| Agora
Game Type: Pocket Card Game
Publisher: Hip Pocket Games (A division of Cheapass games)
Medium: Small Ziplock Bag?
Price: $4.00
Reviewer: Paul Blake James Ernest has long been considered creator of the wacky, odd, and quirkiest games out there. It is therefore, surprising that Agora feels so much like a European board game.
The setting (supposedly) is the ancient Greek marketplace, where stores were tents, and could quickly be set up in almost any location, even blocking the door to a competitor's tent. Then again, tents are notoriously fragile, succeptible to both fire and flood...
Playing the game is very simple. You have no hand of cards. You simply draw a card, then play it. The question is, where do you play it? Each card represents a section of the Greek marketplace, and the cards tile... if you want them to. The quirk in this game is that they don't have to. You can place a card anywhere on the table, provided it doesn't overlap another card. You can block entrances, or expand your own store. Entrances, by the way, are your source of income. Each turn you collect money for each entrance that customers can reach. That means closed-off alleyways are worthless.
There are also three random events: Fire, flood, and festival. Fire and flood both harm the largest store, while festival gives everybody money.
Agora is the second new game in the Hip Pocket game series, and like most of James Ernest's stuff, is printed on inexpensive cardstock, and requires additional components that you probably already have. An interesting
note, Agora is printed two color offset, rather than the single color that most of his other other games are. | |
