[Board/Tactical Game]: Tower of Babel, reviewed by ShannonA (4/4)

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/11/11759.phtml

Shannon Appelcline's Summary:

The newest big-box game from Reiner Knizia is actually a lighter release than you'd expect given the size, but has some fun & strategic majority-control play, as you try and build the wonders of the Ancient World.

Go to the full review for more information.

[cfarrell]

Great to see this good review of what I think is an under-appreciated gem. I think Tower of Babel is simple, quick-playing, and yet provides you with lots of tough choices.

I might quibble a little with the "slightly shallow" bit, though. For me, Carcassonne is slightly shallow; there isn't that much more there than it appears on first inspection. Tower of Babel has some depth to it, though. Like all the good Knizia auction games, you have to trade off all these different factors (cards, chits, houses, special powers) and it's never clear what any of them are quite worth. So each turn is a new round of figuring out in what direction you need to be going.

Great game. Prior to Beowulf, it was my favorite of 2005 so far.

[ShannonA]

Watch Gone Gaming tomorrow. There's quite a rant about randomness, which originated from Beowulf discussions.

As for your disagreement with 'slightly shallow'. I think it's got a similar weight to, say, 'Res Publica' or 'Ra', which are both good, serious Knizia games, but I wouldn't put it in the same category as 'Tigris & Euphrates' or 'Samurai' or 'Beowulf', each of which feels like it has more <i>oomph!</i> to me.

If Tower of Babel had been packaged in a box the same size as Palazzo, I think it might have received a lot more positive attention.