Anyone looking for a picture perfect game to keep your game night the talk of the town is sure to find a home run in Passing Through Petra.
Passing Through Petra is a 2-4 player board game designed by J. Alex Kevern and published by Renegade Games. An average playthrough is about 60 minutes.
Passing Through Petra: $60.00
Get Yours For Less At Miniatures Market
At the intersection of the most well-traveled trade routes in the old world lies a city within rose-colored cliffs. A place where caravans miles long enter the city, through a narrow canyon called “the Siq.” Inside, traders from faraway lands find shelter and a place to trade their wares among the stunning buildings carved into towering red rocks. This is Petra, and never before or since has there been a city quite like it.
In Passing Through Petra, you are a powerful citizen growing your settlement and your reputation. As caravans pass through the canyons, you’ll welcome traders into your market and facilitate trade with those looking to get their hands on valuable wares. Use these transactions to spread your influence and gain unique benefits to grow your economic engine. Spread your influence the quickest to become the most powerful leader in Petra!
Contents:
1 Game Board
5 Canyon Wall Pieces
4 Player Boards
1 Treasury Card Holder
22 Influence Cards
24 Villager Cards
4 Reference Cards
85 Trader Tiles
20 Permanent Settlement Tiles
5 Gold Trader Tiles
12 Building Tiles
30 Camel Tokens
10 Market Extensions
4 Merchant Pawns
20 Marker Discs
20 Workers
36 Influence Cubes
1 Velvet Bag
Ages: 12+
Players: 2-4
Game Length: 60 minutes
Passing Through Petra: Get That $$$ REVIEW
Passing Through Petra takes place in the archeological city of Petra in Jordan. Petra was established roughly 11,000 years ago. It was a trading hub for various nomadic Arabs looking to sell their wares and make their fortunes. The city is literally carved out of the red stone mountains. It truly is a sight to behold and is a fantastic setting for the game. The entrance to Petra is accessed via a 1.2 passageway known as the Siq.
In the game, you play as a local merchant welcoming various traders from around the world. These merchants form a caravan that will line up in the 3-D Siq. This is one of the coolest aspects of the game and makes for fantastic table presentation. The front six trader tiles reside in the Plaza and the rest of the line is considered the Siq. As you gain these merchants, the line will move up and change over the course of the game.
The goal of the game is to be the first player to put all nine of your influence cubes on the board. The way you can earn influence is by making trades in order to move along the influence track of the different countries. The farther you move the more cubes you can place. The second way to place cubes is from influence cards. They each have goals that can be met to place a cube on. You can travel on the local trader track to earn more cards as well as camels. Camels can speed your influence track travel up.
There are four actions you can perform and this is determined by an action grid. Each cardinal direction represents a specific action. For example, moving towards the market will allow you to take the market action. If your merchant pawn is all the way at the edge of the action space, you cannot take that action until you move away with a different action.
Your market consists of two sections, the market stalls, and the settlements. Each settlement can trade with a specific country only. These are different for all four players. When you add to your market they slide in from the left and the tiles that fall off go above your board as part of your settlements.
Here’s a breakdown of the four actions that are available.
Plaza: You can take any two merchants from the six plaza spaces and add them to your market stall. This will push two of the older ones into your settlements.
Siq: You can take anyone tile from the Siq section and add it to your market stall. This gives more variety but less tiles. Again this will push one of the older tiles into your settlements.
Market: Take a worker and place it into one of your settlements and multiply the merchant tiles there by the ones in your market stalls they can trade with. This number is your trade value, then move your disc around the track of the settlement you used. As you move to or past the triangle you gain a specific bonus. Flip your disc to show you are able to place an influence cube. Passing or stopping onto the spaces for cubes based on player count, you place a cube and flip the disc back to the blank side. You can place multiple cubes if your trade value is high enough.
Village: Remove as many workers as you wish and take a village card from the spot based on the number of workers removed. These cards can give many different abilities and even the same bonuses found on the influence tracks.
Play will continue until one player places their ninth cube and they immediately win. Normally I’m not a fan of “racing” style mechanisms. However, the gameplay is good enough that it doesn’t bother me so much.
I really enjoyed the action grid because it forces you to plan out what you want or need to do and in which order. The component quality is phenomenal, the 3-D Siq walls look amazing on the table, and the city entrance itself is the cardholder.
If nothing else, Passing Through Petra is certainly a photogenic game. Thankfully it’s a lot of fun and keeps me coming back for more. If you’re looking for something unique for your game night, definitely check this one out.
