Towers of Am'harb

I did not know much about Towers of Am'harb before coming to it, but Moideas is one of those names that gets me to the table without much hesitation. That faith is rewarded here. This is another pleasingly daft thematic abstract: cultists and sinister altars on the surface, with a very clear abstract game beating underneath.

Players place cultists on the board in an attempt to dominate the scoring altars. Looking after your own patch is not enough; every altar is an invitation to get there ahead of everyone else when it is time to count.

Movement is built around the familiar Towers of Hanoi puzzle, that supposedly silly old business with the discs, and its simplicity turns into a constraint with teeth. Early on, you can spread out with relative comfort. Later, the board closes in, your options start tying themselves in knots, and control of the altars becomes a much twitchier affair. That is the good bit. Who keeps their foothold once everything starts to tighten?

It does not invent a new wheel, and it does not need to. It takes one oddly well-suited central idea and lets it do its work, allowing the game to build tension naturally rather than shouting about it. A thoroughly decent little mate.