I played this game with some of our regulars the other night. I was intrigued by the intricate design of the game and the beautiful booklet that came with the game (I don't speak German, but it has wonderful artwork and photographs inside).

The concept of the game was terrific and the play of the game is well thought out. However, the design of the tiles, that later are applied to a small board is so intricate, that we spent too much time figuring out which piece went where. This could have been easily solved by numbering the tiles 1-16 and numbering the display board accordingly.

The basic idea of the game is to excavate and publish your findings. The game is well balanced between excavating and publishing. Players can only publish four times and are bound by exacavting, examing or publishing five tiles per turn.

Players choose between publishing and 'digging' by laying out their chosen card at the same time. Players who publish have higher number cards and will always play before 'diggers'. When a player excavates, the pieces from the several ruins are placed on top of each other from the oldest to the newest. A player can only take a free tile--one that is not buried by another tile. So there is a tactical advantage to excavate last, or showing a low numbered card.

If you're into a good game, and if you have a good eye for detail, this game is for you.

Troia is a game published by Daimler Chrysler, of all companies, as they are sponsoring an archeological dig at Troy. Well, we know that they make pretty good cars, but how did they do with the game?

The game is a visually attractive game that gives a good feel for its theme which is the digging of the ancient city of Troy. In the game, players represent archaeologists trying to uncover pieces from the city and publish their work by being the first to do so or publishing a larger work than the previous player. Each turn players can spend action points to dig pieces out of the pile which represents the city, or move pieces behind their tent for examination or publish pieces. Play is determined by a deck of cards with numbers. Each player plays a card face down with the cards all revealed simultaneously. The player with the higher numbered card plays first and so on. The game plays fairly quickly and unlike many of the German games, the theme fits the game fairly well.

My problem with the game is that although the components look nice--the pieces are part of maps with fine contour lines and are in earthtone colors--the components actually make it difficult to play the game. You spend more time examining the pieces to see what you have and where it fits which means you aren't paying attention to what other players are doing and planning your strategy.

The game has the potential to be a lighter, fun game if you can get around the component recognition problem. If I could, I would give the game 3.5 stars. The theme is good, the game play is decent, but the components get in the way. That being said, it is definitely worth a try.