Plays: 4 at player counts: 2 - 3
Appearance
The front of the box shows a bright colourful campus building showing the theme of the game. The back of the box gives a description of the theme and setting of the game and shows the main board during gameplay. It also shows the personal player boards, components and what you will be doing during the game. Inside there is a good insert that holds the components in place although the books are not separated and there is no room to store sleeved cards. The player boards are very thick and dual layered with bright colourful artwork and summarises the end game scoring. The main board is bright and colourful and well laid out but does have a lot of iconography especially when all tiles and cards are placed.
The wooden meeples are much chunkier than in most worker placement games. The multiple cardboard components are good quality and the students have bright colourful artwork although there are only 4 images but with multiple different effects. The various types of cards are excellent quality and linen finished. The professor and chancellor cards have bright artwork similar to that of the student tiles. The standout component are the unique plastic book resources which come in 5 different colours and really do look like books. Overall the production quality is excellent and it has a great insert to keep everything organised for easier setup.
Gameplay
The aim of the game is to have the most victory points after 6 rounds have been played. At the beginning of the game players will draft cards to give themselves different starting resources and take an asymmetric chancellor giving player’s access to a different ability each game. Each round consists of 3 different phases, the first phase is the action phase. There are two different actions that you can take either place masters on worker placement spots or give a lecture using a professor. Masters can be placed on any spot but if another worker is there you must place one more master than the highest number of a colour already placed there. You can visit various campus spots to get new students by paying the required books with certain books needed depending on their value on the research track (discussed later). A newly acquired student goes onto your personal player board and these will cost money after the first 6 have been placed. Students may have immediate abilities which activate when bought, abilities that activate when you perform other actions or end game victory points.
You can also visit academy spots to acquire professors which can be activated once per turn by spending the book that was used most when obtained. 336
If you are the first person to acquire a professor you set the book costs and pay money. Any player in the future must pay the resources you have defined for this professor but not the money cost. Both the professors and students vary in power level with the more powerful abilities and end game victory points costing more resources. There are also spots to buy books from the supply, pay money for victory points and advance up the research track (either by paying resources up to 3 times or once for free). The research track has various costs and every 4 steps a bonus. The furthest player up the research track has the most valuable books and these are required for purchasing students. Certain students also have a worker placement spot where you can buy your own books which either go onto your bookshelves from right to left or into your supply. There are also 2 special action spaces where the normal master rules don’t apply and you can place one master even if one is already present. The bishop spot allows you to get money based on the number of masters you place in one action with more masters giving more money. The other spot is the colloquium space allows you to buy books from other players. You will select one player and buy as many books from that player’s bookshelf as you wish, the books vary in cost from left to right and you buy from left to right. After you have purchased books you will be able to flip one of the bookshelf tiles over and take the victory points listed on it. There is also the hall of fame space where you can take a bust card if you meet the listed requirement such as having 25 money or 1 of each of the 4 student types. This gives you access to another chancellor for the rest of the game and a onetime bonus.
The second phase of the turn is the administrative phase where you will determine the new player order based how many masters a player played into the bishop space. Each player will then check to see if they exceed their storage size for books and discard down. The book reputation will be then determined by the position of markers on the research track with the highest marker being the most valuable book for the next round. Professors in your possession are then readied for the next round by untapping so they can be used again. The final phase is the income phase where you gain one money for each book on your bookshelves and any income listed on students which include books and money. 629