BOARD GAME REVIEW: ARCHITECTS OF THE WEST KINGDOM

Architects of the West Kingdom is a game by the maker (Shem Phillips) of Raiders of the North Sea. They also made some other games I didn't enjoy nearly as much as Raiders, so the real question is how does this compare? I really enjoy Raiders so is Architects just as good?

Architects does something Raiders also does well. It does worker placement, but puts its own little twist on it. Here, you start with 20 workers. Then, you slowly use them up during the game unless you sacrifice an action to get them back. Outside of this, it is a pretty standard game of collecting resources, turning them in to complete building goals for points, hiring crew with special abilities, and doing one or two other things.

The other things you can do are what gives the game some more flair. One of the actions is capturing workers and sending them to jail (or just rounding up your workers again). This is because the more workers you have out at a spot, the stronger the action you have. This also makes them more tempting targets for capturing. The other action is using the black market, where you lose virtue in order to get more immediate bonuses. But if you are caught there during a raid, your workers go to jail and you lose more virtue.

Virtue is important and is one of the few ways the theme comes through. The virtue track means at higher virtue you can work on the cathedral but at lower virtue you may lose victory points but you also get a discount on actions. Apart from that, the theme is quite generic as a standard conversion of resources to points via the most efficient means possible.

This lack of theme isn't bad. But Raiders had the theme come through allot stronger with the progressive raids, your crew and the skulls. I think Architects is different from Raiders and the mechanisms are as strong. However, Raiders you had allot fewer boring turns. Architects has those building up turns which are a bit quick and boring, especially if you just need to get people out of jail. It does move slightly quicker than Raiders, with a much more deliberate pace and more direct player interactions. I also like the virtue track. I would probably place them pretty equal depending on what type of game you prefer. 

4 out of 5 well-designed waffles.