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1-6    30-45 mins      Ages 10+

Game provided for review

A Game of Dice Drafting
and Window Crafting

As a skilled artisan, you will use tools-of-the-trade and careful planning to construct a stained glass window masterpiece in the Sagrada Familia.

Carefully designed by Daryl Andrews & Adrian Adamescu with graphic artistry by Peter Wocken.

A (re)View from a window…

It has to be said from the outset that Sagrada is a beautiful game in both body, mind and in soul.

The concept is so fundamentally simple to pickup: dice must be placed uniquely in value and colour in adjacent patterns in an attempt to complete a stained glass window across 10 rounds.

But from such a simple premise grows a stunningly strategic game where forward-planning and gambit can pay off or bring your plan smashing to the floor…

Now this isn’t beauty without substance, so let’s take a moment to appreciate a game that has history in its foundations and will certainly add to the story building around us.

The Basilica de la Sagrada Familia is an iconic religious building situated in the beautiful city of Barcelona; it’s famed for being unfinished even after 150 years!

Your role in Sagrada is that of an Artisan – an artist of the highest skill – tasked with completing a stunning stained glass window for the Basilica in competition with your peers.

Patterns…

Play begins with the choice of grids which provide different complexities of patterns.

The more complex the pattern the more Favors you are allowed.

Favors…

A Favor is a method to unpick a problem in your window and is determined by 3 tool cards that you can spend tokens on.

Placement…

Players will draw and roll dice to form a pool per round.

Adjacent Colours and Numbers (shades) must never match as you build your window.

Objectives…

Next you are given Personal Objectives and Public Objectives which are tasks that if undertaken allow you to score extra points.

With that in mind the game begins…

Spread across 10 rounds, Players draw round-after-round from a bag of 90 dice to create a decreasing pool of options to finalize their window.

Completing the window relies entirely on placing none-matching colours or shades (numbers) next to each other… that is to say red cannot be adjacent to red, nor a four next to a four

Such is the complex beauty of a simple game, it’s not only about fore-planning but also about strategic selection by opponents.

If you can work out the patterns of your opponents you can deny them opportunities by selecting a die they need which benefits you and forces them to have incomplete windows or patterns preventing them from higher points.

It brings to mind the completion of a Rubik’s Cube as you finally complete your immaculate sides only to turn it over and realize you misplaced a step and you’re left with a total miss-match…

Final thoughts…

We’ve said it before but Sagrada is simply a beautiful game – from the gleaming dice that form stunning window patterns, to the velvet like dice bag it’s a game wrapped in story and texture.

With expansions including 5 and 6 player variants plus 3 new game features in the form of Passion, Life and Glory the game not only grows with more stunning dice but also in the people you can bring into this experience…

At the end of the day all credit has to be given to Floodgate Games in delivering a game that is totally driven by its theme.

It feels that so much commitment was given they even relished in their own logo being transformed into a heavenly stained glass variant for the box art and as someone who values product design this was a touch that just put the icing on the cake.

Because of this, Sagrada’s a game you will not only get enjoyment in playing but also in owning; that’s purely because it’s a game that stands out in the room and if you own it you will raise a smile as you catch people passing by to stop and look; it’s a thing of beauty to behold and to own…

In the box…

90 Coloured Dice
4 Window Cards

Personal Objective Cards
Public Objective Cards
Tool Cards

In the box…

Glass Favors
Round and Scoring Tracker
Player Tokens
Rule Book
A Stunning Box

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