Alma Mater

Alma Mater is one of those games that spreads across the table and immediately makes a statement: plastic books, meeples, and an overall lavish, impressive production. But alongside the spectacle come a few choices that made me wonder why the production cost was pushed up so much: English and German card sets, even when many cards have no language dependence at all and have simply been printed twice. And the quality control in my copy did not help at all: the red discs were missing, from a sealed bag no less. The theme, with me acting as something like a university vice-chancellor trying to make my departments, professors, students, and textbooks more prestigious, did not excite me much, but it fits pleasantly with what I am doing in the game.

At its core, Alma Mater is worker placement. Early on, workers are few and options are honestly cramped, especially with three players, until I unlock extra workforce. That pressure is where the game shines: I have to decide when and where to invest my actions, while the available spaces force me to watch what everyone else is doing as well.

Alongside that, I collect and sell books in different colours in a straightforward set-collection element, which is the main route to improving my engine and gaining new students and professors for lectures. Its most distinctive point is the marketplace: I sell books to the other players, they gain victory points, and I gain money. Sitting on top of all this is a dynamic, complex achievement system through research and the busts of great scientists, with different combinations from game to game.

Overall, I found it pleasant, very thinky, clever, and tight. It does not bring anything genuinely new to the table — perhaps apart from the marketplace — but it remains a good euro steak even if I have already played dozens of related games. It is an easy pick for the “buy it, play it five or six times, then sell it” category, for finding second-hand, or for groups that have not already filled their collection with modern, replayable euros.

Its substantial problem is the first play. There is far too much information to absorb before I can play properly and formulate a strategy, enough to put some people off. In groups that do not easily read euro actions, I could see playing the first two rounds as a trial and then doing a proper restart. Even so, it does not disappoint fans of the genre.

Updated session

On my fourth play, I think, within a month, the game began to tire me a little. The combo engine felt rather similar from one play to the next and, without the new students, repetition comes to the surface more strongly. I am not changing my final judgement yet — four plays in a month is a lot for this kind of euro — but for now I am putting it deep in the euro pile and will return after a few months for a final verdict.