Kemet: Blood & Sand Review - I Want Every Single Last Power Tile

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The epic Egyptian game Kemet is reborn with a new revised edition!

With Kemet: Blood and Sand, immerse yourself in a more realistic Ancient Egypt. Here, Gods are powerful, masters of both the desert and the Nile delta. They challenge each other in violent battles and show no mercy. Get ready to become an Egyptian God, open the gates of your city, and let your troops sing the song of war to please you and claim your dominance as master of Ancient Egypt.

Kemet: Blood and Sand features new art and upgraded gameplay with new approachable rules that go beyond the 1.5 version of Kemet developed with the help of the BGG community. Free from the constraints of existing components, designers Jacques Bariot and Guillaume Montiage go even further in fine-tuning the Kemet experience.

The game also features a redesigned map with a twist, bigger and more detailed figurines, and other surprises.

TimeStamps:
0:00:00 - Introduction
0:00:50 - Overview
0:12:40 - What I Like
0:17:08 - What I Don't Like
0:20:45 - What I Can See Others Not Liking
0:23:50 - Changes from Kemet to Kemet: Blood & Sand
0:26:52 - Final Thoughts
0:28:50 - Recommendations

5.0 - My absolutely favorite games. You can pry them out of my cold dead hands.
4.5 - Love this game! At the same time missing something that would make it a 5. Could be hard to table, lacking variability, a little light, etc.
4.0 - Really great game, almost always keeping, although has meaningful complaints as to what takes away from the experience.
3.5 - Really enjoyed, don't love it, may lose out to better games but the idea of never playing again is a bit sad.
3.0 - A good game, would play and suggest with the right people, if I never played it again wouldn't lose any sleep.
2.5 - A game I'd play again , but will never suggest it myself
2.0 - A game I don't want to play again
1.5 - A game I can't find any reason to recommend
1.0 - A game that is just bad.

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[MrBenjaminRhoades]

This is probably oft-requested, so apologies for being so cliche! I'd love to get your opinion regarding a head-to-head with Ankh. As Egyptian-themed games, both dudes-on-a-map/area control, I'm seeing a lot of similarities, and my assumption is that having both would oversaturate my collection both in terms of theme and mechanics. But not having played both, I can't be sure. Would appreciate getting your take!

[kumanight]

Kemet is one of my few 5/5s and my favourite game of all time. I knew after a single play that this game was made for me. Checks all my boxes and knocks what it's doing out of the park. Just wish I could get it to the table more, it's massive!

[defiantj]

Kemet: Blood and Sand is still my favorite game of all time. Eclipse Second Dawn is quickly becoming a 2nd place but Kemet is such a perfect area control game.

[seth]

Nicely covered. We recently play Cyclades and loved it. Look forward to learning and playing B&S. Thank you for the detailed and honest review!

[bigtimetimmyt]

I remember watching your video last year where you compared the 3 games of the trilogy and I decided Kemet was the right one for me. It has been an absolute home run with my group! Can't wait to get my hands on the expansion if it ever makes its way to retail. Looking forward to seeing your review of it.

[bassmeo]

ah, Yucatan. Definitely doesn't look as interesting as Kemet. I would have backed it, but I don't think I can justify it at a price point of 100€. Kemet b&s retail I can get for 75€ so I suspect Yucatan to be at that price range or lower in retail and I don't really need all the SG bling.

[Ultrlf]

I realy like this game.
So much that even tho I had the first edition I backed this one. I wanted the black tiles anyway and am gonna sell the first edition to recoup some losses.

I have ONE issue with the second printing... The map. WHY? Why didnt they just do like the old map. 2 and 4 players on one side. 3 and 5 on the other.
Now we got a useless picture on one, and ugly "sandstorms" to lay down to block pieces of the map. Its a real letdown.

But still. it took a great game and polished it to a sheen. Went from 8/10 to 9/10 for me.
I still love how every player groans when a player buys any tier 3 or 4 power. "That power is OP!" "Well so is yours!" . It reaches balance by makeing everyone super strong

[JohnClem]

Really don't like the look of the storm overlay boards. Makes the board look cheap and messy. Part of it may be that I just don't think the storm art looks good either. Otherwise, always been a game I've been interested in and would like to get a chance to play some day. Don't have enough people that like battle/area control games to make it worthwhile for me to own it though.

[henseltbrumbleburg]

13:50 I agree with your point about 'broken' / over-powered abilities is what I love about Cosmic Encounter. I love games that have an everything's over-power way of doing things, a lot more fun imo

[tchhub]

As far as I know the retail edition doesn't include the trays or obelisks.

[chaldean]

Thanks for the review, i just ordered it. I hope my group will like it or else I'll play it solitaire.

[brotherhorus]

Could not agree more with your video, love Kemet even more with this version though, as it just seems more up to date.

[boardgamesshowcase]

Such a great game. Do you recommend switching from 1st edition to Blood & Sand?

[Andy-tdsj]

One thing I haven’t heard (or might miss) is your view in the tile markets during set up. So for 4p you can only have 3 colors (vs 4 in the original Kemet). What’s your preference?

[stephenwyda]

Just didn't resonate with me. I wanted to like it since I love area control but I feel there are much better ones in this genre. I am likely getting rid of my God pledge kickstarter edition.

[XileboW]

Awesome review,
Could we have a top10 Are Control list please? This kind of game is to crowded with BGC 5* ratings :D

Also, so there is an expansion rumored? Do you think it be KS and the option to get all the previous stuff if missed?

[kostasmous]

Is this playable as a 2player game?? Is bloodrage better at 2? What ur opinion guys ... and Alex?

[do_hickey]

4:36 I don't know why but I found the accidental combination of describing the tiles as "White" and "power" into "White Power" tiles to be hilarious. Completely innocent and maybe I shouldn't be so irreverent with my humor given that there are still knuckleheads out there with those beliefs... But I can't help but laugh.

Oh, and great video on a game that's totally not my speed and that I'll likely never play :P

[Martok]

I just could not get into this game, I don't really know what it was. I guess one thing was that some of the little rules for balancing were just rules without a thematic sense.
One of the very few times that I thought while playing "I kind of want to stop and play something else."

Weirdly though, me and my girlfriend talked about the interesting aspects for quite some time the next day. Everytime I think about giving this another chance, I instead table Blood Rage or Rising Sun...

[dplentz]

we're all waiting for your review of Jaws of the Lion :)