Recently, we got a chance to get The Red Cathedral on the table for a first-time play. After playing it, we feel this is a seriously good strategy game put together in a fairly small package. – – 1 to 4 players – – 80 minutes game play
Players are going to work to build a cathedral. They will build different sections in different towers. The key is to build and decorate enough sections in a tower to max out your score for each tower. The player boards are double-sided (basic and advanced) that house their banners, doors, arches, and a cross ornamentations, and their gained workshop tiles. The cathedral construction site consists of a number of towers with a base, a number of midsections, and a dome. The layout is determined by a randomly selected Building Plan card. The cathedral cards are then populated with random workshop tiles.
The game revolves around a market board that utilizes a rondel mechanism where necessary resources can be acquired, and additional actions can be taken. Players select 1 of 5 dice to move around the roundel to a new market space. Market actions include gaining resources, moving their resources to cathedral sections, enhancing their ability to gather resources, or just scoring points. Once gathered, resources will need to get moved to the cathedral in order to complete sections a player has claimed. Adding ornamentation to a completed cathedral section increases a player’s strength in that tower which affects scoring. Ornamentation can be added to any completed section no matter whose claim banner is on it. Additionally, each space on the market board has room for three dice. The number of dice on a space will determine the number of resources a player may gain when landing on it. At the end of the player’s turn all the dice on that space will be rerolled making it a little challenging for the next player to play ahead.
The game ends when a player has completed their sixth section. Only completed sections of each tower are scored. Player with the most points wins. We really liked this game.
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