Second week with just four of us, so it was a good opportunity to try out Mykerinos, which is being released in the UK this week. Being published by Caylus publishers, Ystari, I was very interested to see how this one played. Although much shorter and simpler than Caylus, I think Mykerinos is another very good game from Ystari. It was designed by Nicolas Oury, a name I’ve not heard of before.

The game is about archaeologists exploring the sands of Egypt, trying to find treasures to display in the most prestigious places in a museum. The museum has five wings, each looked after by a different patron, and by reserving the best spots for treasures that a particular patron is interested in, you get rewarded more for each exhibit of that kind you acquire by the end of the game.

The game play is pretty simple but has some agonising decisions to make. Each of the four rounds begins with a number of areas being revealed for exploration. Next comes the main part of the game, excavating. On a player’s turn, he can can do one of three things or drop out of the round: place a marker on any one of the available plots in the areas to start an excavation; place two markers to extend an existing excavation; or use the help of a patron for whom he has already secured an exhibit (not possible in the first round). The aim is to have sufficient markers in an area to get some payback for your investment (guaranteed for the two highest investors but may be some pickings left over for others). Markers are very limited and it could well be a good tactic to drop out early to keep back markers for a subsequent round. Once everyone’s placed all the markers they want, each area is tallied and the person with the most markers has a choice of taking one of the two exhibits in the area (some of which also give extra VPs) or reserving a spot in the museum. (The first spot in each wing pays triple for each exhibit of the right type, a second reserved spot will pay 5 times the value.) After four rounds, each exhibit players have acquired is valued according to the spots you have reserved in the museum. Each set of five different exhibits also gains 5 VPs. The total is added to VPs already won during play and, whoever has the most VPs wins.

Mykerinos is quite an elegant design with a fair bit to think about. It’s easy to get stuffed by coming third in a region (as I can testify) as early in the game the 2 higher scorers will tend to take the exhibits, but in the later rounds, players are likely to balance more between taking exhibits and reserving museum spots… And it’s amazing how critical the marker needed to reserve your place in the museum can be… And the last round can be absolutely critical, when more areas are being excavated (six as opposed to four in the first three rounds). In our game, I had the 5x museum spot taken from under my nose twice, which meant I wasn’t going to be in contention. Mark K however worked the last round perfectly to enable him to complete two sets of exhibits. This, together, with scoring well for his 5x museum spot allowed him to grab a well played win. Play time was just over an hour, which felt fine for the weight of the game. We all really enjoyed Mykerinos and I would like to try it again soon to eliminate the bonehead mistakes I made this time. Good stuff again from Ystari, all three of whose games I’ve enjoyed a lot.