Sailing Toward Osiris Review

The Pharaoh is dead. How will you honor him?

Sailing Toward Osiris from Daily Magic Games has players memorializing the late Pharaoh as his body sails down the Nile River toward his final resting spot. Each round, workers will be shuffled in a bag and drawn by players for their personal reserve as well as for the worker pool that can be purchased on your turns. The "governor" for that round will be given a slight advantage because there will be some left in the bag that they will get to look at in order to determine what the other players may have. On your turn, you'll do one of 10(!) actions. It sounds like a lot but it's really not so bad.

1. You can place a worker for resources, depending on their color. If they're a basic worker, they cannot go past the Pharaoh's barge but if they're a master laborer, they're able to go to any spot of their color as long as it is available.

2. You can also visit the city to pick up more city cards which give you abilities or resources.

3. If you have enough resources, you can plan a monument by paying its cost.

4. Then you can place one of the 3 types depending on their placement rules.

5. You can add your camel to a caravan which grants resources.

6. Purchase a new worker from the worker pool to add to your force.

7. Trade resources to the market for other resources.

8. Play a boon card, which is a standard set that every player has that can be used once per game each. These can allow you to do powerful actions such as carrying over a monument one full season so you do not lose it potentially.

9. Play a city card.

10. Pass. This will also grant you bonuses such as being governor next round or additional cards.

Play will continue like this for 4 rounds and once the Pharaoh reaches the end, the player with the most glory will win.

The Good: This is a really straightforward Euro game. I would be willing to say it's an excellent introduction to the genre. The spaces are very straightforward. There are a lot of actions in the game and I can safely say that I needed to use each and every one of them at one time or another while playing. Usually when I play a game with a lot of actions I may use half of them. Having the resources be limited adds a nice layer to strategy, you can hoard all of one to try and keep others from using it or balance them all. The components of the game are nicely done and they add a lot to the theme.

The Okay: The board can feel cluttered in a hurry. As great as the components are, they're very chunky and can obstruct your view at times. Especially since the bulk of the action happens in the middle of the board where they need to be. The player screens while nice, confused me with some of the icons on the back, specifically on the left where there's arrows and points and a river. I'm still confused on that one.

The Not So Good: The rulebook encourages you to trade with other players and negotiate. In the few games I played with various player counts, we didn't find a need to do it at all. Even if you're keeping resources for yourself, you'll need to use them eventually so players will just wait you out.

Final Thoughts: Sailing Toward Osiris doesn't rewrite the book on euro games and that's fine. It's not trying to be something it isn't. The game is full of theme. There's not a single "generic" player piece and I love that. I would recommend this if you're looking for something that's a bit on the lighter side but you're also wanting to strategize and maybe branch into games that are heavier. If you're already comfortable with games like this and want to stick to the Egyptian theme, Tekhenu may be your next step.

Thank you to Daily Magic Games for providing me with a review copy.