Faiyum

Damn good Friese game. I want to get more plays of this bad boy in stat. What a wonderful collection of mechanics that leave to a player driven interconnected board. Economy is wonderfully tight. After more plays, easily my favorite game to come out in a while. Game is awesome.

I played Faiyum for the first time over a year ago. A couple of months ago I got back to it and I was kinda obsessed with it! All I can say is this game is freaking great! When a game has tactics, tension, good player interaction it gets all my attention and eventually appreciation! Faiyum brings a lot of opportunistic moments because of the simple fact that the players control the board state! The way you play your cards and reclaim part of your deck in a particular order, (only the first 3 cards with the option to pay for more) adds even more tension on your decisions. Like we say sometimes, a game played by the players and not players played by the game.

Fantastic hand management mechanisms, lots of unique cards that change the game on the order they become available.

Concordia with Power Grid’s market, but without the auction. The interaction is subtle and parasitic, a bit like the monuments in Tigris & Euphrates (“you built it, but I’m the one who gets to use it”). It feels like a euro released in 2001—and that’s a compliment—both in terms of art and mechanics. I love Power Grid, but Faiyum has dethroned it as my favorite game by Friedemann Friese.

*Solo Review* An enjoyable card game where you don't know what cards are showing up in the market next. This has interesting similarities to a deck building game. Depending how you play your cards, you may get them all back or buy them back later. Best way to learn this game or to teach others is to play it. Once you get a understanding of certain cards, different version of that card will be easier to understand. The cards are easy to understand. This game may have lots of pieces but once they are placed, they stay on the board, making it less fiddly.