Designed by: Reiner Knizia
Ra is an ingeniously simple game that can involves bidding on lots in ancient Egypt; the lots made up of various tiles that score in different ways.
Players start with three bidding chips, and on their turn they can either pull an auction tile from a cloth bag and add it to the auction track, or decide to force an auction by calling “Ra”. An auction goes once around the table, and if nobody else bids then the player who called Ra has to make a mandatory bid and take all tiles on the auction track. If anyone else bids the lot goes to the highest bidder, who puts their bidding chip and takes whatever chip was on the board as well as all the tiles.
Additionally there are many Ra tiles in the bag as well, and when one of these appears there is also an auction round – the difference being the player who pulled the Ra tile is not forced to bid. If everyone passes on this round play resumes and tiles keep being drawn from the bag.
The tiles score in different ways – Pharaohs score only if you have the most of them, but having the least counts against you. Civilisations can score if you get a set, but having none at all counts against you. Nile tiles only score if you manage to purchase a Flood tile too, and then as well as Gold (simple way of scoring points) or God tiles (that allow you to steal a tile from the auction track) there are also Monument tiles – these score nothing at all in rounds one and two, but can potentially win you the game in the third and final round, when the bidding chips you’re left with also count for or against you depending on their worth.
Reading the above three paragraphs pretty much entitles you to start playing Ra – but that simple set-up belies a game that combines canny thinking with rewards – or punishments! – for those prepared to push their luck.
Gameplay in Ra does allow for some spoiling tactics, but in the overall picture it's relatively minor.
Next to none - Ra moves fast.
Not too much. Because you never know what tile is coming out the bag next, Ra really lets players go with their gut instinct. The game can be won by go-with-the-punches type player or a thoughtful strategist - it depends on the tiles.
Easy to learn, simple to play and score, and very random!
2-5
Players
8+
Years
30-60
Mins
Sam says
A wonderful game that you can approach in different ways; grabbing what you need as and when it arises and bailing early, leaving the others to fight it out. Or - holding out for bigger and better stuff and potentially leaving those safety-first players in the dust. Most likely a mix of the two! It's a simple game to teach and learn, and has that delicious flavour of agonising-over-decisions in it that is purely about how far you want to push your luck, rather than being bamboozled by the weight of rules.