From the heart of Prague’s Old Town, the ancient Astronomical Clock, known as the Orloj, marks the passage of time with its intricate mechanism and enigmatic figures. A marvel of medieval technology that has endured to this day.
In this game, you take on the role of a master builder competing to leave your mark on history by adding the legendary and majestic calendar to the ancient Orloj. Precision, balance, and knowledge of the cosmos will be the keys to completing this complex task.
With every gear, sphere, and zodiac sign you assemble, you will be one step closer to finishing this masterpiece that will mark time in the city for generations.
Each turn, players will place workers on the clock's dial to gain resources and perform actions with the goal of building the Orloj calendar. In addition to hiring assistants, during the game, players will construct the apostles' carillon and develop their knowledge across three tracks where experience will enhance their abilities.
The game will end when the calendar is completed. The player with the most harmony points will win the game.
—description from the publisher
- Strong thematic integration with a clockwork mechanism
- High interaction without mean play
- Cascading actions create deep decision space
- Good variability due to setup and clock arrangement
- Heavy setup and learning curve
- Board can be busy and iconography may be hard to parse
- Endgame scoring and some actions are placed in less intuitive locations
- Blockers on the clock spaces can limit planning in higher player counts
- clockwork timekeeping with zodiac/astronomical theme
- Prague, Czech Republic; historic astronomical clock
- educational, theme-forward
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- action selection — outer and inner actions linked to rotating clock faces guiding player choices
- building clock faces / tokens — placing and upgrading clock-face and zodiac tokens for points
- card market / objectives — gaining cards and fulfilling first-come objectives for bonuses
- endgame trigger — rooster track and round-end mechanics determine when the game ends
- gear deviation / tokens — flipping gear tokens to trigger penalties or rotate the clock
- Track advancement — advancing blue/pink/yellow tracks to gain actions and bonuses
- tracking / track advancement — advancing blue/pink/yellow tracks to gain actions and bonuses
- worker placement — placing workers on action spaces with bump mechanics and recoveries
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Go research the clock, it's super amazing.
- This is a clockwork type game.
- There are so many thematic touches that it feels thematic in the right way.
- It's a lot of game in a little box.