems insufficient, and so we present Looney Saturday, a regular, bimonthly, look at a different Pyramid game.
We technically started with “Pyramids: A Primer, Abridged” which is a great place to start if you’ve never played a Pyramid game. In this month’s review, we going to look at Pharaoh; included as part of Pyramid Arcade:
Pharaoh
All hail the King of the Hill! This game will absolutely have you chanting that phrase when you win. Looney Labs have done it again with an amazing strategy game, which is their take on King of the Hill.
I love this game (I mean have I found a Pyramid Arcade game I haven’t liked?) because I was able to teach this one after 3 bottles of wine between me and my friend. This is a simple strategy game that is great for warming up for more serious games or to pull out at 1 am after too much wine.
My favourite story of learning and playing this game is when Dave and I were playing together for the first time, we were playing incorrectly and made up our own rules accidentally. It ended up working out but was not conducive to creating an accurate game review. As I’m sure you can all tell, I had too much wine one Friday night with a friend and pulled out Pharaoh at 1 am to teach them to play. I am happy to announce I got the rules correct that time and found it more fun with the correct rules compared to the made-up rules Dave and I had used. So the Brightside of this game, is you really can learn it and there is never the wrong time to play Pharaoh.
With this game, you will need what Looney Labs call the Volcano Board, 2 regular dice, and one trio of a colour of pyramids per player. This game can play 2-4 people. If you need help remembering who is which colour, the rule book has a suggestion to use Twin Win cards. This is also where Dave and I went wrong, we ended up using 2 trios of pyramids each. The game does change drastically when you have 6 pieces instead of 3 to play with.
The setup is super easy. just place the board in the centre of the table and everyone is on a different edge/side of the board. If it is only 2 players, you will sit opposite of each other.
The gameplay is super simple. You roll the dice to determine how much you can move. You roll both dice but only use one. Your movement points are the higher number of the two dice. If you roll doubles, you can play that number or roll again. It takes 1 movement point to move a small piece, 2 points for a medium piece, and 3 points for a large piece. Pieces can be moved forward, backward or sideways. Adding a piece to the board always counts as a move for that piece, you can only add pieces on your edge of the board.
You are allowed to split your movement points to move multiple pyramids. You are not allowed to stack though, only one piece can be on a space. You are able to bump your opponent’s pieces if they are smaller or of equal size as your piece.
You win by getting your 3 pieces in the centre of the board. The number of available 3 in a row patterns changes depending on the number of players. In a two-person game, the 3 pieces must be in a row between the two players. In a three-player game, the 3 pieces need to be in the centre in a vertical or horizontal line. In a four-person game, the 3 pieces need to be in the centre and can be vertical, horizontal or diagonal to win.
I really enjoyed this game, the rules are simple and straightforward, and you get to be king of the world…err pyramid. And contrary to my earlier story, please drink responsibly if you are going to game and drink.
