Last modified February 21, 2025 by jarjar

FIRST IMPRESSION

The studio behind the Undaunted board game series, Osprey Games, and the author behind Shackleton Base, Highway et Merv, offers us this co-designed game, Sankoré: The Pride of Mansa Musa. Sankoré is a board game set in the legendary University of Timbuktu in Mali, where players take on the role of medieval scholars seeking to collect and preserve precious books. Players must use their actions wisely to acquire knowledge, manage their resources, and develop their academic influence, all while navigating a competitive environment where good strategic planning is essential in order to become the greatest scholar of this prestigious institution. The game offers us a fairly pure scoring where only prestige tokens earn victory points, their values ​​depending on a majority game on the library shelves.

I really liked this first experience, once you get the hang of the rules, the game runs very well, 2 actions per turn and you play like that until the end of the game. Reading what you have to do is not easy, but I guess we need a few games to really get it. A multitude of difficult, but often delicious decisions are offered. There seem to be many paths to victory, so you can easily find yourself exposed to AP. It reminds me of Trajan in a way with these mini-games. The movements are easy, the vision of victory remains difficult!
There are a lot of icons in the game, although visually appealing, it poses a small ergonomic problem, but you end up adapting to it. There is no reminder that summarizes the meaning of the different symbols (the community will surely take care of it). The representation of student recruitment actions could have been more precise, especially the one that allows us to take a student from anywhere, it is not clearly specified that we must drag the other students. The game board benefits from a neat artistic direction, signed by the excellent illustrator Ian O'toole.

GAME FACTS
>> The University of Sankoré, built in the 14th century, welcomed more than 25 students and contained 000 books.
>> Both authors mention that the game is the most complex of any they have worked on before.

To learn more about the development of this game, the authors share with us in 2 articles, the development journal: 1 part et 2 part.

SOLO MODE

A very well designed and still quite fluid single player mode. An AI that plays differently from us, in 3 distinct phases, I had never seen an AI act like this. It remains quite simple to handle and always manages to follow the natural curve of the game. It offers us a good challenge and is available in 4 difficulty levels.

TECHNICAL SHEET
Number of games played: 2
Best player configuration: 3
Level: experienced player
My best score: 84

MY FIRST IMPRESSIONS
I loved :
>> Beautiful board, very colorful and nice presence on the table. I really love it when authors, illustrators and editors give their all like this, it adds a lot to the experience of the game.
>> The chosen theme is off the beaten track and its integration into the mechanics is very successful, creating a fairly immersive experience.
>> You have to have your eye absolutely everywhere, in each little game offered. The mathematics area still seems more profitable (to be seen after more games).
>> Despite the complexity of the game, the pace remains fluid and enjoyable once the rules are assimilated.
>> Excellent storage in the box.

I liked less:
>> Quite long to set up.
>> Lots of information, difficult to read the game, especially when you're starting out.
>> Completing the favors track seems too easy to me, especially when you get the skill tile that advances 2 spaces. We find ourselves halfway through the game with all the rewards available, is this what the authors wanted?

RULES POINTS
When you pick a student from the middle of the queue, all other students must swipe left to fill the space you created.
You will only trigger the bonus, if present, under the newly revealed slot (as if you had registered the rightmost student in the queue).

A game that offers a magnificent presence on the table, with a lot of colors. Its scoring system, which is quite unique, is based on the popularity of certain books, offering a very interesting economic mechanic. The game is divided into four sections (of majority mini-games) and, for one of the rare times, it is imperative to invest in all four sections, as they are interdependent.

FUN FACTOR 🙂 🙂 🙂 : )