Review Details

Troyes

Product Review (submitted on May 27, 2017):

Troyes is somewhat unique in the realm of dice-placement games. The game puts you into the medieval city of Troyes in France, and your goal is to become the most powerful figure in the city (i.e. by acquiring the largest number of victory points). Throughout the game, you'll engage in activities like building the city's cathedral, combating negative events, farming, hiring tradesmen, and various other things that will earn you influence, money, and VPs throughout the game. The pips on the dice that you roll represent your workforce, and your people represent the classic French three estates -- the nobility (red dice), the clergy (white dice), and everyone else (yellow dice). Each turn, you roll a group of these dice based on the number of meeples that you have of each color, and then you assign these dice to various spots on the board or on various cards that come into play -- this is similar to other dice placement games. What makes Troyes unique is:

(1) When you assign dice, you usually have to divide the number of pips on these dice by whatever number is on the spot they're located. This tells you how many times you can perform the action. For instance, if you assign a red 4 and a red 5 dice to a spot that makes you divide by 3, then you can perform that action three times, as 5+4=9, and 9/3=3.
(2) You can buy the dice that other players roll, and they can buy your dice. You aren't just limited to the dice in your district. This opens up a large number of possibilities for each turn, but as money can be difficult to acquire and dice can be expensive, it restricts you and makes for some incredibly difficult decisions!
(3) There are a number of ways to mitigate bad dice rolls, including using influence to re-roll and "flip" dice. Rolled a 2 but need something higher? Pay a little influence and flip that dice over, and that 2 will become a 5.

Troyes combines dice drafting, worker placement, and area control into an incredible package. The game is thinky, and it requires some basic math skills (nothing harder than adding and dividing numbers under 20, but it's math nonetheless), but I've yet to play anything that's quite like it. There's a lot of replayability in the cards that come out each turn (you use less than half of the cards in the box each game), and the game plays well at all player counts. It's a bit dry, but the fantastic artwork by Alexandre Roche allows the theme to emerge. I'm not sure if the components justify the $50 price tag, but the game itself is fantastic for those looking for a deep Eurogame that will make them think.