Gift of the Nile: The Rise & Fall of Ancient Egypt from White Dog Games – Action Point 2

I have really enjoyed my plays of several solitaire games designed by R. Ben Madison. He has a knack for including elements of the history into the gameplay while placing the events into the framework of his chosen system, which is usually the States of Siege Series…but not necessarily always. His newest offering is called Gift of the Nile: The Rise & Fall of Ancient Egypt from White Dog Games and is a solitaire only game that uses the States of Siege Series System and delves into Ancient Egypt and the rule of the Pharaohs covering over 30 dynasties starting with the Old Kingdom in 2,600 BC to the Late Period starting in 700 BC and ending with the intervention of Rome. This is a long and involved game (ranging from 36 turns to something less based on certain conditions happening or a player loss) that really gives the player a good feel for the might and power of the Egyptians, as well as the various threats and enemies they had to deal with to survive for nearly 3,000 years.

In Action Point 1, we looked at the Game Map (board), which shows the various “Paths” used by the assaulting outside Khasti Kingdoms converging on the capital city of Men-Nefer. In this Action Point, we will investigate the purpose and makeup of the 3 different draw cups, which is where the game action starts including the Dynasty Cup, God Cup and Sepat Cup.

Draw Cups

In the game, the action is somewhat driven by the use of 3 different draw cups that are filled with chits representing different regional kingdoms called Sepats, the various leading dynasties of Egypt as well as the Gods that were worshipped. At different points in the Sequence of Play, the player will be instructed to reach into and draw forth one of the chits in a specific draw cup and then place that in the appropriate spot on the Game Map or The Book of the Dead (Turn Track) and enact its effects. In this Action Point, I want to take you through these 3 different draw cups and their contents and take a look at how the player has to manage these aspects.

Cup #1 – The Dynasty Cup

Each of the turns in Gift of the Nile starts with the Dynasty Phase, where the player will be drawing a new ruling Dynasty Chit from the Dynasty Cup. There are 7 of these Dynasty Chits and they are lettered a-f (yes lower case!) and represent the relative strengths of different rulers. You will notice that the “a” Dynasty is in the middle of a yellow circle while the remaining 6 Dynasty Chits are in a white circle. This yellow circle identifies this Dynasty Chit as the starting Dynasty in the game and the “a” Dynasty Chit will be taken out of the Dynasty Cup at the start of each new Kingdom or after a Dynasty has been defeated by a Khasti Army moving into Men-Nefer but only if the player had a Revival Chit to sacrifice.

Listed on each of the Dynasty Chits are a few key pieces of information that are important to game play. First you will notice that the Dynasty Chits are divided into 4 different quadrants. In the upper left hand quadrant is a King Tut mask that has no bearing on the game and is just there for thematic purposes. That actually isn’t totally correct as there is supposed to be a future downloadable document that provides a variant or optional rule to use with this part of the chits. But in the other 3 quadrants there are various hieroglyphic symbols that represent the Military, Religious and Social Skills of the ruling Dynasty and its Pharaoh. The Dynastic Skills are very important to the player and making sure to tailor your actions for that turn to take advantage of their advantages is key to doing well in the game. Let’s take a look at each of these symbols and the benefits of their skills. Each of the Dynasty Chits have 1 or more of these Dynastic Skills and the better chits, lettered a-d have 2-3 in varying distributions while the e-g chits have just 1 such Dynastic Skill. As this Dynasty Chit draw is random, you will tend to get better chits than the poorer ones more often as there are a 4-3 distribution but sometimes your luck will just be bad and you will continue to draw the worse chits. The good news is that at the start of each new Turn, when the player has to draw from the Dynasty Cup, the Dynasty Chit that was last drawn and placed onto The Book of the Dead and into the current Dynasty Box will remain there until after you draw. If it was one of the worse Dynasty Chits, you will now have a better chance of drawing a good Dynasty Chit as your odds improve as there will be 4 good chits in the cup as compared to just 2 that are worse. Good luck though! This is something that you simply cannot control and just have to grin and bear it.

