Plan B Games | Century: Spice Road | Board Game | Ages 8+ | 2-5 Players | 30-45 Minutes Playing Time & Repos Production, 7 Wonders Duel, Board Game, Ages 10+, 2 Players 30 Minutes Playing Time

Product Information

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. 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. You do not have to execute all conversions that are possible according to the card. In the illustrated example, you were allowed to turn a yellow turmeric into a red saffron and do the same again, or convert the converted saffron into a green cardamom.

Century: Spice Road is played using the actions above, players will collect spices buy market cards and trade for point cards. The game ends when the first player gets their fifth point card. Turns are fast and even our first play only lasted 45 minutes. Final Thoughts 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. 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

Game Play

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. Therefore getting spices and, more importantly, the orange Points cards is kind of a big dill (groan) to winning. But how do you accomplish that, we hear you ask? Rules Breakdown One card, for example, provides the trade of two cardamon cubes in exchange for one cinnamon and two safran. If you (eventually acquire and then) play one of these cards, you’ll trade the spice(s) shown, for the spice(s) promised – again, returning spices to their bowls and taking the relevant ones onto your Caravan card.

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.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 An often-forgotten rule is that this action can be repeated multiple times in one turn, providing you have the appropriate cubes. So, using the example above, if you played that Trade card and had six cardamon cubes, you could do that trade three times. As a result, you’d receive three cinnamon and six safran.

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. DLast of all, there’s just enough thyme for a few winning tips (okay, that’s the last of the awful spice puns, we promise)… 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.

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 AdviseI had never heard of Century: Spice Road prior to attending UKGE and the mass amount of posts asking about it on Facebook got me intrigued. I had a read up online and a lot of people were saying it was a game that would get rid of Splendor from people’s collections as it was a better game. This was a bold statement and one I had to find out if was true as I love Splendor. When the game arrived I didn’t know what to expect. For its relatively cheap price the box was a small to medium size with great artwork, but nothing I hadn’t seen before. Upon opening the box I was pleasantly surprised, the rule sheet was one piece of card with pictures and writing on both sides. Overall, I am very pleased to add this to my collection and always have a great time when it hits the table. I will be looking forward to the next installment of the Century trilogy and it will be great to see how they all work together.