Sagrada

Sagrada (2017) is a collecting and sequencing dice game where you construct intricate stained glass windows. You choose and place dice on your window to meet different rules, make patterns and score points. It stands out not only for the beautiful patterns you make but for the brain-bending challenge of maximising points in these arrangements.

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Play involves collecting coloured dice to place on your Window grid, aiming to match both the common and private objectives - things like rows of matching colours, only low numbers or varied colours. The colour and the number of the dice you choose are important, not only do you need to make certain number and colour patterns to score points, but your Window indicates spots that only take a particular colour or number.

As you place your dice and build up a pattern on your Window, you start to create scoring arrangements. But as it fills up it also gets trickier to maximise your points because you aren't allowed to place dice with matching numbers or colours next to each other. This is eased a bit with a set of Tool moves you can use to adjust your dice. At the end of ten rounds you total up the scores, getting points for your objectives completed, Tool tokens not spent and losing points for empty slots in your window. The winner with the most points wins.

It's a game where you are working on your own area, but need to keep an eye on everyone else to see which dice you should choose next. Expert players learn to score the same objectives on multiple rows to maximise their scores. It all comes together to offer both intricacy and simplicity in a way that is rare in these kinds of games.

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Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Sagrada 22 months ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 14 months ago.