Sailing Toward Osiris (Daily Magic Games)

The Pharaoh has passed on, and is making the long journey down the Nile to his permanent resting place. Once he reaches here, he will stand before Osiris and be judged. Unfortunately for him, he produced no heir, so the local governors must build monuments to memorialize his glory. This task isn't altruistic though. The governors know that whoever pays the greatest tribute to their fallen deity will become to the new pharaoh. This is Sailing Toward Osiris. Sailing Toward Osiris is a game for 2-5 players, age 14+. It takes between 60 and 90 minutes to play and can be yours for a Kickstarter pledge of $56 Standard or $66 Deluxe.

Setup - For this setup, a "governor" is a player and a "regent" is the player in charge this season.
1. Lay out the board and put the resources of grain, brick and stone nearby. (To determine the number of each resource, use the formula 5x + 5, where x is the number of players.)
2. Have each governor pick a player color and give them the following in their color: one screen, one camel, four sphinxes, three obelisks, two pylons, and five boon cards. Also give them two of each resource from step one.
3. Shuffle the city cards and deal one to each governor. Then, place the remaining deck nearby.
4. Place every governor's score marker on zero. Then, place the Pharaoh's Barge on the right side of the board, where the river rapids mark separates the first two river segments.
5. Take three Master Laborer tokens (one of each color) and twelve Regular Laborer tokens (four of each color) in the bag.
6. Pick a random governor to be Regent for the first season.

Game Play - The game takes place over four seasons. In each season, the following occurs:
1. Obtain Laborers - The Regent randomly draw Laborers from the bag, (Two in 4-5 player game and three in a 2-3 player game) and place them behind their screen. The bag is passed to the next person, and this action is repeated until all governors have done so. Then, the Regent draws out all but two of the remaining Laborers and puts them in the Labor Pool Cartouche. The Regent may then look in the bag to see what is left, and therefore have knowledge this turn that other players do not have.
2. Perform Many Actions - The Regent may perform one of ten actions below. Then, play passes left. This continues until all the governors have performed as many actions as possible/desired.
a. Harvest Resources - Place a Laborer on a space and gain the resources
b. Visit a City - Place a Laborer on a city and draw two City cards. Keep one and give one to an opponent.
c. Start/Join a Caravan - Place a Laborer on a Caravan space and gain the resources. (Note: If you are first to do this at a space, you put your camel there too to signify you are the leader.) If you place a Laborer where someone is leading a Caravan, you gain the resources, but must pay one to the leader.
d. Hire an Extra Laborer - Hire a Laborer from the Labor Pool Cartouche paying any two resources.
e. Plan a Monument - Select one of the Planning Cartouches; pay the resources; and place the appropriate monument token on the Cartouche.
f. Build a Monument - Move your monument token to a valid position on the map, remembering that you can't build in a space where a Laborer is, where another monument already is, and each type of monument can only be built on terrain sections with a certain number of resource icons. (Note: If you plan to build a monument, but can't before the end of the season, no points are scored and the monument is removed from the game.)
g. Trade at the Market - Make a trade by paying one of the resource sets noted on the Market Cartouche to receive the corresponding resource set.
h. Play a City Card - Play a city card to either receive the resources or perform its special action.
i. Play a Boon Card - A governor may play one of their boon cards once per season, as long as it doesn't match another governor's boon card. At the end of the season, the cards played are removed from the game.
j. Withdraw from the Season - When you are unable or unwilling to take anymore actions, you withdraw. The first governor to withdraw is the next regent and receives a bonus from the Regent Cartouche.
3. Haggle with other Governors - A governor may haggle with another governor at any time in the game for any items in their control. It is not an action, and a promise of a future action is not enforceable.
4. The Season Ends - The current regent steps down and a new regent takes his place. Pharaoh's Barge advances to the next river segment. Camels are returned to their governors. All resources in the market and labor pool are returned to the supply. All laborers are returned to the bag. Played boon cards and planned monuments not built are removed from the game.
5. Pharaoh's Barge Reaches the Temple of Osiris - The game ends and and bonus points are awarded based on their monument configurations. Highest score wins!

Review
Daily Magic Games has a strong history of light to medium weight Kickstarter projects with great art and quality art/components. Therefore, that's exactly what I expected from this game. Well, I was wrong...in a good way. The art and component quality are still top notch (I was blown away by just the prototype!), but the game has a bit more depth and meat to it. Looking at the game play section, you have ten different actions you can take on a given turn...TEN! This creates a difficult decision every turn you take. There's a Master Laborer in the Labor Pool, do I hire him before my opponent does? What about my Boon Cards? There is one I can play this turn, but I want to do other things first, but if I do those things first someone else might play that Boon Card so I can't. ARG! And then there's the City Cards. I need a new city card, but then I have to give one to my opponent. I want both cards. Which one do I pick? I don't want to give this other card to my opponent! So many good difficult decisions can lead to analysis paralysis, but they also make for an excellent game.

