Small correction to statement at 1:46 that dice must be placed orthogonally to previously placed dice. "Every other die must be adjacent to a previously placed die, touching diagonally (different row and column) or orthogonally (same row or column)"
I love this game! At first I wasn't sure about it, but it instantly became my mom's favorite game. Since then, I play it most weekends when I visit my parents. We have all the expansions, but usually just play with the private dice pool from the 5-6 player expansion, since that is our favorite module. We also don't use the private (single dice color) goals (although some of the other private goals from other expansions are cool), and for the goals that have varying rewards with a 1st and 2nd place we just choose one point value for the goal to be worth. I wish I could print my own cards, because I have some good ideas for both tools and goal cards. Thanks Alex! Have a wonderful week!
Biggest problem for me was the choice of colors. I am not even color blind but cannot differentiate between the blue and green dice. Solved it by coloring all the green dice eyes gold and putting a sticker on all green places.
I actually really like the private dice pools at any player count, not just 5-6. I find that being able to have the ability to somewhat plan ahead helps move the game along by reducing the analysis paralysis, worrying about a single draft versus two. 5-6p also adds more private objectives to add variety in that sense. So I find that expansion addresses two issues I had with base game. Otherwise, I generally agree.
Agreed. We primarily play 2 player, rarely play with 3 or 4 (would not consider Sagrada at 5 or 6) and consider the 5-6 player expansion to be must-have. Not only do we prefer the private pools to add planned strategy (rather than being more tactical and at the mercy of the other players and roll of the draft dice), we replaced the original colour-based private objectives with the pattern-based ones. This at least partially fixed the unbalanced scoring issue you mentioned, without having to house rule it in a more drastic way (like “divide your personal objective points by 4” or something).
Azul and it’s variants have been a big hit amongst my family and friends that are casual game players. They seem to like the abstract, puzzle like games, not heavily thematic. A limitation of Azul is the four player count, so I’m getting Sagrada with the 5 - 6 player expansion. Looking forward to it and that we can play with a higher player count! I think Sagrada is most similar to Azul Stained Glass of Sintra versus some of the other Azul games. Thanks for your comprehensive review of Sagrada and the expansion sets. I also appreciate that you mention other similar games. That is helpful!
Wish you included Glory in this review to make it 'complete.' Agree with Passion and Life expansions -- such a weird mixed bag of new additions we can't play without and then extra fiddly mechanics that just add one too many things to track. We probably won't ever complete our own collection with Glory for that reason -- and it's one I personally like less and less every time I play it. Very much disagree on the 5-6 Player Expansion, though! Cannot play without the personal drafting pools. The base game feels incomplete without it.
Haven't tried Passions yet, but I have tried the others. You should definitely try Glory. It has some cool modules, it's more similar to Life than the other expansions.
I’m glad you caught your rules mistake just in time to not get beat up in comments. I love Sagrada. This is one of those games that I love the app as much as the tabletop experience. Mostly because the app keeps me honest and scores it very quickly. Also, people I play this with get really bad AP. Looking at others windows can lead to turns that can take way too long as you puzzle out the snake draft. The app keeps it moving and I enjoy that. All around I love this game and it’s one of the first games we played in my game group so I have fond memories for that reason as well.
I spend an hour using a scissor to get sleeves to fit the square cards, regretting it at the moment, being very happy with it after playing with it 😁 This is barely manageable for the color blind, whereas Azul just wasn't working even though it also has the patterns 🤷
Sagrada never got to me. I can’t pinpoint what I didn’t like about the game. Maybe for abstract games, I prefer faster cleaner games like Azul. Although I’m into heavier games all the time like Gaia Project and Tekhenu with my fav range being medium-medium heavy Euros like Paladins and Feast.
Unfortunately, I enjoy Sagrada less every time I play even if adding in an expansion module or playing the base game. Sagrada is fine, but I would much rather play something else.
I love when folks review older games. Its fantastic to give people choices outside of the new.
