"Feast and Famine: Joseph in Egypt," by Ryan Braman and Jason Conforto, Shadow Mountain, $39.99 (2 to 4 players; ages 8 and up)
I was doing some Christmas shopping at Deseret Book last December and passed a display of Feast and Famine board games. I stopped and did a double-take.
I lost all focus on my wife's Christmas present and picked up the game box. The components and artwork looked fantastic. After drooling over the box, I hoped the game play was as exciting as the presentation.
Feast and Famine is a game in two parts. Gamers can play both or just one. Each part takes about 15 minutes.
Each player gets a different colored player board and 3-D plastic playing piece themed in an Egyptian motif. An impressive 3-D pharaoh model sits on its own board at the center of the game and is used to count the seven turns of the game. During each game turn, each player has a chance to buy food from the pharaoh and add it to his or her board. After collecting one of each food resource (oil, water, wheat, corn, fish and cattle) or 10 of the same one, you score a pharaoh medallion. After seven turns, the player with the most pharaoh medallions wins.
At this point the game can end and a winner can be declared or it can continue with the famine part of the game.
To continue, each player keeps their pharaoh medallions from Part 1, and all boards are flipped over. A deck of cards containing four colored sets is also used. Seven cards are randomly dealt face down around the middle pharaoh board. The cards represent the children of Jacob that need rescuing from the famine and are worth varying amounts of points.
Using your pharaoh medallions, players bid on cards. The highest bid wins and play repeats with the addition of new cards to be bid on from the deck. When the deck of cards is exhausted, the game is over. Players count the points on their cards, and the highest total wins.
My gaming group and I had fun playing Feast and Famine. It was easy to learn and took a short time to play. We agreed that the first part — Feast — is the best.
For games I've seen for sale at Deseret Book, this is one of the most unique.
Ryan Morgenegg is a multimedia specialist for the Deseret News.