Another aspect I love about this game is the way it scales. There are plenty of games out there that play two to five players. Very few of them play every player count well. This game plays just as well at two players, as it does at five players. From the starting number of resources to the amount of spaces available at different player counts, the game designer (W. David MacKenzie) has done an outstanding job to ensure that every player count not only works, but works well. The only thing I would say that doesn't work as well at a two player count would be haggling, because it feels a bit like a zero-sum game, but my game group didn't haggle much at higher player counts the first couple of games anyhow.

The last thing I would like to praise about this game is the theme. I love Egypt, and I hope to visit there one day, so with this theme, I was going to eventually want to try this game. It was just lucky for me that I got to try it early on. From the meeple shapes, to the cartouches on the board, to the actual journey that the barge made, everything immersed you into the game and also provided you a sense of history. This is a great game with a simple depth to it that will bring you back time and time again. Highly recommended!

The Little Hippo and One Night, Far From Here

The Little Hippo is a children's book published by Prestel. When you think of Prestel, you don't normally think of kids books, but instead art or photography books. The illustrator of this book, Anja Klauss, based her illustrations on the ancient style of Egyptian art. This story, written by Geraldine Elschner, begins by telling about a time in Egypt when blue hippos populated the Nile River. The youngest one, called Little Hippo, became friends with a man named Antef. As quickly as we learn of their friendship, we learn that Antef has died and is placed inside a pyramid. Little Hippo decided to lay down beside him and slept for centuries. Eventually he was woken up by archaeologists. Little Hippo discovered that instead of growing, he had shrunk. Using his size, he escapes and embarks on a journey to find his family and friends. The rest of the book tells of his epic journey, which you'll have to read to see how it ends.

The colors on the page are bold and vibrant. They go from a beautiful blue, like the hippo on the cover, to a vibrant red that seems to set the page on fire. The hieroglyphics and Egyptian-style art make the whole book a work of art. The story is also cute, but subtly educational. Your children won't realize they are learning about ancient Egyptian culture, archaeology, artifacts, and art. If all Prestel kids books are this high of quality, then I plan on getting a few more and using them with my son as gentle introduction of art and other cultures. Five stars!

One Night, Far From Here is a 14" x 10.5" inch picture book that takes your children through various ecosystems at night. They move from an African Savannah to a Russian Taiga to the Amazon Rainforest to the ocean and finally end up in a North American Forest with a girl reading the very same book. Along the way, the words of the story points out various wildlife, native to these ecosystems. There are spider monkeys, giant squids, snow owls, and wild boars. What makes the book unique is the layout. Each region begins with two acetate (plastic) pages. The first page is mostly dark and reveals tiny creatures like birds and insects. The second acetate page illuminates more over the scene, showing both flora and fauna. Turning this page takes you to the paper page which brings the whole scene in view. At the end of the book is two-page spread, which labels all the animals you and your child could have potentially seen. This encourages you to recall the pages and go back and look through the book again (not that you need motivation to visit this book more than once). This is a book you and your child will visit time and time again, not for the words of the story but just the beautiful book. If you have a child who loves books (whether they can read yet or not), you will want to get them this treat for the eyes.

These books were provided to me for free by Prestel and Flying Eye Books in exchange for honest reviews. If you found these reviews helpful, please click here and/or here and hit Yes!

The Book of the Ancient World (Angelico Press)

If you're a homeschooling mom (or dad) or one considering homeschooling, then you know there are a TON of curriculum options out there. Some are better than others, but it really boils down to what style of homeschooling you are going to employ. If you are taking the classical approach, like my wife and I intend to do, then you definitely know the name Dorothy Mills. Dorothy Mills wrote a six book series on ancient history. Two different publishers have taken the time to re-print these, Memoria Press and Angelico Press. Even though Memoria Press has student and teacher guides, you can purchase with them, they only have four of the six volumes. Personally, I prefer the Angelico Press editions after all and will be reviewing one volume every other month on my blog. Today, I am starting with The Book of the Ancient World.

The Book of the Ancient World begins with an Introduction that speaks of cave men and prehistoric times. It speaks of making stone tools and how some people don't believe history really started until man was able to keep written records. I'm honestly unsure how I felt about this introduction, but thankfully it was short and something you could skip over and not miss anything in the book. The contents of the rest of the book includes the Egyptians; the Assyrians and Babylonians; the Hebrews; the Hittites; the Persians; and the Phoenicians. Egypt by far gets the most attention as it spans over 50 pages. The rest of the ancient people, with the exception of Israel, only garnered about 20-25 pages.

It was hard to pick a favorite part in this book. The level of detail given to the Egyptians was fascinating. Ms. Mills didn't just discuss popular pharaohs and their pyramids, but she also covered their gods, their books and writings, what typical life consisted of in Egypt, and even how children lived in Egypt. She also did a truly great job addressing Israel. In this section, she included the Patriarchs, the three kings (Saul, David, and Solomon), and the Divided Kingdom. I am truly fascinated to see what level of detail she went into in her book, The People of Ancient Israel. I wish more information would have been included on places like Persia and Phoenicia, but I appreciate that there was additional reading suggestions at the end. The one that I wish there had been more of/any of was maps! Maps would have definitely elevated this book, and perhaps they were there in the original edition, but not in this reprint.

