This one is in my opinion is working quite well with two players. I can't seem to find any other dice selection game (which I think is a good mechanic in games), but what I can think of is Grand Austria Hotel and Sagrada, which are both really good.
I really like The Red Cathedral. The mechanics are interesting and fun to play - I really like the rondel/dice mechanism and building up your workshop tiles to have an engine builder feel. In a sea of samey worker placement games that come out every year, this felt unique to me and has drawn me to wanting to play it more. I have only played at 2 players and agree that it is probably the worst player count because it makes the area control much less interesting. I have been considering adding the solo bot into our 2 player game to see if that helped. Grand Austria Hotel and Tekhenu are two other dice selection games that I really enjoy and both work great at 2. Its a genre that I would like to play more because I tend to like the mechanics.
We've played it at 2-player once and once solo. Enjoyed the plays so far but yes, probably won't play it multiple times in a row. I think we would need to space it out per play. I think it would be a good travel game for us. Also, I think we scored it incorrectly for the Cathedral: second place scored half instead of 1/3 so that's probably why our score was so close. Favorite dice selection games? Pulsar 2849 or Coimbra. Would like to get Grand Austria Hotel which others have mentioned. Better let Naveen know that he is half way to his win quota. Max 2 wins for the year, right? :D I also think his beard is the key to him winning. :D
Thanks for the video, we love your content! Good news for everyone who hasn't played yet: the reprint of Red Cathedral is on the way and will be at your local game store mid February! Stay tuned!
Came here from your White Castle video. The rondel, constant dice rolling, and interwoven player interaction of Red Cathedral seem like a lot of fun. White Castle seems more combotastic, tight, and have more direct player interaction. Hard to pick a favorite!
Zdravstvuyte Monique and Naveen. Hello from Russia. Ivan the Terrible was called that because he is considered a very cruel ruler. In particular, according to legend, he blinded the architect of the Saint Basil's Cathedral, so that he could not repeat such beautefull building. So I wouldn't be too happy about winning this game :) Thank you for the video. Good luck!
Much better explanation and sample game than the actual authors of the game provided (in Spanish) whose video and explanation were absolutely dreadful. This was clear regarding game mechanics and options. Well done.
Another terrific playthrough and you guys have such great attitudes when you win or lose I love it! It's great to be able to count on that in all your playthroughs😊! Monique, there were multiple times when you could have sacrificed one recognition point, bumping you down to the closest prestige, to gain two coin. There was one place in particular (37:00) where you really could have used the extra rubles. In general, I like to play where whenever my point marker is only one or two recognition points above a prestige point, I'll back up to that nearest prestige point and pick up the two rubles. This is particularly effective almost no matter where your point marker is when done just prior to placing ornamentations. Anyway great job, I love this game! Thank you for filming it. Any plans to film the contractor's expansion, that makes it even more difficult to tell who's winning in a two-player game😊.
Another fantastic video, as always! I finally got to play this (on Tabletopia) last night and really enjoyed it! I'm not the biggest fan of rondels because I'm terrible at them lol, but this game was solidly designed. Nothing seems out of place, everything is tied into each other, and turns are quick yet thinky. I also liked how the dual score tracks worked, since it reminded me a little of Brass: Birmingham. 😊
Hey Ruel! We missed your play last night! What a coincidence lol! It is solid, we prefer it at 3-4 players, and also like the fact that there are plenty of decisions to make without too much punishment if someone builds before you.
Absolutely loving the modern trend of mixing in old artwork. Ivan Bilibin, who did those prints on the seasons wheel, is one of my favorite artists. This game looks stunning, and also has some cool mechanics. Definitely on the short list to pick up!
I don't know if it's too late, a litte bit though. But I think the way you count influence for scoring the towers does not differentiate sections and addorns. You count one to one, then, only for scoring prestige you count 2 for sections and 1 for doors, windows and toppers...
I'm just gonna say it. I blame this channel for half of my board game collection. lol. And I am so happy Naveen is kicking butt recently. Sorry, Monique. lol. Just ordered this and can't wait to play! Good job, team!
Omg, ive been playing this game since it came out and I didn’t know you were supposed to activate the workshop when you place it on your board, thx for the great video, and making the game a little easier for me :)
Great video as usual. Are you sure you did the end game scoring correctly? The value of a tower is fine, but as for who controls / wins the tower, I believe ornamentation counts the same as a section. So in the first tower the count is 3-2 for control. Doesn't change the score in your game, but it very much can in many games. Covered in the rulebook in final scoring for tower 5.
Hi we realized it after the upload, we made an errata in the description and with the Klingon subtitles. We had been playing it wrong this whole time lol!!
