Ra – Review

Ra was first published in 1999 and is designed by Reiner Knizia who also designed Winner’s Circle and Amun Re. Since Dr. Knizia Since Dr. Knizia has a doctorate in mathematics, most of his games are mathematically balanced and many feature auction mechanisms. This review was originally published on BoardGame-Reviews.com.

Ra:

• Designed by: Reiner Knizia
• Published by: Rio Grande Games
• Number of players: 2-5
• Playing time: 60 minutes
• Player ages: 12+

A Quick Overview

Ra is an auction and set collecting game that is played over 3 rounds, or epochs. During each epoch a player has a chance to bid on a variety of tiles to improve his position during the game.

The heart of this game is the once-around auction where players have one chance to place a bid or pass. If players place a low bid for valuable tiles, they may easily be outbid by other players.

Another enjoyable aspect of the game is the push-your-luck element. Do you initiate an auction now or do you wait just a bit longer? Of course, while you wait, the auction track will fill up with tiles…

Game Play

On a turn, a player may make one of the following choices:

• Draw a tile from the bag
• Invoke Ra and force an auction or
• Play a God tile

Drawing a tile and placing it on the availble auction track is the most common. These are the tiles that players collect and use to score points. Not all tiles are valued equally to all players.

This is where a player must make judgements and bid wisely for the tiles.

If a player decides that the available tiles are too valuable, it just might be an appropriate time to invoke Ra and force an auction.

Invoking Ra is not always a sure bet as the invoking player may be forced to bid on the available tiles if no one else bids on them.

God tiles are drawn from the bag and placed on the auction track to be bid upon later. The use of God tiles allows a player to take discard a number of God tiles from his set and take a equal number of tiles from the auction track.

The epoch is finished when the Ra track is filled up. Players then score their points, discard appropriate tiles and start a new epoch. The game is finished at the end of the third epoch and the winner is the one with the most points.

Observations

Ra is a good auction game. Though it was initially published 10 years ago, the allure of simple and elegant rules keeps this game fresh and exciting.

Another great thing about Ra is that it can accomodate between two to five players which makes is versatile for gaming nights!

The current publisher of this game is Rio Grande Games and they make great games. The game is easily available at many fine hobby stores at a reasonable price.

What I like about this game is that it is accessible by younger players. I have found that the younger they are, the harder it is to make approriate valuations of the tiles up bid.

The push-your-luck element is something that is utilized well in this game. For the younger players, this has been a positive aspect of the game because it builds a fun tension about the game.

One of the things that is a bit more difficult for the younger players to understand is that monuments are only scored at the end of the third epoch. Not only that, the scoring mechanism is a bit convoluted and makes the game slightly more complex.

However, with more plays, younger players will get the hang of it.

One final note that I’d like to make is that if you get the Rio Grande Games version of this game (the box cover is pictured above) make sure to replace the included bag. I found the bag far too small to contain all 180 tiles required for the game!

For my game, I replaced the Ra bag with a bag from Railways of the World.

Happy gaming.

Thushyanthan