Kemet: Blood and Sand has tension in droves! The map is only so large and all of it feels decently accessible at any point in the game. So the threat of warfare is immediate and constant. There’s no escaping it! Troops don’t automatically get removed from the board in Kemet combat. It may just be that they retreat. One of the strategic nuances in Kemet, as both aggressor and defender, is figuring out your goal. Do you want to prioritize winning the fight and taking/holding the territory, or are you more interested in keeping your troops around to fight for the same scrap of land again? Are you trying to win or are you trying to thin out the opponent’s ranks, regardless of outcome? Do you want to have the space when the dust settles, or do you just want the other player not to? Different cards serve different goals. Maybe that’s forgivable if the gameplay is premium. Kemet: Blood and Sand is a very tightly designed game, and definitely one that promotes interaction and combat. I love how winning a battle is distinct from winning or losing troops, and the bluffing of the card-battle system always led to deliciously difficult decisions. For new players, revealing the 48 power tiles right from the start is overwhelming, but most are not immediately accessible, and several are repeated. By the end of the first game, we had those down without a problem. It always felt like you had several things you wanted to do and not enough time to be doing them, in a good way – decisions need to have tension to be interesting. Kemet was designed by Jacques Bariot - co-creator of party board game Give Me Five - and Guillaume Montiage. The two also worked together on the similarly Egyptian-themed game Nefertiti, which has players finding beautiful gifts to honour the queen and pharaoh’s wedding anniversary. A foul creature is beside you, increasing the odds of victory. You can see the enemy in the distance. Will your God leave you here to guard the city's pyramids? Maybe teleport you across the land to one of the distant temples? Make you march to the nearest city and take control? The Battle Starts…

But my pyramid is not big enough.” The pyramid icon will help, allowing to increase a pyramid level(s) but more Prayer points are spent. The first thing you notice is the miniatures. The creatures are outstanding, beautifully designed and detailed. I wish I had the time and the patience to paint them. Each pyramid comes in 3 pieces with a coloured gem on top. This represents the power tile groups available to that player. The power tiles are solid with the same iconography. A clear representation of its use within the game. The inclusion of the trays is a nice touch and helps with the setup. A God will need their player board and matching-coloured pieces. The actions tokens and prayer markers are placed on their board. Find an empty city and place your statue token at the entrance. Defend your city with 10 troops and keep your 8 battle cards close to you, they will be needed soon.Combat is triggered by moving troops into a region that contains opponent pieces. Fighting is mandatory and tense. Strength is determined by the number of soldiers each player has in the region, any applicable power tiles, any applicable Divine Intervention cards—little bonus cards that for the most part can be played during your turn or during combat—and each player’s chosen battle card. Of course, there are a lot more details to each of the actions and phases of the game, but in a nutshell this is a very tight wargame that rewards risk-taking. There are going to be a lot of battles going on! Staking OurC.L.A.I.M. on Kemet: Blood and Sand! Components

In Kemet: Blood and Sand, players assume the role of an Egyptian God, as they attempt to exert their influence over Ancient Egypt through worship and warfare! And since there are gods involved, know that there the likelihood of divine intervention is high.

Wrap Up (Cos, like, mummies, they’re wrapped up. It’s a joke.)

Once Night hits, players go through an extensive series of ‘cleanup’ steps, in which they can gain additional Fame Points (FP), Divine Intervention cards, Prayer Points, and more. The most attention-grabbing powerups are the various creatures, which add a mythical beast—or, you know, an elephant—to your army. These are represented on the map by big, chunky minifigures. From a sculpting point of view, the scorpion is the best one. We can all agree. That’s why it’s on the box art. They knew. They knew.

The ruby power tiles are geared towards troop battles and their movement. Sapphire is about recruiting troops and defence. The diamond set is for prayer points, divine intervention cards and pyramids. Finally, onyx is a mixture and variation of the other power tile sets. Locate the creatures, divine fame point tokens and special battle cards. Place them with their power tile. I Am A God, What Do I Need? The areas on the mainboard are clearly defined and look okay. The temple and city areas are easily identifiable. Any iconography on the board clearly shows your reward or option when controlled. Overall, the aesthetics of the Kemet: Blood and Sand board game work really well and evoke that ancient Egyptian feeling that you’d expect. The Battle cards have a very clean and clear look with their iconography. The Divine Intervention cards are the same way, although those almost feel a little too basic for my tastes. One action is taken each turn by the players, but there are restrictions. You must take a least 1 action on each of the 3 levels during the day phase. How Can I Be A Famous God With So Few Points?

Have We Kemet Before?

Also, if you’re into the Egyptian theme or wargames, you’ll find a lot to like here. That goes for anybody who enjoys games like Risk or Smallworld, but who want a some more crunchiness to sink their teeth into. The game itself is mildly complex due to all of the options that you have, and the action lists seem quite lengthy. I’d also say that in today’s age of playing many board games once and putting them up on the shelf, you’d want to play this one a few times to really get the feel of its breadth. Mood