I just got this game and wanted to learn but didn't feel like reading rules today. I KNEW you guys would have my back! :) PS - Monique I love your jacket.
Not really interested in playing this game, I just wanted to see the mechanisms, for design inspiration. But I need to commend you for the review, so much insightful comments, really helpful if you're considering the game!
Great playthrough, as always :) I saw a couple of other playthroughs and I believe I am warming towards this one. The game mechanics are really interesting, I believe they resemble a little The Castles of Burgundy, as far as dice use is concerned. And sure, the dual score track resembles a lot Brass: Birmingham, or rather The Castles of Tuscany, the brand new Stefan Feld game. I am pleasantly surprised that this works well with a higher player count. The only thing is, you have done it again :) You are making me want buy an increasing number of games, and I have no idea when I will be able to play them. I think I will simply skip on the Darwin's Journey Kickstarter and wait for a retail release ... Anyway, this is a good thing you are doing, I really like how your explanations are clear enough, yet not too beginner level, just right to ease someone into a game. Great job! :)
Lol, hopefully we can start to play in the coming months!! The dice and dual track is the most interesting part of this one, we feel with 3+ players the dice become more mobile and makes the dice selection much more interesting. In addition the area control aspect in the cathedral becomes a greater puzzle when vying for position.
Another great play-through! I just watched Matt Lees from SU&SD gush all over this game and then watching your play-through kind of brought it down in my opinion. You perfectly summed up what I was feeling in your final thoughts, that it's a good solid game and enjoyable, but not a game you're going to play over and over again close together. I definitely love how small the box is and I have to think about what other resource games I have to see if this would be played more or less than them. Also for me in Finland, the price point is still surprisingly good at 37€ it wouldn't make too huge of a dent in my bank account for a game that I'm sure I'd enjoy, unlike Anno 1800, which I've heard isn't the best quality components, is 75€ here! Something to think about! Maybe I can find an even cheaper copy at Spiel
Thanks for another great play through. I've been thinking of picking this one up. Seems to move fast and solo mode is a bonus. I was curious, 31:42 why didn't Naveen pick up 2 gems during this action? He activated the blue die with a total of two dice at that location?
My experience with the dual score tracker at two players has been it's a bit of a distraction. On some plays I have tried to focus on it, for example delaying a decoration until I gain some recognition to maximize the points gain from prestige. But it's probably better overall to just be most efficient at completing the various tasks the game throws at you and do stuff as early as you can. There's a similar on-rails feeling to the market, which is what drew me to the game in the first place. At least at two, it's not very dynamic and there are often maybe 1-2 good options. I rarely feel like I don't know what to do on my turn or that my actions have a high opportunity cost. That said, I really like the game as an engaging and breezy Euro.
Totally know what you mean! In a 2-P game I have found that doing whatever you can as fast as you can has led to good results. It is certainly more dynamic at 3-4 P.
I don't believe the score at the end is not the points that someone contributed but how many banners and decorations they have. I don't believe it would have changed anything in this play.
HI John, thank you so much for bringing that to our attention. We've been accidentally playing it that way lol. We've put an edit in the description as well as edits through the Klingon subtitles. Much Appreciated!
If you keep going back to the nearest prestige marker and taking 2 coins right before scoring 'prestige' (i.e. through decorations), you could have made a fair bit of coin (or a few more points in the long run).
Hey Monique, I address this to you cause you know rules better than anyone. Can you please resolve a dispute between my boyfriend and i before we play red cathedral and have another argument. Is it possible to deliver resources to complete a section AND resources to decorate that section in the same turn? For instance deliver one stone to complete the base PLUS wood and a stone to decorate that same section with a door? It seems like if this were allowed it would prevent the opposing player from “stealing” decorations from other players. What are your thoughts?
Hi there, yes it’s definitely allowed. The only thing is that you wouldn’t be able to compete the decoration by using 2 jewels because you can max use 3 materials when building. So yes, you can totally do both on your turn. Hope this helps (and kick his butt!!) 😜
@@BeforeYouPlay Whistle Mountain is very different, but it's definitely worth playing. It's one of the most creative worker placement games I've ever played, definitely worth checking out.
This game looks interesting but honestly seems like another euro that in 3-4 years will be mostly forgotten :/ especially with the lackluster performance at 2 players, it seems like when a person looks at their shelf, there’s a lot of other games that would be picked first to play.
They should have allowed any number on the dice for the exchange if a prestigious point. Which would have been better in the rule set. Not sure why they didn’t do that. I am not a fan of dice games where you don’t have any good way of mitigating them. This game punishes you too hard for mitigating them.