Military Skill:

The Military Skill is denoted with a falcon icon or hieroglyph in the upper right hand quadrant of the Dynasty Chit. If the current Dynasty Chit has this Skill, it will aid the player in battle as they attack the invading Khasti Armies or as they attempt to conquer and incorporate regional Sepats (kingdoms) into their empire. The Military Skill provides the player with one free attack during the Action Phase at no cost. Normally, an Attack Action costs 1 Action Point but with the Military Skill you can perform one for free. One other note, during the Old Kingdom period, this free attack can be used to move the Medjai Troops into an adjacent Desert Land where there will be no Sepat to attack. But moving there for free makes it so you can use an Action to attack into the next adjacent Land Box later in that turn.

Religious Skill:

The Religious Skill is denoted by a noose appearing hieroglyph that stands for the Egyptian word wa, which means to endure. I think that it looks like a noose because Ben tied it back to the Latin word religare which means “to tie together”. The Religious Skill means that the current Dynasty can Temple a Sepat for just 1 Action Point one time per turn. This action normally takes an amount of Action Points equal to the value listed on the Sepat Chit between 1-4. This benefit is huge as you will need to Temple Sepats in order to gain more access to Trade Goods and to get a defensive benefit when a Khasti Army moves into that Sepat. To Temple a Sepat, the player will simply pay the required AP’s and flip the Sepat Chit over to its Templed Side. Sepats which are Templed and Controlled at the end of the game will also provide the player with 1 Survival Point each. We will dive a bit deeper into Sepats when we discuss the Sepat Cup later in this post.

Social Skill:

The Social Skill is denoted with a hieroglyph that I would describe as two fingers pointing downwards. The Social Skill is a nice skill to have because it simply grants the player one free Action Point that turn. The key here is that there is a limit of 9 earned AP’s per turn so you may get this but sometimes you are in a time of plenty and don’t have room in the Granary to hold an extra Action Point. This is collected during the Action Phase. But during the lean times, this can be a god send for you as an extra Action Point is never a bad thing, particularly if you rolled poorly or have lost several of your Templed Sepats and are no longer getting the Action Points associated with the Trade Goods.

These 3 Dynastic Skills are a very interesting part of the game and attempts to take into account the differences between various historical Pharaoh’s and their skill sets. I really how it fits into the game design and the administration and execution of this cup is the simplest and most straightforward of the 3 Draw Cups.

Cup #2 – The God Cup

During the God Phase, which follows the Dynasty Phase and Nile Phase (more on this in a later post), the player will have to brave the pantheon of gods worshipped by the Ancient Egyptians and see how these gods feel about their ongoing Dynasty and whether they will give their aid and bless their efforts or vex them.

There are 8 different gods represented in the game including Thoth – God of Knowledge, Wisdom and Writing, Ptah – God of Building and Patron of Architecture, Bastet – Goddess of War, Health and Birth, Osiris – Death God of Fertility, Farming and Rebirth, Anubis – Lord of the Underworld, Horus – the Sky God, Defender of both Egypt and Pharaoh, Ra – Sun God and Creator of Life and Isis – Goddess of Motherhood, Healing and Magic. There are only 4 God Chits found in the God Cup but they are double sided and when drawn there is a very complex and difficult process to identify the god who is being involved by the draw (sarcasm). More on this later. Ben tried to match the God Chits with abilities that represent what that deity was known for and worshipped because of. I think that he did a pretty good job of this and it really makes a nice thematic entry into a greater understanding of Egyptian religion and culture.

The double sided God Chits are as follows: Ptah/Horus, Bastet/Ra, Osiris/Isis and Thoth/Anubis. The player will blindly draw out a single God Chit at the start of the God Phase and then will flip that chit into the air allowing it to fall on the tabletop. The Presiding God for the turn will be the god that is facing up and the player will then place that chit into the round God Box found on the Game Map.

