Someone at my table once described this as owning a pet wolverine, snarling and thrashing and a little dangerous, but loveable for it, and I haven’t found a better description since. Kemet crosses a tech tree not unlike Eclipse with the general area-control feel of a game like Risk or Cyclades, all compressed into a session that runs under two hours, and the diceless combat resolution, cards instead of randomness deciding fights, means battles come down to nerve and information rather than luck, which I appreciate in theory more than I sometimes enjoy in the moment when I’ve badly misjudged an opponent’s hand.

The tile powers give the game its real texture, dozens of ways to twist your army or your economy, and the game rewards attacking rather than turtling, which keeps it moving at a pace slower euros rarely manage. Where it genuinely struggles is the exact problem I’ve seen named by other tables too, once one player pulls ahead, the rest of the table can and often does gang up specifically to prevent that win, and whoever orchestrates that alliance is effectively deciding the outcome without ever being close to winning themselves. It’s not a broken game, but it’s one where turn order and table politics matter more than the box lets on, and newer groups get blindsided by it.

The minis and production carry a lot of goodwill, genuinely gorgeous components that make the theme land even when the mechanics feel a bit unfinished around the edges. Three stars, a game I respect more than I fully enjoy playing, and one that needs a specific, combat-hungry group to really sing.