This is my latest review for the Asmodee UK Blogger Board Game Club and we have received this roll-and-write Corinth game. This is a strategy board game where players take the role of traders from all corners of the Mediterranean Sea to Corinth to sell their goods during 4th century BCE. The Persian carpets, Cretan olive oil, Roman grapes, and Egyptian spices are highly prized by traders.
This game is suitable for two to four players and for aged eight and above. This is one of the easier games to set up as there are minimal items in the box. It comes with a pad of scoring sheets, a Harbor board, 12 dice (9 white & 3 yellow) and instructions. Place the Harbor board in the middle of the table and each player gets a scoring sheet and pen (provide yourself).
I did say this was easy to set up but not so easy to understand. There are several ways of scoring and it can seem quite complicated and difficult to explain but once you play a few rounds, you will get the idea of the game. It did take Mr C at least 30 minutes to read and absorb the rules before we started the game!
This is a roll and write game where at the start of a turn, the first player rolls nine dice, then places all the dice with the highest value on the gold space at the top of the chart, then starts placing dice from the bottom of the chart up, with each value of dice being on a separate level. Sometimes you will get no dice on a few levels. If this happens, when it is the players turn, they will move their steward instead. We had it happen a few times! I do find it quite annoying when there are no goods available!
The active player takes all the dice on one level, then the action associated with that level. The top level give the player as much gold as the number of dice they took. The bottom level gives goats and the levels in-between gives goods to a number of market stalls on their own score sheet equal to the dice claimed.
Any active player can spend gold to roll up to three extra yellow dice and thereby increase the odds of getting to take the desired level. If the active player doesn’t take any of these yellow dice, they are removed from play, preventing others from benefiting at that player’s expense. Personally, I don’t think it is necessary to spend those gold but for some, it might be!
Instead of marking off gold, goats or goods, you can use the value of the dice claimed (1-6) to move the steward on your personal score sheet. The steward starts in the middle of a 5×5 grid on your sheet. You must move it as many spaces as the number indicated on the die and not cross over any lines you’ve drawn previously. You can pay one gold to move the steward one more or one fewer space and you can pay as much gold as you want to do this. After all, this is a strategy and you need to plan well.
There is a lot of ways to gain bonus points like spending gold or goats to construct buildings such as collecting two additional gold whenever you collect any gold or moving the steward up to two spaces more or less without paying.
The game ends after either 18 turns with two or three players or 16 turns with four players and you tally points for goods delivered, spaces visited by the steward, buildings constructed and goats & gold still on hand.
We all enjoy playing the game and will definitely play it again. It comes in a small portable box that is easy to take out with you. It is available to buy from good game retailers, online and Amazon. For more information about this game, please visit https://www.daysofwonder.com/corinth/en/
If you enjoy strategy games, you may like board games like Splendor Game and Quadropolis.
Disclosure: We are members of Asmodee UK Blogger Board Game Club. We received the sample for the purposes of writing this review, however, all thoughts and opinions remain our own.