Sagrada review

Game Review - Sagrada
Mechanics: Sudoku, transparent only, with variable rules and colored meta dice
Game difficulty: medium
Game duration: 1 hour
Number of players: 2 - 4 (with extension - 6)
Best number of players: 4

There are games where sometimes game events are determined by a meta die.
There are games where two dice are rolled to vary the results or increase the potential roll.
There are games with 4, 5 and 6 dice.
Sagrada is a game with 90 meta dice. I don't know what this says about the game globally, but this is a game with 90 meta dice (130 by extension). It's a lot, and it's pretty damn cool.

Sagrada is a very beautiful game about a beautiful theme - cathedral stained glass windows. At the beginning of the game, each player chooses a specific pattern that they want to build and tries to realize it over the course of ten rounds. If everything went as planned, the result of the game is a colorful mosaic.
Each stained glass is a 4 x 5 large area, which is supplemented by the rules of the image - in certain places there must be an element of a certain color or a certain value, and also some basic rules must be followed, for example, two dice of the same color cannot be next to each other, and the same value.

In each round, dice are randomly drawn and thrown, from which the players successively choose the ones that suit them best - thus, the ratio of luck and skill in the game is evaluated approximately half, even seemingly unsuccessful throws can be used to your advantage.
In addition to this, each game also has various additional options - say, flipping the dice you pick up to get a better number, or maybe swapping a die for a round counter die, or maybe being able to move one die in a stained glass window, ignoring value requirements, etc.
And the last thing that varies each game - points are given by each player's private task, as well as variable common conditions, say, extra points for every row in which no color is repeated, or for every 5 and 6 pairs, etc.

Sagrada is not a game with an amazing story, the game mechanics are simple and constant, and there is one path to victory with very minimal variations, and yet this does not stop it from being an interesting game for the family.
It's friendly (because each player works towards their own goal and the ability to interfere with others is a relatively minor part of the game, which may be important for those who find Settlers of Catan or Ticket to Ride difficult to enjoy the interplay and competition), easy to learn (because the principle is simple and doesn't change too much), visually appealing and with successful balances of happiness/skill and non-obtrusiveness/complexity.

Did I mention that the game is very beautiful?
Have got.

You can buy the game in Brain Games stores on the 1st floor of Rīga Plaza or K. Barona Street 55, or in the online store: Sagrada

Board Game Geek rating: 7.6.

Author: Karl Bergmanis

Pictures from personal archive and Board Game Geek