Game Review – Biblios

Biblios
Number of Players	2 - 4
Play Time	30 minutes
Ages	8 years and up

Biblios is a 2 to 4 player game that is quick to play and can be enjoyable for new and experienced game players.

The theme of Biblios is the players are abbots in Medieval Europe who are trying to put together the best library of sacred books in the world.  This means the players must put together a well running scriptorium.  In order to do this, the players need to collect cards from five different suits of cards.  The person with the most points in a suit at the end of the game gets the victory points of that suit of cards.  The person with the most victory points at the end of the game wins.

Play of the game is broken up into two parts.  The first half of the game the players are developing the hand of cards and the auction deck that will be used in the second half of the game. 

During the first half of the game a player’s turn consists of choosing a number of cards equal to the number of players plus one from the deck one at a time and deciding whether to put it into their hand, put it into the auction deck, or placing it face up on the table for other players to chose from.  The players can only put one card in their hand and one card in the auction deck.  The other cards must go on the table faced up for the other players to choose from. 

The cards are either from one of the five suits, money cards, or influence cards.  The money cards are used in the auction piece of the game to bid on the cards from that deck.  The influence cards are used to change the value of the suits for end of game scoring.

Once the deck is exhausted, the auction phased of the game begins.  The players take turns revealing the cards from the auction deck.  Once a card is revealed, the players then place bids using the money they received in the first part of the game in turn order starting from the player to the left of the person who revealed the card.  The player who makes the highest bid wins the cards.  If money is revealed then the player bids a number of cards that he will discard from his hand in order to get the money.

When the auction deck is exhausted, the players then compare their hands.  The person with the highest value of cards in each suit wins the victory points for that suit.

In order to win it is best to focus on acquiring two suits any more than that and you will not have a chance to win any of the suits at the end of the game.  You also need to make sure that you are getting money in the first part of the game or you will not be able to participate in the auctions that you need to in order to get all the cards that you need.

Biblios plays very quickly.  It is a great filler game because on the speed in which it plays.  I like to play it at the beginning of an event while I am waiting of additional players to show up.  I also like it as an entry level game.  It is something that a person that is new to gaming can learn quickly and get engaged in making their experience more enjoyable.  It does have a press your luck element in it that I can take or leave, but I do recommend that this game be part of any gamer’s collection.