After reading through this book, I feel much more knowledgeable about the ancient world. Yes, some information may be a tad dated as we have made new finds regarding these ancient worlds, but that doesn't take away from the quality of this work or the information that Dorothy Mills compiled. And while the book won't make you a certified expert, it will provide you a great starting point on the subject. So if you are an adult looking for an introduction to the ancient world or a teacher/parent looking for a supplemental text to your history book, you will find this book to be extremely helpful. I imagine you could use it as the skeleton for your homeschool history, but you will definitely want to find some more resources to add meat to the bones.

This book was provided to me for free by Angelico Press in exchange for an honest review. If you found this review helpful, please click here and hit Yes!

God King (Bethlehem Books)

When it comes to teaching kids about history, there are many methods you can use and many sources you can draw from. For example, you could spend a whole year on Egypt and still barely scratch the surface. Unfortunately, most works on Egypt only look at the "celebrities" or hot spots, like King Tut, Cleopatra, Nefertiti, the Great Pyramids, and the Sphinx. If you want to learn more about other periods or figures, you're going to have to do a little more research to find some books. One of those books is entitled God King, and I will be reviewing it today.

God King is written by Joanne Williamson and is the second book I have read from Bethlehem Books. The first one I read was Hittite Warrior by the same author. Like Hittite Warrior, God King is part of their Living History Library series. This book, however takes place in the year 701 B.C. during the twenty-fifth dynasty in Egypt, also known as the Kushite dynasty. For perspective on this time in history, Sennacherib was king of Assyria and Hezekiah was king of Judah during this time.

The story begins with peril and excitement. A young boy, Taharka, is on a crocodile hunt with his uncle Embutah and some slaves. Suddenly, a crocodile attacks and severely injures one of the slaves. Using his quick thinking and medical skills he has studied, Taharka is able to save the man. Normally, this kind of heroism would be applauded. However, Taharka is no ordinary boy. He is the son of the pharaoh, who is considered a god in Egypt. Touching a slave was a tabu and made young Taharka unclean. Even though he was one of many children of the pharaoh, and not even a particularly important child, he still knew he would be punished...little did he know what his punishment would be.

Taharka's "punishment" came swiftly. The pharaoh was dying, but before he died an ancient ritual must be performed to choose his successor. Everyone, Taharka included, thought it would be the older boy, Shabataka. Shabataka was groomed nearly his whole life to become the next pharaoh. In a cruel twist of fate, Taharka was "chosen," and his "punishment" was that he must become the new pharaoh. To him this felt like being forced to live in a cage, a prison sentence if you will. With his uncle Embutah and brother Shabataka as his guides, years pass and Taharka begins to get used to being pharaoh. He still doesn't like all the duties that come with it, nor does he feel completely safe with the ever-looming threat of Assyria to worry about.

I won't give too many more details away, but the action picks up midway through the book, when Assyria threatens to attack Judah and Taharka must decide whether or not Egypt is to assist them or not. This was a well-researched and well-written book. If you look on Wikipedia, you will see that the names are accurate to this time, and the same holds true for the Bible, as you can find reference to Taharka and Assyria in both 2 Kings 19 and Isaiah 37. In the past few months, I have grown to love the writing of Joanne Williamson. I wish I had discovered her as a child, but will make sure my children discover her. I also hope Bethlehem Books will continue to print some of her other works as well.

This book was provided to me for free by Bethlehem Books in exchange for an honest review. If you found this review helpful, please click here and hit Yes!

Treasury of Egyptian Mythology (National Geographic Kids)

With my last review of 2013, I am going to stick with my theme of reviewing one homeschooling product per month. This month I am reviewing Treasury of Egyptian Mythology. I know this is a Catholic and Orthodox book review blog, and some people aren't pro-mythology. I, however, think that if your children are grounded in their Faith, there is a place for mythology, fairy tales, and a little bit of magic. This isn't a place for a lecture, so I will get on with the review.

Treasury of Egyptian Mythology is the second volume in National Geographic Kids mythology series, with the first being the Treasury of Greek Mythology. Mixing mythology with culture and history, you and your children will learn about gods and goddesses; pharaohs and queens; and actual history of the Egyptian dynasties. As someone who is only versed in Greek and Roman mythology, it was fascinating to learn the Egyptian origin story. Instead of Titans giving birth to the chief deity, like in Greek mythology, "The god Ra sprang to life with a word already in his mouth."

I have no favorite section in this book as all were fascinating in their own respect. The way the story was told illustrations were well done, and the insert boxes contained facts that made learning fun. Some examples of these facts include information about the process of mummification and how pyramids were built. I personally would have preferred more details on the facts. For example, there could have been a whole page teaching your child hieroglyphics.That complaint aside, this was a very informative book and would be perfect in the school or homeschool setting. I hope they continue this series and make one on Norse mythology yet.

This book was provided to me for free by National Geographic Kids. If you found this review helpful, click the link and hit Yes!