Trip to PortuDice

Coimbra (2018) review

Designer : Flaminia Brasini, Virginio Gigli
Artist : Chris Quilliams
Publisher : eggertspiele, ​Pegasus Spiele

2-4 players
60-90 minute
ages 14 and up

Written by Arnauld

​Eggertspiele was one of the editors to watch at the last Essen show. Shortly after, the German publisher, freshly absorbed by Asmodée, released two games that aroused the curiosity of the players: Blackout Hong Kong (soon on our shelves) and Coimbra. The latter has been available since the end of 2018 and it is only recently that I found myself on the ramparts of the old Portuguese city, transforming myself into a patron wanting to give the town all the splendor it deserves.

Coimbra is a typical German management game. It stands out for its own, very colorful graphic style, which contrasts with the usual brown productions. Its authors are not the first ones since they collaborated for one to Lorenzo Il Magnifico and for the second to Grand Austria Hotel. With Coimbra, they’ve signed here, one of the best management games of the year.

The principle of the game will be to score the most victory points after 4 rounds. The player boards are remarkably well done since they allow to follow the order of the different phases of the round. They also manage the different elements of the game: the resource tokens (gold and guards), the dice bases and the citizen cards recovered during the game.​

​The main board is composed on its left side of 4 dice positioning zones. There are 4 colors of dice in Coimbra, corresponding to the 4 influence tracks in the game. After having rolled all the dice, in turn order, the players will choose a dice of color that they wish, placing into one of their 3 bases, to then place it in an area of the city.

The upper part represents the Citadelle, an area where the dice are placed in the order of arrival and increasing value. The other 3 zones represent the districts of the city, the dice are placed there also in the order of arrival, but decreasing values this time.

​After placing them on the board, each player will pick them up, in the order they are positioned. For the Citadel, each player will collect one of the bonus tiles and earn the bonus listed on it. For the rest of the city, this is where the value of the dice becomes important. Because it represents the cost to recruit a citizen. Each is endowed with a gold symbol or guards. These are the two commercial representations of the game (wealth and influence) and the salt of Coimbra itself is there: to best place your dice, giving you the power to buy citizens without it costing too much. And the other players will not be happy with that!

​And would it be a surprise to say that citizens strengthen your power over the city? At the acquisition, each citizen earns you a few points on one of the four influence tracks of the game. They also allow you to trigger immediate gains to earn extra points at the end of the game or use their special action during income.

This is one of the last actions of the turn, by returning the dice, it activates the tracks of influence to earn income: gold, guards, and victory points. The fourth influence is more specific. It earns travel points for your pilgrim, traveling from monastery to monastery on the map of Portugal. By reaching the places of pilgrimage, discs of your color are placed on the monasteries, to signify your passage. The majority makes immediate point, while the others earn permanent bonuses.

​After 4 rounds, the game is over and the final count is done.

And that's all?

Not really, you must add the basic game elements such as, points on the tracks of influence, points based navigation maps, monasteries triggering phases of counting. Classic elements for a management game.​

​Coimbra is absolutely a game to test. Because for a game of this type, it brings really new and interesting mechanisms to your table.

The use of the dice is really important since they will be played for their value, then for their color. The roll at the beginning of turn is essential since it will guide the choice of the players. Is it better to take a color before there is no more, knowing that its value is not interesting? Choose another color? Each choice is essential because in all and for all, each player will choose only 12 dice throughout the game!

Coimbra brings a real freshness in the style. Already a graphically colorful game and with well thought out materials. The bases are in a soft plastic that fits perfectly dice. The game board is divided into 4 distinct areas with excellent readability. The illustrations are successful and stick perfectly to the colorful side of the rest of the game.

The game is really different from one game to another and offers crazy replayability. The setting up makes that the area of pilgrimage completely different from one part to the other. Even if all the citizen cards will be played, their positioning will also be totally different from one game to the other. And most importantly, the turns of play vary completely because even if it is always the same colors of dice which are launched with each turn, their values will greatly influence the choices at each turn.

Coimbra is one of those games that you dread to present too much, as it can seem complicated. And finally at the end of the first round, everything seems so fluid, clear and logical. You must not lock yourselves into a single strategy, but scrounge all the possible points according to the possibilities that are always open. The final count is really crazy because it allows great returns, thanks to majorities on the tracks of influences and the points on the travel cards. Go on this adventure, you will not regret it!​

Technical Note 8.5 / 10
Quality material, a very successful thermoforming and a good homogeneity to the graphics. The rules are easy to read and understand. Unfortunately once again, the storage is not suitable for card protectors and the same illustrations are used for different cards.

My BGG Score 8/10
(to be reserved for expert gaming players)
One of the best management game of 2018. By creating a clever use of dice, Coimbra offers a new and refreshing gaming experience. The game is tense until the final count that can reserve a turnaround.

Combined score 8.25 / 10
​Expert players, to test eyes closed, except for the reading of the rules.