GODS ALONG THE NILE tease

The Gods of Egypt were numerous and powerful. They were present in every aspect of Egyptian life and defined everything in it. Through three Kingdoms and thirty-three Dynasties spread out over three thousand years the Gods of Egypt controlled life – and access to the Afterlife - along the mighty Nile River. In this game you manipulate fate to help as many Pharaohs into the Afterlife as you can. As each God comes into your hand, you decide which ones enter your Temple to collect the Canopic Jars necessary for passage into the Afterlife.

GATN is a colorful, heavily themed game based on the many colorful gods of ancient Egypt. Each card represents one of 54 different gods and the three most important aspects that God represented. On your first turn, you draw two cards. Place one in the NEW box on your Temple, then move it to the ACTIVE box. On your next turn, you cannot play a card to your NEW box if it has ANY icons that match the card in your ACTIVE box. Whether or not you can play a card in your NEW box, the card in your ACTIVE box will move to one of the four Canopic Jar boxes. If you were not able to play a NEW card, on your next turn, you will draw two cards and be able to place any card to your Temple. To be placed in a Jar box, the card must share at least one icon with the Jar box. For each matching icon you receive one Scarab. For each SET of Scarabs you receive Jars. At the end of each of the three rounds of play, for each set of four different Jars you gain one Pharaoh. Most Pharaohs wins.

The play mechanics are unique and keep the players constantly planning strategy - which cards to play in which sequence. Sometimes you have no choice, but that creates other problems to solve, because the following turn you might have TOO many choices. The sequence of play is simple. There are only four things to do each turn. Rounds stop when the deck is emptied or three cards with special CHAOS icons are showing. The scoring is extremely tight with many games being decided by tie-breakers.

STATS: 2-4 players
PLAYING TIME: 60-90 minutes
PLAY AIDS: four 8.5 x 11 boards
DECK: 54 cards
BITS: 100 Scarabs, 35 Blue Jars, 35 White Jars, 25 Green Jars, 25 Red Jars, 25 single Pharaohs, 10 five Pharaohs (we used beads – the public seemed to love them)
EXPANDABLE: a 5 Player variant with 15 extra cards, 1 extra Play Aid and 20 extra Scarabs