What are some of your favorite dice selection games? Thoughts on this one?
This one is in my opinion is working quite well with two players. I can't seem to find any other dice selection game (which I think is a good mechanic in games), but what I can think of is Grand Austria Hotel and Sagrada, which are both really good.
I really like The Red Cathedral. The mechanics are interesting and fun to play - I really like the rondel/dice mechanism and building up your workshop tiles to have an engine builder feel. In a sea of samey worker placement games that come out every year, this felt unique to me and has drawn me to wanting to play it more. I have only played at 2 players and agree that it is probably the worst player count because it makes the area control much less interesting. I have been considering adding the solo bot into our 2 player game to see if that helped. Grand Austria Hotel and Tekhenu are two other dice selection games that I really enjoy and both work great at 2. Its a genre that I would like to play more because I tend to like the mechanics.
We've played it at 2-player once and once solo. Enjoyed the plays so far but yes, probably won't play it multiple times in a row. I think we would need to space it out per play. I think it would be a good travel game for us. Also, I think we scored it incorrectly for the Cathedral: second place scored half instead of 1/3 so that's probably why our score was so close.
Favorite dice selection games? Pulsar 2849 or Coimbra. Would like to get Grand Austria Hotel which others have mentioned.
Better let Naveen know that he is half way to his win quota. Max 2 wins for the year, right? :D I also think his beard is the key to him winning. :D
@@zlyntudteam2394 we like this game quite a bit, but it is definitely not close to GAH. We also like Trismegistus at two a lot.
@@J-Wheeler-G yup, this one kinda reminds me of Mancala-mechanism a little bit
Thanks for the video, we love your content!
Good news for everyone who hasn't played yet: the reprint of Red Cathedral is on the way and will be at your local game store mid February! Stay tuned!
Hi team! We are so happy to showcase the game, great job to all you who were involved. Excited for the next designs to come!
You guys are the best board game RUclipsrs out there!
Hi Lucas thank you so much for the high praise! We are humbled and appreciate your support. :-)
They're my second favorite game channel. And they always seem to review something I've been thinking about. :)
Came here from your White Castle video. The rondel, constant dice rolling, and interwoven player interaction of Red Cathedral seem like a lot of fun. White Castle seems more combotastic, tight, and have more direct player interaction. Hard to pick a favorite!
Zdravstvuyte Monique and Naveen. Hello from Russia.
Ivan the Terrible was called that because he is considered a very cruel ruler. In particular, according to legend, he blinded the architect of the Saint Basil's Cathedral, so that he could not repeat such beautefull building. So I wouldn't be too happy about winning this game :)
Thank you for the video. Good luck!
Wow, if I knew that I (Naveen) would have purposely lost!
Much better explanation and sample game than the actual authors of the game provided (in Spanish) whose video and explanation were absolutely dreadful. This was clear regarding game mechanics and options. Well done.
Another terrific playthrough and you guys have such great attitudes when you win or lose I love it! It's great to be able to count on that in all your playthroughs😊!
Monique, there were multiple times when you could have sacrificed one recognition point, bumping you down to the closest prestige, to gain two coin. There was one place in particular (37:00) where you really could have used the extra rubles. In general, I like to play where whenever my point marker is only one or two recognition points above a prestige point, I'll back up to that nearest prestige point and pick up the two rubles.
This is particularly effective almost no matter where your point marker is when done just prior to placing ornamentations.
Anyway great job, I love this game! Thank you for filming it. Any plans to film the contractor's expansion, that makes it even more difficult to tell who's winning in a two-player game😊.
Another fantastic video, as always! I finally got to play this (on Tabletopia) last night and really enjoyed it! I'm not the biggest fan of rondels because I'm terrible at them lol, but this game was solidly designed. Nothing seems out of place, everything is tied into each other, and turns are quick yet thinky. I also liked how the dual score tracks worked, since it reminded me a little of Brass: Birmingham. 😊
Hey Ruel! We missed your play last night! What a coincidence lol! It is solid, we prefer it at 3-4 players, and also like the fact that there are plenty of decisions to make without too much punishment if someone builds before you.
Absolutely loving the modern trend of mixing in old artwork. Ivan Bilibin, who did those prints on the seasons wheel, is one of my favorite artists. This game looks stunning, and also has some cool mechanics. Definitely on the short list to pick up!
The box art is superb! It instantly drew me in and had us intrigued.
I don't know if it's too late, a litte bit though. But I think the way you count influence for scoring the towers does not differentiate sections and addorns. You count one to one, then, only for scoring prestige you count 2 for sections and 1 for doors, windows and toppers...
