What is your (current) favorite game? Kemet

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You should probably never trust a reviewer without knowing what they like. So, Let's start at the top.

Good review! I've always wanted to play Kemet, but have never had the opportunity.

Thank you! You should really seek it out, it does so many things so well. I literally could have wrote another couple of thousand words on it. The only "negative" that I have found is that some players do not like the fact that the turn order of the next round is determined by the last place player. However, they addressed this in the first expansion with an optional module. If someone doesn't like the turn order rule and doesn't want to purchase the expansion, it is simple enough to enable by making a few chits and adding them to the base game. I'm going to copy and paste the module explanation below in case anyone wants to try this. (For the record, I highly recommend the expansion as well even though I never use the Path of Ta Seti module which adds a new side board and minis).

This module replaces the “Determining Turn order” phase (A.4 in the base game rulebook).
However, the Dawn phase is ignored on the first turn. Turn order for the first turn is
therefore still determined randomly.
How to gain a Dawn token ?
Dawn tokens are obtained during battles. A player who loses a battle or who loses all units
during a battle gains a Dawn token of value “+1 strength” at the end of the battle. A player
can own an unlimited number of Dawn tokens.
The Dawn Value
During the Dawn phase, players must resolve a mandatory battle to determine the turn
order for the next Day phase. For this, starting with the player on the last space of the turn
order track and moving in reverse turn order, each player:
• MUST play a Battle card face-up
• MUST discard a Battle card face-down
• CAN spend one or more Dawn tokens.
The Dawn value corresponds to the sum of the strength value of the revealed Battle card
and the bonuses from the Dawn tokens that were spent.
Important! Only the strength value of the revealed Battle card is taken into account. The
other characteristics of the card are ignored.
Each player does this in reverse turn order, up to the player placed in first position on the
turn order track.
The player with the highest Dawn value places his order marker on the space of his choice
on the turn order track. Then, in decreasing Dawn value order, each player does the same,
placing his order marker on a free space of the turn order track. In case of a tie, the previous
turn order breaks the tie. Therefore the player who was earlier in the former turn order wins
ties.
ALL Dawn tokens played during this Dawn phase are then discarded.

Wade, have you played Lords of Hellas? It feels like it would have a shit ton of appeal to someone who likes Kemet.

Though they don't honestly share many mechanisms, they feel like kissing cousins.

Ken B. wrote: Wade, have you played Lords of Hellas? It feels like it would have a shit ton of appeal to someone who likes Kemet.

Though they don't honestly share many mechanisms, they feel like kissing cousins.

I have not but its "on the list" of things I am interested in. Unfortunately for it, it shared the Greek god theme with Cyclades and the general battle theme with Kemet and INIS. So, it fell into the "We've got games like that" when I floated the idea of picking it up. But I'll redouble my efforts to give it a play now that you had mentioned it.