The Red Cathedral Review

boardgamequest.com:

We review The Red Cathedral, an area control and dice rolling board game published by Devir Games. In The Red Cathedral, players are building the great cathedral of Ivan the Terrible.

There’s no denying it. It’s right in his name. Ivan the Terrible was a—ahem—terrible person. The first Tsar of Russia repressed the people, created the secret police, waged wars, and even (supposedly) killed his own son. There’s also a legend that architects were blinded by Ivan the Terrible after they completed the famous St. Basil’s Cathedral, our titular structure. This was deemed necessary so they could not replicate such a beautiful structure. It’s been determined that this is likely not true, which is super great to hear because we’re about to take on the role of architects replicating the building of the great cathedral. By order of Ivan.

The Red Cathedral was released in 2020, is published by Devir Games, and was designed by Sheila Santos and Israel Cendrero. It plays from one to four players with a game length of approximately eighty minutes. So why is everyone looking so hesitant? Let’s jump right in and hope we have our eyesight before all is said and done.

Each game features a central Market Board, a Cathedral Construction site that’s determined by player count, and a random combination of cathedral cards, as well as a personal player board. Players take one of three actions each turn: (1) Claim a cathedral section, (2) Build sections of the cathedral, or (3) Acquire Resources from the market. Play continues until one player builds their sixth section of the cathedral, thus triggering the end game.

Ivan is watching, so we should explain how to get this thing built. Players can claim a section to build by taking an action to