Ayar: Children of the Sun

I’m starting this journey with the Children of the Sun—or, as we jokingly christened it at the table, a euro explanation for why men live shorter lives. It is the third game in the Grandon-Lopiano series with Osprey, after Merv and Sankoré, and it sits sensibly between them in length and complexity. More importantly, though, it finds room for some genuinely original ideas in a genre that often feels as if it has already exhausted its vocabulary.

The thematic image has the man crossing the path of the sun so that the crops may be blessed, while his partner stays at home and prays to the gods. In practice, the core is a very clever tableau-building grid: we move our figures and, depending on where they end up, trigger the corresponding action to develop our personal tableau.

The delightful paradox is that, rather than unlocking ever more comfortable options, the game tightens as it goes on. Available moves become more limited and every decision carries more weight. Although each player mainly works on their own board, the mechanisms let players affect one another enough that the experience never becomes solitary and stays fresh.

Like Merv, this is not a game I would judge after a single play. We played two games back to back, and the second was noticeably different from the first, which confirmed for me that it still has more to show. I recommend it without hesitation to euro fans, but also to those who have moved beyond gateway games and are looking for the next meaningful step.