For board game fans who like a heavy-ish game with a nice dose of lovely graphics, Alma Mater may be for you. Alma Mater comes from the same designers of fan-favorite games Lorenzo Il Magnifico and Grand Austria Hotel, and falls in line with that scale. However, Alma Mater does something a little different: trading.
Players are running a Renaissance academy, and need Professors and Students to win. To recruit these important people, players use books as a resource. The twist is that books come from other players. You can make your own books, but you need to trade with other players to get everything you need. This adds an interesting dimension of interactivity that Euro-style complex games typically don’t have.
And of course, the artwork is wonderful. It’s fun and colorful and approachable, while still letting the components be easy to read. Alma Mater is a great new game for complex board game fans with some quaint, clever uniqueness to offer.