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I start explaining the rules of Basilica to Tony, and after 30 seconds, he already rolls his eyes. He heard those rules in dozen of various games. Put a tile on the table and put a worker on it to secure the area. Tiles must be adjacent. Tiles of the same color create a region. More workers in the region win control…
His facial expression is something between “Are you done?” or “Ignacy, you are killing me here.”
He played Carcassonne a million times. We all did.
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The beauty of the modern design is self-consciousness. Designers take pieces we all know and use them in a new way. They add a slight twist here and there, and suddenly we – gamers – are surprised and excited; we feel something fresh and innovative is here.
Basilica seems like a classic tile-laying game. With this unexpected twist – it has multi-use tiles. And this one detail adds so many new layers of strategy and tactical joy. Let me show you. Look at this picture.
I could draw tile 4 and build a blue region. Tile 1 will immediately flip and become a Green/Blue tile that I can draw later (or could be drawn by my opponent). The order from 1, maybe it was a threat to my strategy, is gone; taking tile 4, I killed the order at the same time. The Green/Blue tile becomes available, though. Is it good for my opponent?
I could draw a tile 5. I build a green region. The crown icon in the corner means the Queen advances, and the scoring may happen. Do I want trigger scoring? Do I want to slow the game or speed up? What is the situation on the table – scoring now is good for me?
What’s more, if I draw a tile 5, then tile 2 flips and becomes available as a yellow area tile. My opponent will now have tile 6 (yellow) and the new 5 (yellow), and that might be terrible for me…
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Designer of Basilica, Łukasz M. Pogoda introduced twist. Took the basics of Carcassonne we all know and shook things with double-sided tiles. The standard side is to build areas, and the Order side is to mess with opponents. Do I want to grow my region, or do I need to play an Order? Do I hate draft area tile, or do I hate draft Order tile? Do I…
