Retail Price: $40
Player Count: 1-4 (best at 2+)
Age Range: 14+ (7+ in our experience)
Play Time: 30-45 mins. (consistent with our experience)
Complexity: 4 out of 10 (closer to a 3 in our experience)
Mechanisms: Contracts, Dice Rolling, Dice Drafting, Pattern Building, Set Collection
Designer: Adrian Adamescu, Daryl Andrews
Artist: Peter Wocken
Publisher: Floodgate Games
Educational Value:
Strategic Thinking
Problem Solving
Spatial Reasoning
Math: Addition & Subtraction
Flavor Text:
“The Sagrada Família is a one-of-a-kind temple, for its origins, foundation and purpose. Fruit of the work of genius architect Antoni Gaudí, the project was promoted by the people for the people. Five generations now have watched the Temple progress in Barcelona. Today, more than 135 years after the laying of the cornerstone, construction continues on the Basilica. Draft dice and use the tools-of-the-trade in Sagrada, to carefully construct your stained glass window masterpiece.”
Overview:
Sagrada is a dice drafting game, where you are trying to place dice in your tableau based on color and number rules, as well as trying to get as many dice of certain colors and numbers as possible to score your personal hidden goal.
Setup:
Each player draws 2 window pattern cards that are double sided, and chooses one side they will play with
Place 3 public objective cards and 3 tool cards in the playing area
Each player is given favor tokens equal to the difficulty listed on their window pattern
Place all the different colored dice in the dice bag
Gameplay:
Each round you will randomly select the number of dice from a bag, equal to the number of players times 2 plus 1, and then roll them. Each player will have the opportunity to select their first die going clockwise, and then select a second going back counter clockwise in a snake draft. Your first die of the game must be placed on an edge, and then each subsequent die must be placed either diagonally or orthogonally adjacent. Dice may never be placed orthogonally adjacent of the same color or number, and if you aren’t able to take a die on your turn due to placement restrictions, you will have an empty space on your window that costs you points at the end of the game. Each player may use 1 tool card each round, by placing favor tokens on the card (1 if you are the first to use it in the game, and 2 for every person who uses it thereafter), which allows you to either alter a die or the placement rules. The game lasts for 10 rounds, allowing each player the opportunity to fill the 20 dice spots on their player board if they can take one each turn. The player who scores the most points between the public victory cards, their private goal, and subtracting for empty spaces, wins the game.
Luck/Strategy:
Between the random draw of the window pattern, public objective cards, tool cards, your private goal card, and then the dice each round, there is a pretty high level of luck in this game. With that said, this same level of luck is being applied to all players, and the tool cards are there to help you mitigate the difficulty of your window pattern, and possible bad dice draws. Even with the luck factored in, and having played this game numerous times, I have never felt like poor luck just totally wrecked my game. Sure, there are times near the end of the game, where it is very difficult to get the dice you need, or maybe another player just happened to take that dice you really wanted, but it’s typically not enough to completely disrupt your game. While the goals you are going for are not up to you, based on the fact dice must be placed next to dice already on your window, you do need to have some strategic approach. One other thing I will point out here, is that while you could technically take dice someone else needs on purpose, you are usually so focused on making your own window work you really can’t afford to do that, so the level of interaction or take that is very low typically.
Artwork:
The artwork in this game is beautiful, everything is very colorful and bright. It really makes you feel like you’re at the Sagrada Familia, and building a stained glass window.
Theme:
While the artwork, as mentioned above, really helps bring the theme of the game to life, there isn’t much integration of the theme into the mechanics. The gameplay here is very abstract, and really could have been any theme.
Replayability/Fun Factor:
There is tons of variability and replayability in this game. So much so, that I have never had two games feel similar, even when I was using the same window pattern. Everyone I have ever played this game with, has had a fun time playing it. If you are prone to analysis paralysis, and tend to over analyze every decision, then this game may be a bit stressful for you, because there are a lot of choices to make early in the game that will affect everything you can do later.
Conclusion/Audience:
This is a beautiful, light, and easy game to play, that most everyone will enjoy playing. The only exceptions, are going to be if you don’t like high levels of luck (even in a quick game), and if you tend to struggle when presented with a lot of options. This isn't a game that is going be good for smaller kids, unless you are really willing to sit and play on their team, walking them through each decision stage. Late Elementary age kids and up, shouldn't have any problems with the strategic decisions necessary to play this game.
+ Easy to learn and quick to play
+ Beautiful art and components
+ High replayability
- High amount of luck
Final Score:
Jared - 7
Abigail - 7.5
Other Games You Might Like:
Azul, Coatl, Mandala Stones, Sequence Kids, Ticket to Ride: First Journey
This game was purchased from my friendly local game store, and is available here. This isn't an affiliate link, but just my way of trying to support my FLGS, who carry great games at even better prices.
Comments