On all of the turns except for the first, there will already be a God Chit located in the God Box so the player will only be drawing from a possible 3 chits and 6 different gods. These gods are also tied to the various Templed Sepats in the game as on the Templed side you will find a letter matching one of the gods. A for Anubis, B for Bastet, and so on. This is important because certain benefits from that drawn God Chit may only be available to use on a Path that the player has a Temple to the god.

Each of the God Chits have different symbols on them and these are tied to the various benefits and difficulties that the gods will cause. There are brown triangles and red triangles that represent the rise and/or decline of a civilization on a path, a red square that represents a revolt, a sideways square shape consisting of dots which is an Isis bonus and a sun figure that represents the Ptah Bonus. Let’s take a quick look at teach of these different symbols and what they mean.

Rise and/or Decline – when brown or red triangle symbol is found on the drawn God Chit, the player will have to randomly select a Path. The Rise and/or Decline means that the player will have to enact either positive or negative modifiers to things found on that Path, such as a Khasti Army Tile or a Sepat, or actions taken there. When there is a red triangle this represents a Rise and this civilization is ascending, which is bad for the player. This will impose a +1 modifier to all values on that Path including the strength of a Khasti Army or the value in Action Points that must be paid to Temple a Sepat. The Rise will only effect a Path that has no Temple to the god so if you roll a Path that has one you will have to re-roll. If all Paths have a Temple to this god then that god’s anger is appeased and there is no effect. The brown triangle represents a Decline and this is good for the player as the civilizations on this track are in decline. All values of the chosen Path will gain a -1 modifier. This benefit has to be placed onto a Path of the player’s choice that has a Temple to the god chosen. Rise is found on Anubis and Ra and Decline is found on Horus, Thoth and Bastet.

Revolts – when the red square symbol is found on the drawn God Chit, this means that there is an ongoing Revolt on a Path. A Revolt cannot happen on a Path where this is a Temple to the god but is determined randomly by rolling for the Path and then for the target Land Box where the Revolt will be placed. There are several different types of Revolt and they are dependent on the time period that the game is currently in. If during the Old Kingdom, and a Revolt location is chosen, the player will place a randomly drawn Untempled Sepat from the Sepat Cup in the Land and this is now controlled by a rival kingdom and the player can move their Medjai Troops there to subjugate it through an Attack Action. If the Revolt lands on a Land Box that the player controls, they will have to retreat their Medjai Troops back back one Land Box. This doesn’t effect your other Templed Sepats or normal Sepats but you will now have to spend some time moving your Medjai Troops back out on that Path to proceed with your expansion.

If the Revolt occurs in the Middle Kingdom, New Kingdom or Late Period this means that a Rival Dynasty has set up shop and you will no longer control this Land Box where it is placed nor any of the lands past that point on the Path. In order to gain back control, the player will have to take an Attack Action to defeat and return the Sepats to the fold. This will take time and resources that you don’t necessarily have to spend in this fashion but it is not the end of the world. If the player didn’t control the Land Box, or there was a no Sepat located in that Land Box when the Revolt occurred, a Sepat will be randomly drawn and placed into this area. This is actually a good thing as you can then take it and control it. Revolt is found on Thoth, Bastet and Osiris.

Ptah Bonus – If you draw the God Chit for Ptah, you can then Temple a single Sepat on the Path that you have the most temples to Ptah for a cost of just 1 Action Point. This is very advantageous as remember to Temple a Sepat costs a number of Action Points equal to the value printed on the Sepat Chit. This will be a benefit that will be wasted early in the game because you most likely will not have many Templed Sepats to get the temples to Ptah but is better later in the game.

