Designer: Michael Rieneck, Stefan Stadler

Pillars of the Earth is one of those games that is touted as a classic or a gateway game into the world of designer board games by many. Released in 2006 it comes from that golden age of Euro games period where a tremendous amount of modern game design comes from and while I agree the game is simple enough to be a gateway game, I find it highly unlikely I would introduce this game to brand new would be gamers, there are just far better games than this one to do that with and the theme is a bit of a hard sell. I actually didn’t play the game until it was reprinted not too long ago, In fact, you could say I largely skipped the golden age of Euro games and I’m now kind of going back and playing some of these older games like Pillars of the Earth. This gives me a unique perspective because I have played games that use mechanics that where based on some of these originals. Interestingly enough though, I find that in in some rare cases the so called classics actually play a lot more like modern (recent) releases and Pillars of the Earth is definitely one of those.

Pillars of the Earth is a uniquely designed game and one of those rare Euro games with a theme that fits the mechanics even though being architects of a cathedral in the 12th century is not exactly what I would call an exciting theme, at least it doesn’t sound like it when I describe it. I don’t want to come off sounding negative however as Pillars of the Earth is a very interesting, very well paced and very challenging game and for a Euro game, very thematic.

In Pillars of the Earth you are grand master builders (Architects) in the 12th century contributing to the building a massive construction project (a cathedral). It’s a game based on a book by Ken Follet that you have probably never read as well as a TV show that comes highly recommended and acclaimed that no one has seen. I’m not entirely sure the theme of the book or the show come through, but you certainly feel like the manager of a construction project in the game and in the end that is far more important to the theme than the actual literature it’s based on.

In this worker placement game you compete via management of a variety of resources including workers, gold and various other building resources (wood, stone etc..) on a tight game board with limited spots all in the typical Euro style battle for victory points. This is not the part of the game that makes it unique, though I would point out that from an artistic point of view the game board is nothing short of beautiful and it’s a joy to play on. What does make the game unique is that the game is pleasantly balanced, has a number of random elements (that don’t make the game random) and puts players to tough choices that go beyond simply “where to place the workers”.

In fact, even worker placement itself is two prong as you first choose where to place your “worker units” to collect resources but later you also place your master builders on spots with various beneficial effects. The master builders are put into play using a really clever mechanic of pulling random master builders out of a bag and placing them on a roundel where the player who’s master builder is pulled must decide whether he will pay in gold the fee to put the builder into play, or pass so he can place the builder later in the round for free. This combined with other tough decisions like which resource cards or builder cards you pick all combine to create really an almost overwhelming amount of choices. Each choice has to serve a purpose and be planned, but the random elements to the game like when your master builder will be pulled out of the bag for example and how much he will cost to put into play create tension and management problems you have to solve as you go. It’s quite easy to mismanage yourself or manage yourself into a corner, so while newbie friendly rules wise, the game can be quite unforgiving at times and you can see your victory slipping away from you because of a couple of bad decisions early in the game.

I suppose the issue I have with most worker placement games is that they tend to become kind of predictable, it might explain why I like Lords of Waterdeep and Kingsburg. In Lords of Waterdeep you have quest cards and secret missions on your lords cards that force you to adapt your strategies for each game while in Kingsburg your rolling dice to determine where you CAN go. The randomness in Pillars of the Earth don’t force results upon you but rather put you to tough decisions, unlike Kingsburg for example where the dice limit what you can do as a mechanic. This is the sort of randomness I really like where it can be mitigated a great deal with smart decisions.

In either case the mechanic works very well, it creates tensions, opens paths to strategies and varies each game sufficiently so that you really can’t repeat the same strategies with each play. More than that though Pillars of the Earth has a lot of sections of decisions, the choices aren’t simple and they have long term effects. Which builder and resource cards you claim in one part of the round, which resources you claim with your workers in another part of the round, when to put out your master builders and subsequently where to put them in the last part of the round all form the events of a single round that has lasting effects for this and future rounds. Than you have to deal with the event cards, worry about your limited resources like gold for example all the while trying to squeeze as many points out as you can. There are a lot of moving parts yet the games sequence is fast paced and keeps everyone involved at all times so there is virtually no downtime in the game. You’re constantly making decisions and the game rewards you for those decisions and punishes you for mistakes. The pacing feels just right, the tension is just right and while I prefer the game with 4 players, it plays fine with 3 (skip it as a two player game).

I think as far as worker placement games go the tough sell here is the rather bland theme and again, I say bland more because it sounds bland, in practice the game is actually very engaging and interesting, with a theme that really fits the mechanics and kind of settles naturally into the games flow. The hurdle is trying to explain to your friends that a game about 12th century architects building a cathedral can be exciting, strategic and fun. When I describe Lords of Waterdeep for example, I tell them that they will be noble lords of a fantasy city vying for power and control, suffice to say, it’s a much easier sell.

Pillars of the Earth is a very good game, in fact, dare I say it may actually be a better game than Lords of Waterdeep which I consider the premiere worker placement game because it’s a got considerably more depth (in particular if you compare Pillars of the Earth to Lords of Waterdeep without the corruption expansion). It’s more gamey, even if it boasts relatively simple rules depth and I find that the many strategies and approaches to the game, coupled with some of its randomness give this game a very high replay ability value. It may in the future appear on my top 10 list, I like it that much.

I would put this one into the worker placement game for people who want to take a couple steps above the pure worker placement games. Lords of Waterdeep and Kingsburg are good example of very simple and straightforward worker placement games. You put your worker down, collect resources, score points. Rinse and repeat. These games are fun for various reasons and I will happily play them both, but for me, Pillars of the Earth really brings it up a notch above the standard worker placement affair. There is more umpf to it and I really think if you like worker placement games this is one you definitely should not miss.

I highly recommend it.