Your channel is becoming my favourite very quickly! Watching from India ❤️
P.S- Just bought Curious Cargo after you all recommended it.
Thank you so much for your support! Hope you enjoy Curious Cargo, it's such a great 30 minute puzzle!
Played this at a game night and was immediately a fan of this game. Ordered it the same night when I returned home. ❤
Nice playthrough! Previously wasn't interested in this game, but now I am....
Yeah I find they have that effect on me all the time....
Lol, sorry again!!!
I'm just gonna say it. I blame this channel for half of my board game collection. lol. And I am so happy Naveen is kicking butt recently. Sorry, Monique. lol. Just ordered this and can't wait to play! Good job, team!
Sounds like you have a half decent collection lol!!! I definitely needed to get some wins in, Monique is too good!
Omg, ive been playing this game since it came out and I didn’t know you were supposed to activate the workshop when you place it on your board, thx for the great video, and making the game a little easier for me :)
Yeah! That way you guarantee a minimal return on your investment!!
Great job and really thoughtful comments at the 3nd, thank you for such a thorough experience. I wonder if some a.i. could help in the 2 player game.🤔
I think a 3rd AI would definitely make the area control aspect of the game much more interesting!
Moniques face of pure horror on 47:23 was the best part lol. Great Play-through!!
Great video as usual. Are you sure you did the end game scoring correctly? The value of a tower is fine, but as for who controls / wins the tower, I believe ornamentation counts the same as a section.
So in the first tower the count is 3-2 for control. Doesn't change the score in your game, but it very much can in many games.
Covered in the rulebook in final scoring for tower 5.
Hi we realized it after the upload, we made an errata in the description and with the Klingon subtitles. We had been playing it wrong this whole time lol!!
I just got this game and wanted to learn but didn't feel like reading rules today. I KNEW you guys would have my back! :) PS - Monique I love your jacket.
Not really interested in playing this game, I just wanted to see the mechanisms, for design inspiration. But I need to commend you for the review, so much insightful comments, really helpful if you're considering the game!
Thanks for checking it out. We try and be fair and honest in our reviews :-)
Great playthrough, as always :) I saw a couple of other playthroughs and I believe I am warming towards this one. The game mechanics are really interesting, I believe they resemble a little The Castles of Burgundy, as far as dice use is concerned. And sure, the dual score track resembles a lot Brass: Birmingham, or rather The Castles of Tuscany, the brand new Stefan Feld game. I am pleasantly surprised that this works well with a higher player count.
The only thing is, you have done it again :) You are making me want buy an increasing number of games, and I have no idea when I will be able to play them. I think I will simply skip on the Darwin's Journey Kickstarter and wait for a retail release ... Anyway, this is a good thing you are doing, I really like how your explanations are clear enough, yet not too beginner level, just right to ease someone into a game. Great job! :)
Lol, hopefully we can start to play in the coming months!! The dice and dual track is the most interesting part of this one, we feel with 3+ players the dice become more mobile and makes the dice selection much more interesting. In addition the area control aspect in the cathedral becomes a greater puzzle when vying for position.
Here from white castle video!
Hope you enjoyed it!
Love the video. Interesting comments on an interesting game! I also like Naveen`s t-shirt. Where is it from?
Great video, I have this game ordered, wonder what the expansion adds?
Really like your in depth feedback on this game. Thanks for the insights.
BTW first time I heard the outro. It's beautful =)
Hey, thanks! We are trying to be as honest as can be in our reviews and playthroughs! :-)
Another great play-through! I just watched Matt Lees from SU&SD gush all over this game and then watching your play-through kind of brought it down in my opinion. You perfectly summed up what I was feeling in your final thoughts, that it's a good solid game and enjoyable, but not a game you're going to play over and over again close together. I definitely love how small the box is and I have to think about what other resource games I have to see if this would be played more or less than them. Also for me in Finland, the price point is still surprisingly good at 37€ it wouldn't make too huge of a dent in my bank account for a game that I'm sure I'd enjoy, unlike Anno 1800, which I've heard isn't the best quality components, is 75€ here! Something to think about! Maybe I can find an even cheaper copy at Spiel
really enjoyed this playthrough thank you.
Hi Sean, thank you so much! Hope you are going fantastic!!
i love this game. a beautiful surprise at the end of 2020.
It's clean and clever!
Thanks for another great play through. I've been thinking of picking this one up. Seems to move fast and solo mode is a bonus. I was curious, 31:42 why didn't Naveen pick up 2 gems during this action? He activated the blue die with a total of two dice at that location?
