I am always on the search for games that I am engaged with that I can play with the kiddos. I never played the original Century. So when the kids saw Century Golem Edition and were interested just from the art on the box, I figured it was time to check it out.

Century Golem Edition Overview

Century Golem Edition, designed by Emerson Matsuuchi and published by Plan B Games is a lighter weight card game for 2-5 players. In the game, players will be collecting cards, exchanging or trading gems and using those gems to buy better cards and score end game points. The game ends when a player has purchased their fifth golem card. Scores are then added up from golem cards, coins collected, and remaining unused gems. This is essentially a re-theme of the standard century game but instead of spices players are collecting and trading colorful gems and building golem. Originally planned for a limited run, this version of the game proved to be so popular, that it is now readily available in retail.

Set Up

Century Golem Edition is quick to get to the table. Place the golem cards as the top row laying out the first 5 cards for purchase. The copper and silver coins are placed in piles above the left most first and second cards of this row. Lay out the market cards in a similar fashion for the second row. These cards will have a row of 6 instead of the 5 in the golem row. Place the containers of gems next to these rows within reach of all players. The order of these gems from lowest to highest should be yellow, green, blue, then pink. Finally, deal each player a caravan card, and the starting market cards and give each player the correct gems based on their turn order.

Heading to the Swap Meet

Century Golem is a game of planning, buying, and trading. During a turn, a player can take one of 4 actions:

• Play a card from your hand following its directions.
• Spend gems to purchase a merchant card for your hand.
• Rest and reclaim all cards you have previously played.
• Spend gems to purchase a golem card for end game points.

These actions create a card engine of sorts that has players buying cards in the market row to acquire better/more gems to buy more cards and so on. All with the goal of working up to that golem row to score points. There are a couple of nice wrinkles that add a bit of strategy to the game too.

First when buying a market card, you must place 1 gem on all the market cards to the left of the card you want. Then when a player buys a card that has gems on it, they get to add them to their supply. This is a nice reward for picking up a less powerful card that may continuously get overlooked.

The second is buying golem cards. When buying golem cards you also get an extra bonus for the cards furthest to the left. Buy those cards and grab a coin that is above it, these give end game points and again incentivize players to go for lesser point cards.

Make sure you are keeping track of how many golem cards each player has purchased because once a player purchases their fifth golem card, the game ends. This allows for a nice tempo and gives the game some risk/reward between holding out for better cards vs buying up cheap ones quickly and ending the game.

Century Golem Edition Impressions

Accessibility

Man, this game is really good for families. It was the re-theme that drew my kids in. And they lost their minds when they got a look at all the gems! Artwork is fun and inviting and when set up the table presence is pretty cool.

The actions are simple and smooth. So much so that even though the game says ages 8 and up on the box, my 6 year old had no problems diving in. With a bit of coaching she was able to hold her own during the first game and play on her own by our second game. The reason for this is the cards themselves. There is no reading necessary and the iconography on the cards are top notch. I cannot express enough how huge this was for us.

I would consider this a gateway game. Light enough for anyone to dive into and have fun but for players that are looking for more you may find this a bit lacking. While this will be a game that will stay in my collection because of how accessible it is, we may move on from it as the kids get older and graduate to more complex games.

Gameplay

Playthroughs are also very satisfying. Buying cards to better your hand, using those to making better trades and produce higher quality gems gives a nice sense of accomplishment. It was really cool to see the gears turning in the kids heads as they planned what golem card or gem they wanted to get and what cards they needed to purchase and trades they needed to make to get them there.

It is also really great for the kids that all actions result in some kind of reward. They even liked resting because they got their cards back. Sometimes our kids can get a bit discouraged by the competitive nature of the games we play. By the time a winner was declared, the kids were not upset that they did not win. They were just happy they were able to collect some pink gems or purchase that golem card they were coveting.

Century Golem Edition Final Verdict

A very good gateway game for all ages. Century Golem Edition is fast to get to the table and keeps everyone engaged throughout. Our family may eventually outgrow it, but not before many plays and good times around the table. This one will be hanging around in our collection for the foreseeable future.