Who doesn’t love a good game of cops and robbers? Well today we are going to look at just that-a game of thieves, police and maybe even some cheese as we explore the new game Ratzia!
Ratzia is designed by Renier Knizia with art by Sarah Freedz Conlon. It is being published by 25th Century Games and will be available on Kickstarter in September 2024. The game is appearing on Kickstarter and I wanted to give you a quick overview and my first impressions of this game. A review prototype was provided to our channel for content.
Overview:
In Ratzia, players compete over three rounds collecting cards by starting or being a part of numerous auctions. Sets and individual cards score in different ways and some stay from round to round. After three rounds everything is totaled and the player with the most points wins!
Gameplay:
Starting with whatever player has the highest bidding card in a round, players will take one of three actions on their turn. The actions they can choose from include:
1. They can draw a card from the auction card deck and place it in the auction row. The row fills at 7 cards, and any Police cards cannot be added to the row.
2. A player can declare an auction by grabbing the cheese grader token.
3. Finally a player may use a thief by discarding it to steal a card from the auction row.
Auctions are triggered from a player declaring it with one of their turns or when a Police card is drawn. Auctions are down with a bid card from your hand and each one must be a higher value then one already player. The highest bid takes all the cards and exchanges their auction card for the one in the middle.
Police stations taken in a row are bad, they make you discard one business card that you have acquired from your supply. Police cards create a row as well and when a 7th one is drawn the round ends immediately. This is the timer for the game and it moves at a pace that can sometimes be slow but most of the time feels like it comes on too soon!
Cards score at the end of each round, each giving different point totals based on what is on them and how many a player has. All cards are discarded except for businesses that stay and are scored at the end of the game.
Once a new round starts, the highest bidding card player begins and the round continues until there are no more bidding cards available in front of a player or a 7th Police card is drawn. The game goes for three rounds total and then all businesses are scored at the end.
Impressions:
Ratzia is a fun game that gives off very familiar vibes to Ra for those who have played the classic game from the same designer. The drawing of cards instead of tiles from a bag changes some of the mechanics of gameplay but overall there arestill plenty of parts that will feel recognizable. I especially love a game with different ways to score and accumulate points and this one does that well.
The push your luck part of this is great and is a key feature to any of the games in the Ra-verse. The game moves in a way where you don’t know how long to wait and bid but if you are too careful it will end quickly and you could end up with nothing. So if you enjoy games with a push your luck component this will challenge how and when you decide it’s time to push and time to try and grab as much as you can!
The art and style of this is fun also, it’s a unique feel from the Ra games being Egyptian themed. I love the rats and all the different cards and who doesn’t want a cheese grater in their board game collection?
Overall Ratzia is a great addition to the family of Ra-related games and gives players gameplay that feels fresh but still familiar. The theme is fun, the art style distinctive and the gameplay is smooth-all familiar aspects of games from 25th Century at this point for my collection. Make sure to check this one out as it hits Kickstarter!
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