Flash Review — Praga Caput Regni

Players: 1-4

Works well with just 2: Yes!
Solo quality: Acceptable—it’s a “beat your own score” kind of thing
Age: 12+
Playtime: 45-150 min
Complexity: 7.5/10

Welcome to 1347! It’s your job to make Prague into the heart of Europe by building new fortifications, a university, and the famous Charles Bridge that joins the old town with the new town. Don’t forget the eggs!

Praga is an action selection game where you pick up a tile from the action wheel and implement one of the two options on that tile. The game runs on a classic menu of actions that let you gain resources and then spend them building a variety of things, all of which will yield points in one way or another. Each of those typical actions is retooled here in a clever way, but never as brilliantly as the action wheel itself.

In addition to the action per se, picking an action tile can produce up to two bonuses: the first bonus comes from the section of the wheel (the spoke, if you will) that the action tile came from, while the second bonus depends on how far that action tile had traveled (along with the wheel) on the board before you selected it. The more you wait to pick up an action tile, the more valuable its board bonus will become—if no one takes it before you do, naturally. When you’re done with your action, rotate the wheel one step and hook your tile to the wheel once more, in the red section (i.e. the “back” of the wheel). Ready for the next player!

The Praga action wheel (actually called "action crane" in the game)

Praga may look like something you’ve played before, but it’s fresh and ingenious, and that wheel changes everything. 

Most easily forgotten rule: Make sure you discard down to two windows at the end of your turn.

# # #