Maharaja

Categories: City Building, Religious

Mechanics: Area Majority/Influence, Point to Point Movement, Simultaneous Action Selection, Variable Player Powers, Victory Points as a Resource

Players: 1–4

Ages: 14+

Playtime: 90 Min

Maharaja is a refreshed edition of the classic game by Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling. This updated version supports 1 to 4 players and features new graphics and components. In the game, players take on the roles of priests who travel across India, constructing statues and shrines to honor their chosen gods and gain favor from the Maharaja. The goal is to build statues to please the Maharaja and accumulate victory points based on your majority influence.

Each year, players secretly plan their actions before revealing them simultaneously. The Maharaja, the great king of India, will change his residence annually, and players receive rewards based on their gods' worship value. The game concludes at the end of the seventh year or when a player erects their seventh statue, with the player boasting the most prestige declared the winner.

This new edition not only introduces updated graphics and components but also replaces palaces with statues. It includes new characters that alter turn order, additional methods for earning victory points, bonuses based on city scoring after the Maharaja's visit, and modular rules that can be added during gameplay and final scoring.