Small correction to statement at 1:46 that dice must be placed orthogonally to previously placed dice. "Every other die must be adjacent to a previously placed die, touching diagonally (different row and column) or orthogonally (same row or column)"
I love this game! At first I wasn't sure about it, but it instantly became my mom's favorite game. Since then, I play it most weekends when I visit my parents. We have all the expansions, but usually just play with the private dice pool from the 5-6 player expansion, since that is our favorite module. We also don't use the private (single dice color) goals (although some of the other private goals from other expansions are cool), and for the goals that have varying rewards with a 1st and 2nd place we just choose one point value for the goal to be worth. I wish I could print my own cards, because I have some good ideas for both tools and goal cards. Thanks Alex! Have a wonderful week!
Biggest problem for me was the choice of colors. I am not even color blind but cannot differentiate between the blue and green dice. Solved it by coloring all the green dice eyes gold and putting a sticker on all green places.
I actually really like the private dice pools at any player count, not just 5-6. I find that being able to have the ability to somewhat plan ahead helps move the game along by reducing the analysis paralysis, worrying about a single draft versus two. 5-6p also adds more private objectives to add variety in that sense. So I find that expansion addresses two issues I had with base game. Otherwise, I generally agree.
Agreed. We primarily play 2 player, rarely play with 3 or 4 (would not consider Sagrada at 5 or 6) and consider the 5-6 player expansion to be must-have. Not only do we prefer the private pools to add planned strategy (rather than being more tactical and at the mercy of the other players and roll of the draft dice), we replaced the original colour-based private objectives with the pattern-based ones. This at least partially fixed the unbalanced scoring issue you mentioned, without having to house rule it in a more drastic way (like “divide your personal objective points by 4” or something).
Sagrada also has a fantastic mobile app. It’s the game that put Dire Wolf on my radar.
Azul and it’s variants have been a big hit amongst my family and friends that are casual game players. They seem to like the abstract, puzzle like games, not heavily thematic. A limitation of Azul is the four player count, so I’m getting Sagrada with the 5 - 6 player expansion. Looking forward to it and that we can play with a higher player count! I think Sagrada is most similar to Azul Stained Glass of Sintra versus some of the other Azul games. Thanks for your comprehensive review of Sagrada and the expansion sets. I also appreciate that you mention other similar games. That is helpful!
Wish you included Glory in this review to make it 'complete.'
Agree with Passion and Life expansions -- such a weird mixed bag of new additions we can't play without and then extra fiddly mechanics that just add one too many things to track. We probably won't ever complete our own collection with Glory for that reason -- and it's one I personally like less and less every time I play it.
Very much disagree on the 5-6 Player Expansion, though! Cannot play without the personal drafting pools. The base game feels incomplete without it.
All killer no filler
Love ‘em all ..
Haven't tried Passions yet, but I have tried the others. You should definitely try Glory. It has some cool modules, it's more similar to Life than the other expansions.
Nice :)
I’m glad you caught your rules mistake just in time to not get beat up in comments. I love Sagrada. This is one of those games that I love the app as much as the tabletop experience. Mostly because the app keeps me honest and scores it very quickly. Also, people I play this with get really bad AP. Looking at others windows can lead to turns that can take way too long as you puzzle out the snake draft. The app keeps it moving and I enjoy that. All around I love this game and it’s one of the first games we played in my game group so I have fond memories for that reason as well.
I have life and passion, but The only extra mechanic I always use is the inspiration cards.
Ty for this video!
I spend an hour using a scissor to get sleeves to fit the square cards, regretting it at the moment, being very happy with it after playing with it 😁
This is barely manageable for the color blind, whereas Azul just wasn't working even though it also has the patterns 🤷
Sagrada never got to me. I can’t pinpoint what I didn’t like about the game. Maybe for abstract games, I prefer faster cleaner games like Azul. Although I’m into heavier games all the time like Gaia Project and Tekhenu with my fav range being medium-medium heavy Euros like Paladins and Feast.
Unfortunately, I enjoy Sagrada less every time I play even if adding in an expansion module or playing the base game. Sagrada is fine, but I would much rather play something else.
I did not love, nor did I dislike this game. It was fine, but I am fine not owning it.