Isis Bonus – If you draw the God Chit for Isis, you can use her special ability if you have at least a single Temple to Isis (with the letter I printed on it!). You may spend 2 AP to reroll a die result for each Temple to Isis you have under your control. This is rather expensive but can make the difference between life or death. Although keep in mind, that an Action typically costs 1 AP so you could just pay 1 AP to do the same Action again.

The God Phase and the associated God Chits are a really nice addition to the game and creates some really fun and interesting challenges and opportunities for the player.

Cup #3 – The Sepat Cup

At the start of the game, the Sepat Cup contains 24 Sepats that all have different values and are spread out amongst 9 different Trade Goods (10 if you are using the Iron Trade Good Chit). These Trade Goods include Beer, Copper, Grain, Granite, Limestone, Linen, Natron, Papyrus and Turquoise. These Trade Goods are used during the Nile Phase to collect additional Action Points to use during a player’ turn. These Sepat Chits are double sided and contain an Untempled and Templed side. To start the game, the player will draw and place a Sepat from the Sepat Cup Templed side down into the Lands adjacent to Men-Nefer including Khem, Per-Bastet, Iunu, Abdju and Payom Lakes (which sounds like a subdivision name to me!). This will be the starting setup and will show to the player what the resources directly around them are. Once they move into a Land and conquer it they will then randomly draw another Sepat Chit from the cup and place it into the next out Land Box so they can see what resources lie beyond their borders. If the next Land Box out is a desert space, they will not draw and place a Sepat there but will have to move into the barren desert to see what is in the land beyond it. Don’t fear though, the player can later use an Action to Colonize the desert Land Box and will be able to place and conquer a Sepat to increase their Trade Goods access but this will not be cheap. We will cover this more later when we look into Actions.

Let’s take a quick look at the makeup of these Sepat Chits. There are a total of 24 Sepat Chits (25 if you are using the special Iron optional rule) and they are unevenly distributed among the 9 different Trade Goods. The most common Trade Good is Grain with 5 total chits, followed by Papyrus with 4 total chits. The most rare are Copper and Granite as there are only 1 each of these Trade Goods represented. As you can see, when you are drawing them out of the Sepat Cup, some are very difficult to find. Why is this important? Well, the player will earn Action Points during the Nile Phase in 2 ways. One is a straight number based on a 2D6 die roll difference between the highest value and lowest value on the D6’s. Then the player adds the two die results together and consults the Trade Goods Chart to determine how many additional AP’s they receive. The player will receive 1 additional AP for each Trade Good on that list matching their result as long as they either have a Templed Sepat matching that Trade Good or if they have at least 2 Untempled Sepats of that Trade Good. We will get into this more in the next entry of the series but that is why it is important to understand the makeup of the Sepat Chits.

One other note about these Sepat Chits, once they are Templed (or flipped over by the player paying the number on the front of the chit in Action Points), these Temples will be to one of the members of the Pantheon of gods discussed earlier in this post. There will be a capital letter at the top of the chit along with a few other symbols including either an ankh or a red X and a gold circle with red in the center. The capital letter is the god who this temple memorializes. The ankh and red X are both related to what type of Revolt can happen on that Land. If a Revolt happens in a Land Box with an ankh symbol then the lowest valued Rival Dynasty will be placed or if a red X then the player places the highest valued Rival Dynasty. Finally, the gold circle denotes that this Sepat is an elite settlement and when attacked will gain a +1 Die Roll Modifier to its attack against an invading Khasti Army. Having a good variety of Sepats is key to the game but also getting fortunate enough to also have good Sepats on each Path is key as well.

I really like the approach that Ben has taken with Gift of the Nile. He has shaken up a tried and true system that he has designed many great games with and made it interesting and unique enough to create a new experience. The use of the 3 different draw cups is a very interesting way to create some randomness intended to keep the player guessing as to what will happen. Having to adjust your actions to the situation is very important in the game and the faster you learn the nuances of these different cups the better you will do in the game.

In Action Point 3, we will take a look at the Nile Phase and further discuss the economy of the game.

-Grant