Kemet by Matagot Games is a war game based on area control and battles. Set in Ancient Mythological Egypt, it is a game of conquest. In fact, you are awarded handsomely for winning combats and are punished if your forces are left weak, able to be crushed by the enemy.
The basic engine behind it is a mix of action selections and power allocation (similar to Blood Rage or Cthulhu Wars). You get a certain number of power per turn to spend recruiting and getting technology upgrades. You then also have to move your forces around, trying to win fights and capture key locations.
There is allot Kemet does right. The map is great, with everyone 3 spaces from everyone else regardless of location. It does this and still makes the spaces and territories make sense (mostly). The other good thing is the combat system, which is fast but still gives plenty of decisions and ways to manipulate the outcome for your benefit both immediately and in the future.
However, Kemet does two glaring things wrong that come up in a game this long far too often. The first is that it is very easy to play kingmaker. With how turn order works and the ease points can be taken, people can very easily end up having to choose who is going to win. This is somewhat relate to the second big problem in that you can be stuck losing slowly and it is no fun.
At the end of the day, board games are a big time investment. A bad start that can cripple you in a video game means you can easily hit restart. A board game requires time commitment and so most my favorite games (that aren't co-op) tend to be games where you can still work on things or have fun when losing. Kemet tends to only have kingmaking as something the losing players can do.
So that is it. Kemet is a game with allot of cool mechanics and premise, but the game just takes too long for these issues. I know I am in the minority but it is a game that I think ends up being pretty average.
4 out of 5 mummified waffles.
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