Favor Of The Pharaoh vs. To Court The King

Hello, Chaz Marler from Pair Of Dice Paradise here, and as you may recall, in a video last month, I discussed a box of games that had been delivered. One of those games was Favor Of The Pharaoh, published by Bezier games.

One of the reasons I was excited about Favor Of The Pharaoh was that it’s based on the long out of print dice game To Court The King, designed by Thomas Lehmann back in 2006. Both are dice games based on the concept of starting with a pool of a few dice to roll each turn and then gradually increasing the number of dice you have in your pool, allowing you to accomplish more and more difficult runs and sets, such as rolling three of a kind, or one through six.

But one of the things I appreciated about To Court The King was its simplicity. Roll dice, unlock more dice and special abilities, repeat. Now, Favor Of The Pharaoh retains this basic concept, but adds unique dice types, scarab tokens with special abilities, and several other components and complexities, which concerned me. Let’s take a look at this game’s new additions, and see whether or not they compliment, or over-complicate, this dice rolling game.

WHAT’S NEW

• More tiles, that can be randomized.
• Bars across the top of each row, that can be randomized (A,B sides)
• Specialty dice
• Scarab tokens
• Yellow, Blue and Red tile effects

Alright, now, while I enjoyed To Court The King’s streamlined simplicity, I’m happy to say that, even with all those additions, I enjoy Favor Of The Pharaoh just as much. While Favor Of The Pharaoh is based on 2006’s To Court The King, it’s not just a re-theme. It introduces some new ideas. And fortunately, these new ideas build on the original concepts of the game, so they feel like they should be there, not like they came out of left field.

I waited a long time in vain for To Court The King to be reprinted, but, now that Favor Of The Pharaoh is available, I feel it can serve as a worthy replacement, and stands strong in its own right. On my incredibly official rating scale, Favor Of The Pharaoh definitely gets its wings.

Thanks for watching this follow-up video on Favor Of The Pharaoh. For more board game news, reviews and commentary, click that fancy-dancy subscribe button we all know and love. And as long as you’re open to suggestion, be sure to follow Pair Of Dice Paradise and The Dice Tower on Twitter and Facebook too for more fun and maybe even a few surprises throughout the year. See you next time!