15 minutes into watching this, and The Cardboard Kid and Dad are even more convinced that we need to play this ASAP.
Haha, hope you get to try it soon! P.S I had my morning coffee out of your mug this morning :-)
Nice job! First good playthrough I see for this game. Rahdo`s video, just made me pass on this, but you two, show me why this is a good one.
My experience with the dual score tracker at two players has been it's a bit of a distraction. On some plays I have tried to focus on it, for example delaying a decoration until I gain some recognition to maximize the points gain from prestige. But it's probably better overall to just be most efficient at completing the various tasks the game throws at you and do stuff as early as you can. There's a similar on-rails feeling to the market, which is what drew me to the game in the first place. At least at two, it's not very dynamic and there are often maybe 1-2 good options. I rarely feel like I don't know what to do on my turn or that my actions have a high opportunity cost. That said, I really like the game as an engaging and breezy Euro.
Totally know what you mean! In a 2-P game I have found that doing whatever you can as fast as you can has led to good results. It is certainly more dynamic at 3-4 P.
This is a very nice and pretty game! Would you recommend sleeving all the cards? The box size?
Thanks!
I don't believe the score at the end is not the points that someone contributed but how many banners and decorations they have. I don't believe it would have changed anything in this play.
I also think that’s the right way to resolve the endgame score.
HI John, thank you so much for bringing that to our attention. We've been accidentally playing it that way lol. We've put an edit in the description as well as edits through the Klingon subtitles. Much Appreciated!
@@BeforeYouPlay no problem, glad I could help.
...also, I wonder if the contractors expansion would affect the 2 player game🤔
If you keep going back to the nearest prestige marker and taking 2 coins right before scoring 'prestige' (i.e. through decorations), you could have made a fair bit of coin (or a few more points in the long run).
Yes.. finally you got to play this game! Yuhu!!!
Yeah, we played it a few months ago but finally was able to film it!
Hey Monique, I address this to you cause you know rules better than anyone. Can you please resolve a dispute between my boyfriend and i before we play red cathedral and have another argument. Is it possible to deliver resources to complete a section AND resources to decorate that section in the same turn? For instance deliver one stone to complete the base PLUS wood and a stone to decorate that same section with a door? It seems like if this were allowed it would prevent the opposing player from “stealing” decorations from other players. What are your thoughts?
Hi there, yes it’s definitely allowed. The only thing is that you wouldn’t be able to compete the decoration by using 2 jewels because you can max use 3 materials when building. So yes, you can totally do both on your turn. Hope this helps (and kick his butt!!) 😜
@@BeforeYouPlay thank you, both! You saved our relationship😝. We love your channel! ❤️ keep up the good work.
The area control scoring was incorrect. Each decoration contributes one point to the area control. Basically same as the flags.
Yeah this video is fairly old, but we had put that correction in the description of the video.
Wow, this game is being played everywhere online. Ruel played it last night on his Twitch channel!
Oh no way! We didn't even coordinate that lol. Ruel is fantastic, anyone who sees this comment Please Look up: Ruel Gaviola's channels!
Show us the advance board of the player mat
I will buy either this one or Whistle Mountain (both are sold out at my buying place BoardgameBliss)
Hi Alain, we haven't tried Whistle Mountain, are they similar?
@@BeforeYouPlay Whistle Mountain is very different, but it's definitely worth playing. It's one of the most creative worker placement games I've ever played, definitely worth checking out.
@@BeforeYouPlay For the record, I'd love to see you do a playthrough of Whistle Mountain. No pressure! 😁
@@BeforeYouPlay Not really, they both medium box, 2020, fun.
Another good one
Great video! I
Glad you enjoyed it :-)
This game looks interesting but honestly seems like another euro that in 3-4 years will be mostly forgotten :/ especially with the lackluster performance at 2 players, it seems like when a person looks at their shelf, there’s a lot of other games that would be picked first to play.
It's possible, it's a game we can see ourselves played 2-3 times a year. The good thing is that the game has never ran longer than expected.
I agree with you guys with the review. It’s a interesting game but after a few games at 2 player we aren’t so excited to do 2p again
Have you tried it at 3-4 players?
@@BeforeYouPlay no I haven’t but I definitely want to try it after watching your review. Sounds like it works better that way like most games
" area control makes me nervous "lol
They should have allowed any number on the dice for the exchange if a prestigious point. Which would have been better in the rule set. Not sure why they didn’t do that. I am not a fan of dice games where you don’t have any good way of mitigating them. This game punishes you too hard for mitigating them.
I do believe you do not count points for incomplete towers during endgame scoring, but this was a great video.
Spanish game yaass 🇪🇸