Rise to Nobility (Boxed Board Game)

There are many, new, clever and well designed games from the last few years that have buried makers of classic games like monopoly. This is one of them and it deserves to be better known. It is a little more complex than average games you find but actually coherent, logical and intuitive, though it needs a little work at first. Most interested 11 year olds will pick it up very quickly. There is a fantasy(mild), resource management, village building, trade and development theme. In modern game terms this is called a 'card, dice and worker placement' game. It is more a game of individual progression than conflict, and no knock out of opponents takes place. Everyone wins, some more/ faster than others, and there are many ways to get points. The balance, choices and play are rich and very satisfying.This has all the clever design features, non-zero-sum-game principles of the 'Euro' game genre. I can speculate why it did not get the full marketing push and make a million sales but cannot be sure: I guess a lot of very slickly marketed (expensive) competition? There are youtube and boardgamegeek.com videos that review this and demo playthru and explain how to play. That can speed your family to the table ready to play. It is so worth the small extra effort, and once learned simple enough in it's principles to stay learned!In terms of competitors this comes up against much more expensive games like 'Viscounts of the Western Kingdoms', 'Tzolk'in', 'Lost Temple or Arnak' and 'Teotihuacan' (among others) but is alot cheaper. The component quality is 'basic' compared with those games but perfectly OK. It is 1/2 their price for a similar game design depth and play experience. With care it will last just as long and the box itself has the same print and structural quality.When I ordered this game I actually received the expansion 'Beyond' in error, instead. That can only be played if you have the base game and is not essential even then. Be sure and check with who you buy from. And note there are several market place sellers offering this. I do not expect stocks to last, given how good this is.The game is GREAT, you'll have funHIGHLY RECOMMENDED