Sankoré

Timbuktu, back when it was the best-funded university in the world.

Fourteenth-century Mali under Mansa Musa, and the University of Sankoré as it rises into a centre of learning to rival anywhere on earth. Designed by Mandela Fernandez-Grandon and Fabio Lopiano for Osprey Games. You enrol and graduate pupils, teach classes, extend the curriculum and fill the great library, advancing four disciplines — theology, law, mathematics and astronomy — while the building itself goes up around you. It is a setting board games have almost entirely ignored, handled here with some care.

Movement around the university is point to point, so where you are determines what is available to you, and action points meter how much you actually get done with it. The sting is saved for the end: once construction is complete, the empire decides how much it values each discipline, which can quietly reshape the scoring you have spent three hours planning around. Osprey call it mid-weight — the BGG community rates it 4.25, which is heavier than that, and the 150 to 180 minutes is honest.

Perfect for: People whose first move with a new euro is to read the scoring section, and who are quietly tired of medieval France.

1–4 players | 150–180 minutes | Age 14+

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