Biblios

Today's game review is a nifty little number called Biblios.

Overview
In Biblios, you are the head of a Medieval monastery, and "compete against other monasteries to become the one with the most wonderful library."  To do this, you aim to collect the most victory points.  You do this by gaining cards (each with a value 1-4) across five different categories (Monks, Pigments, Holy Books, Manuscripts, Forbidden Tomes).  At the end of the game, you compare your tally for each category with your opponent(s); the one with the highest value for each claims the victory points for that category.

• Example: you end the game with 3 Holy Books cards with a total value of 10 points.  Your opponent has 4 Holy Books cards with a total value of 9 points.  You have more points, so you win the Victory Points for the Holy Books category.

Here's the catch, though: the Scriptorium (pictured below) tracks how many victory points are awarded for each category.  Initially, each category is set at 3 victory points, but the values will change throughout the game based on "Church cards" people can play.  So, you may end up with the highest tally for Pigments, but winning that category may grant you only one victory point at game's end- or six, depending how it has been influenced during the game.  So play wisely!

The Scriptorium at the start of the game

Simplified Gameplay
Biblios is played over two phases: the Gift Phase and Auction Phase.

Gift Phase:
The active player "allocates" X+1 cards, where X = the number of players.  "To allocate a card means to draw a card, look at it, and then place it into one of three locations:"

• in front of himself (face down)
• into the public space (face up)
• into the Auction pile (face down)

After all X+1 cards are placed in these three areas, the remaining players, going clockwise, choose one face up card in the public space and put it in front of them.  When all players have a card (and hence the public space is empty), everyone puts the card in front of them into their hand, and the next person (moving clockwise) becomes the active player, allocating X+1 cards again.  This continues until the deck is empty; then play goes to the next phase.

When you're the active player, the ideal is to put the best card in front of yourself, the next best in the auction pile (where you can bid on it in the next phase), and the rest in the public space (for the other players to draw).  But since the cards are drawn (and placed) one at a time, you must choose without knowing which card(s) will be drawn next.  So, you take a decent card and possibly pass up a great one?  And which goes in the auction pile?  Choose wisely . . .

The types of cards: item (top), Church (bottom right), gold (bottom left)

Auction Phase
Here, the Auction pile (created during the Gift Phase) is shuffled.  The person who started the game (the first active player during the Gift Phase) starts again here, and reveals the top card of the Auction pile.  He then bids on the card:

• if a gold card, he bids the number of cards he is willing to discard from his hand to obtain the card;
• if a church or item card, he bids the amount of gold he is willing to pay (by discarding gold cards of sufficient value) to obtain the card

Bidding goes clockwise; when all players pass, the person who bid the most discards or pays the amount promised, and collects the card.  Then, the next person (moving clockwise) reveals the next card in the Auction pile, and the bidding commences.  This process is repeated until the Auction pile is empty; the game has ended.  Tally your points for each category, and assign winners to each.  Then, each player adds up their victory points, and the highest total wins.

Review
Biblios is a tidy little game.  For 2-4 players, it takes only 30 minutes, is simple to learn, and fun.  Both phases have hard choices to make (an essential element of good games).  There's a large luck component, of course, especially in the gift phase.  The Scriptorium concept is an interesting and enjoyable twist.  My only ding on this one is that the theme- which is what attracted me to the game in the first place- is just pasted on.  It gives some flavor, but you could do this game with just colors, so I didn't get the Medieval experience I was wanting.  Still, this will have a place on my shelf.

Rules can be found here; a video review, here.

Rating: A-