The Red Cathedral, Portugûes, Español, English

Description

Autumn isn't the best time for scaffolding in Moscow, but it's still much better than winter. Tsar Ivan wants results, and our team will prove we're the best builders in the city. Certainly, if we can enclose these decorative arches with the shiniest stones, we'll be sure to be on the state's list of reliable workers.

Sheila Santos and Israel Cendrero form the game design duo known as Llama Dice. To date, they have published several titles with different Spanish publishers (1987 Channel Tunnel, Mondrian, Smoothies), and The Red Cathedral is the first game they have published with Devir. Pedro Soto (Holmes, Sherlock & Mycroft, Papua) and Chema Román (El mundo de Águila Roja) handle the game's graphic design, paying homage to Iván Bilibin, an iconic 18th-century Russian artist, whose style, despite being later than the game's timeline, is highly recognizable.

The Red Cathedral is a medium-weight strategy Eurogame in which players take on the roles of construction teams. Their job is to build St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow together, commissioned by Ivan the Terrible. But only one of them will manage to win the Tsar's favor.

During the game, players can perform one of three actions: assign themselves a section of the cathedral, send resources to this section to build it, or visit the game board to obtain more resources. Each of these actions has its own mechanism and requires players to pay attention to what their opponents are doing.

When assigning sections to the cathedral, players will take possession of spaces in each of the columns that make it up. The more sections each player has built and completed in each tower, the more points they will earn at the end of the game.
Players can send resources to the cathedral sections they have claimed. Upon completing each one, they will receive rewards in the form of money and prestige points. They can also install decorations in completed sections to gain even more recognition from the Tsar. This part of the game also functions as a timer, as once the player completes the construction of their sixth section of the game, it triggers the end of the game.

The game board shows us the now iconic rondel from The Red Cathedral. This is where players will obtain all sorts of resources to carry out their tasks in the cathedral, as well as gain favors from guilds and professionals to optimize their market visits. In the central rondel, players will choose the die they wish to use and advance the number of spaces indicated by its top face, thus obtaining the resources indicated in the final box where they place the die.

The Red Cathedral is an accessible game in terms of rules, as it's very easy to grasp the different levels of the game, but it has a very interesting strategic element. Without a doubt, it will certainly appeal to those who prefer games where the challenge lies in optimizing gameplay rather than in the complexity of the rules.