Alea iacta est : A Sagrada Board Game Review

Thou shall not place like colored dice beside each other...

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Excellent. It strikes me that there are so many games like this, among them Azul and its various contortions, that I really just have no interest in. In fact, the only reason I read this is because you wrote it and you began it with the quote attributed to Caesar.

History nerd moment: The idea that Caesar would have uttered something like "The die is cast" is actually in total contrast to his character, which was extremely confident and willing to dare many situations that more conventional Romans (the Optimates) would not. So, saying something that had such ominous overtones really wasn't Caesar, so to speak. Many historians think that, if the story isn't apocryphal (probably is) he would've said something like: "Let the dice fly." which is still appropriate for this game, of course.

ubarose wrote: We play a lot of Sagrada with casual gamers - mostly my daughter and her friends. One of them even bought a copy for themselves. It’s easy to teach, and people just get it. It’s not about weird, nerd shit. It’s an engaging puzzle, but not so absorbing that you can’t socialize while playing.

We've played it alot because it is easy to teach and it's pretty. I always feel bad for someone when they realize they played a die "illegally" and have to remove dice until they are legal again...especially if it's because they were socializing and not paying close enough attention.

ubarose wrote: It’s easy to teach, and people just get it. It’s not about weird, nerd shit. It’s an engaging puzzle, but not so absorbing that you can’t socialize while playing.

This is a real niche, and Sagrada fills it perfectly.