Sankoré is like a symphony. An orchestra laid out before you with its different parts and sections. You're standing in front of the conductor's music stand, notation sitting in bars and treble clefs and bass notes with 7/8 and 3/4 and forté and you would be forgive for thinking it's maybe all a bit too much at once. None of it really makes sense and yet everyone is looking at you to make sure they know how to play, and secondly, you've got to make sure that everyone has the best of times.
I'm used to simple terms, straight forward plays and easy to grasp concepts. Interestingly Sankoré provides all of these but then like an orchestra layers them up, so while you get the overall tune, you really need to concentrate to be able to pick out the individual instruments and how they relate to each other as well as how they play.
You're maybe wondering what a musical analogy has to do with the 14th Century, Mansa Musa and the University of Timbuktu. I'm not just trying to be clever or learned. Which is the goal of the entire game. I guess I'm trying to make you aware of what you're getting yourself into before you open the box and place the game on the table.
So lets start with that first piece and why the analogy fits. Everything about Sankoré shouts presence. The main board is likely to take up two thirds of a normal sized dining table. When you lay that board out it immediately has you asking so many more questions that it dares to try to answer. Ian O'Toole has given us a game board that make the previous game
Merv think about hitting the gym again in order to bulk up a bit. On top of that each player has their own player board to play and fill up. There's a small lesson's market that will sit off to the side of the board as well as the various additional resource tokens that all need a tiny bit of space. Sankoré demands the entire stage to perform. It's genuinely enough to think that you'll need an afternoon to even learn the game, let alone play it. This is a Fabio Lopiano and Mandela Fernandez-Grandon gig at full volume. Brace yourself.
At it's base level, this is about points, prestige and books. With a sprinkling of inspiration, salt and all important gold. It's actually a really big and bold point salad, where the number of books effect how the overall prestige will score at the end of the game. Your influence as a player is to increase the number of books within the university library across Theology, Law, Mathematics and Astronomy. Your main route to that is to take students from various parts of the board, move them to your player board, give them lessons in subjects, encourage to build up of knowledge in those subjects to the point of graduation, and make sure you are stocking up the library as you do.
You can't get just what you want handed to you on a plate. Sankoré is built around forced resource dependencies that require you to be paying visits to all of the areas across the main board in order to gather the resources required for knowledge. There's no one note strategy here even if you try you best to use up favours to gain the resources you need, eventually you'll need to place books in order to bring your prestige values upwards to be worth something. That means teaching classes and taking area actions which in turn grants more knowledge to allow you to collect Sankoré tiles and place them in the Sankoré Madrasa which acts like the overall game timer.
As you play, you'll add on skill tiles which increase awards and your resources and you'll suddenly realise that you're no longer feeling overwhelmed by the sound of the entire game, but start to pick out the various intricacies required in order to push your own individual agenda forward. Thank goodness the rulebook isn't written like an orchestral score, but offers examples or play throughout its lengthy explanation. There's still a lot to understand and you'll probably be referring to the rulebook on a constant basis as you learn. It's not the kind of game where you'll read the rulebook and then sit down and start. It's probably one of those game where you'll need to sit down with it in front of you, and play through a few rounds just to understand what is on offer here.
It's maybe not suited to a game night at the local tabletop club, and it's certainly not going to be a game you can just rock up with and proclaim in a loud and confident voice 'This is what we are learning tonight peeps'. It requires time, and bit of learning commitment and a decent amount of space to get the best out of it. It's here to be savoured rather than rushed. There's wrinkles in enjoyment for me that it needs so much space for the board, but also need space for the player boards and then needs even more space for the lesson tiles and any spare resources. While the main game includes scoring interludes where bonuses are dished out, it's virtually impossible to look at the current board state and know where you are potentially placed in the final tally. When it comes to that final calculation, its shame there isn't a scoring grid the likes of much lighter Looot offers.
Sankoré offers depth, complication, layers and it would be rude to attach something as crass as a simple one line opinion. Those who love a game they can set up, play and enjoy in 45 minutes are going to find Sankoré a daunting prospect. It lives in the land where the wild Lacerdas can be found, where systems live within systems and where hidden scoring builds up in a crescendo over a period of time. For those looking to jump into something crunchier which looks absolutely beautiful, and are willing to give it the time to learn how everything interconnects and plays, then Sankoré will suit. There's going to be that moment while you play when all the sections makes sense, where all the actions line up, and teaching students and placing pieces and collecting Sankoré tiles will feel like some kind of symphony. It's going to take a few games to fully grasp what is on offer here and figure out what works and what doesn't in terms of strategy. For me, I'm happy to consider listening to this one on repeat, as I'm already humming the tune.
https://www.ospreypublishing.com/uk/sankor%C3%A9-9781472857040/
Design - Fabio Lopiano, Mandela Fernández-Grandon,
Illustration - Ian O'Toole,
Development - Anthony Howgego, Rhys Ap Gwyn,
Solo Mode - David Digby,
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This first impressions piece is based on the retail version of the game provided to us by the designer and publisher. We were not paid monetary compensation for this piece. We give a general overview of the gameplay and so not all of the mechanical aspects of the game may be mentioned.
The majority of the games that we are play are going to take a reasonable number of sessions and playthroughs to fully understand every possibility that they offer. We hope this write up gives you an idea of whether or not this game is something that you will consider playing or even add to your collection.
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