Orichalcum

• Designers: Bruno Cathala & Johannes Goupy
• Publisher: Pandasaurus (Catch Up)
• Players: 2-4
• Age: 12+
• Time: 45 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by Pandasaurus

Says the publisher: “Orichalcum is a tense and fast-pace strategy game – similar to a short 4X. Each player has their own Island board to explore and develop. On each turn, they choose a set of one Exploration tile and one Action : recruit hoplites, produce precious orichalcum (a legendary metal from Greek mythology), construct buildings granting powerful bonuses, or try to get rid of Monsters infesting your island (and preventing you to build new building). To prevail, you will need to erect majestic temples, forge orichalcum tokens or win the favors of titans (by creating areas of their favorite landscapes. The first to get to 5 victory points while clearing their Island of all Monsters wins the game.”

Orichalcum is a race… against your opponents. Whoever will be first to have collected 5 Victory points above their board and eliminated all the Creatures on their island will be the winner! There are three ways to earn victory points: draw the attention of Titans, erect Temples and forge precious Orichalcum medallions – that legendary metal that only the Atlanteans know how to extract.

Each player takes a random Island board and gets a Metropolis tile, one Hoplite and one Orichcalcum nugget to start.  Note that there are two sides to the board with one or two asterisks in the lower right corner; the rules suggest you go easy on yourself and play the one-asterisk side in your first games.   You can also use the two sides to handicap the game if you are of different experience levels (or I suppose different gaming abilities).  

The Actions board is placed in the center of the table, and it is filled with Action cards from a shuffled deck – 6 cards for four players.  These cards have terrain icons of varying sizes on them, place a random matching tile onto each card.  If it is a Volcano terrain, place a Creature on it.  Find the smaller Construction board and also place it on the table, seeding it with one Building token on each of the 4 spots.  The four Titan tiles and the combat dice are placed nearby.  A starting player is chosen, and the player who is last in turn order gets an extra Hoplite as consolation. 

You start each of your turns by selecting an Action card among the ones still available at the center of the table. The cost is 0 to 2 Hoplites as seen above the card.  This choice comes with two consequences: it determines both which Terrain tile you will place on your island, and which action you will be allowed to perform this turn. Terrain tiles represent the exploration of your island. 

Your terrain tile must fit entirely on your island, cannot be laid over top of anything else, and must be adjacent to at least one other terrain tile or your Metropolis.  If you can’t place it, you lose it, discard it to the supply, and skip that stage.  If you place a terrain tile over a port (there are 3 on your board), you get the resources that were printed on the board at that port.  

The types of Terrains determine your ability to construct Buildings and Temples, so their placement can be crucial. Moreover, creating groups of Terrains of the same type allows for drawing the attention of a Titan… and profiting of their powerful Favor. Whenever you create an area of 3 or more circles of the same terrain, you take the Titan of corresponding color and place it above your board.  It is worth 1VP, and also has a special power that you can use as long as you have the tile.  As soon as someone else makes/expands an area of that terrain of at least size 3, they will take the tile from you.  Note that this new area does not have to be larger than the current holder’s area, it just has to be constructed more recently.  You can only have one Titan tile at a time unless you have a building (the Oratory) that allows you to have more.

Volcanoes come into play with hostile mythological creatures on them. Capturing them will earn you their loot, able to tilt the game balance in your way. This comes with the cost of having to confront them in fights, with an uncertain outcome. Not to mention that you can not win as long as there remains any single Creature on your island. Nor can you build a Building or Temple on any terrain adjacent to a Creature.

Once you have placed your terrain tile, you then optionally activate the Action shown on the card. There are 4 actions that will help you achieve victory. 

• Capturing Creatures will be needed to get rid of them on your island. Fight all the creatures on your island, one after another – though you get to pick the order.  Add 0 to 3 Hoplites from your supply, then roll one die plus one for each Hoplite. You win if at least one of the rolled dice has a skull or if the numbers on the dice are at least as high as the value of the creature.  The Titan’s Favor gives one automatic victory before rolling dice.
• Recruiting Hoplites will increase both your power during fights and your choices for selecting your Action card. Get 1 Hoplite for each Training Camp you have.  Double this if you use the Titan’s Favor.
• Constructing will either earn you victory points through forging Orichalcum medallions and erecting Temples, or help you develop the abilities of your civilization through the buildings that you construct.  To build a building, pick one available on the construction board and build it on an empty space of matching type. To build a Temple, worth 1VP, you must have a diamond formed by 4 different terrains.  Finally, you can build an Orichalcum medallion with 5 nuggets; this is also worth 1VP.  The Titan’s favor lets you build two things.

• Producing Orichalcum will be needed if your plans for victory include forging some precious Orichalcum medallions! You make 1 Orichalcum for each mine you have.  Double this if you use the Titan’s favor.

Finally, you can take one single additional action by spending 2 hoplites, 2 orichalcum nuggets or two captured creatures.  You cannot take the action that is associated with the things you spend. 

When the round ends, you reset the board.  Refill the action board, again placing Terrain tiles on them, and again placing Creatures on any revealed Volcano terrains.  Replenish the Construction board as well. The player with the most Hoplites takes the Initiative token, if there is a tie, the current holder decides who gets it.  Again, the player last in new player order gets 1 Hoplite as consolation.

The game ends immediately when any player has 5VP or more and has no creatures left on the board.  There is no tiebreaker as the game immediately ends.

My thoughts on the game

When I first played this one back after Spiel 2023, it was one of those games where everything worked but no one asked to play it again after our first few plays.  And, accordingly, after writing a bit about it in a post-SPIEL post, it shuffled to the bottom of the stack of games to be played.  And, over the months, it kept creeping to the top, but yet, no one asked for it.  Finally, over a weekend of games where the goal was to play games which hadn’t seen the table in awhile – Orichalcum got back to the table.

The rules are quite easy to grok, and the turn sequence is simple – draft a card, play a tile, do the card action, then decide if you want to pay for another action.  While there is some competition for cards in the market – you are otherwise mostly left to your own devices, worrying about the arrangement of terrain tiles on your board and the existence of those pesky monsters.  Turns move by fairly quickly, so while there might not be a lot to do when it’s not your turn, you’re also not waiting too long before you’re up again.  Thirty to forty minutes is all it takes to play a game of Orichalcum.  I would say there are maybe two to three turns each game where you really have to stop and think about which card you want to choose – but more often than not, you can find a card that gives a good combination of terrain tile and action to prevent you from having to work too hard… or you simply take the tile you want and then buy an extra action to do the thing that you really want to do. 

In my experience, turn order tends to be important so that you get a better selection of cards to pick from each round.  Even better is to be the player next to the guy who always wants to win initiative as you get most of the benefits without doing a lot of the work.  As there is no way to wipe the action card selection, if you go last in turn order, you’re sometimes left with a turn that provides you only with actions or terrains that you don’t want.  And, you also get the worst possible selection from the building board – whether it is having no buildings that you want or being unable to build because you don’t have the requisite free type of landscape.  In the end, there is nothing good about going last.  This double sucks if you were tied for the hoplite lead in the previous round and you were simply not chosen to go first by the current start player.  It was common to hear groans at the table when someone realized they were going last in the next round…

While you can’t change the cards, the rules at least mitigate it somewhat by allowing you to buy an extra action with 2 nuggets, 2 creatures or 2 Hoplites.  So, once you’re in the swing of the game and have enough resources, you should be able to prevent being completely shut out.  That being said, as all players have the ability to buy an extra action, it’s likely that players earlier in turn order are still gaining at least half an action on you…

And those half actions matter… mostly because you can use them to get extra Hoplites or nuggets.  Extra Hoplites help propel you to the front of the line in turn order, help you clear out your board of monsters or they can always be spent on a later turn for an extra action.  Nuggets are good because while they can be spent on more extra actions, each one is also one-fifth of the way to a victory point.

As there are only three ways to get VPs: have Titans (usually limit 1), build a temple (which is harder to do than it looks), and forge a medallion – the game is likely won by getting enough nuggets to make two or three medallions.  It’s not easy to do, but this is where those turns where you get a small advantage will eventually add up.  

The buildings each have their own special ability, and you can try to craft a unique strategy based on the things you are able to construct.  I have found that each of the buildings is useful at the right time – so unless you’re saving a spot for a temple, there’s generally no downside to building one if that’s the action you have.  Though, experience has shown, the orichalcum mines are always first priority and the hoplite camps next – these two tend to be useful in all situations…  so, when they are available, those two tend to lead to no-brainer turns when available…  Again, another reason to always be earlier in turn order!

As I said earlier, everything in the game moves along smoothly; the turns go by quickly and you make the best you can with your options each turn.  It will certainly help to be lucky – whether that be in drafting choices or in the die rolls against monsters; there is definitely a good chance that you’ll fall prey to one or  both of these over the course of a game.  Other than the indirect competition for action cards and buildings, you’re mostly left on your own.  There is obviously some feeling of a race (since the win condition is instant) – but on the whole, it is a game without much tension.  

Which is why I think the game falls into a weird spot for me.  I actually have enjoyed my plays well enough – it’s a fine game – but it’s not quite enough for a serious game night, and there are far too many rules for this to be an introductory level game.   I’d happily play this if someone suggested it, but I’m not likely to recommend it myself.  And I feel like everyone in my group felt the same way, and that’s the reason why it took so long between my first impression and my review.  My thoughts haven’t changed, but it took me awhile to find out why – I’d be glad to play this polished design if asked, but it seems to fall short of the bar of being a game that I’d request to play.

Until your next appointment,

The Gaming Doctor