Ora & Labora (2nd Edition) Board Game

In Ora et Labora (Latin for ‘Pray and work’), each player is head of amonastery in the Medieval era who acquires land and constructs buildings –little enterprises that will gain resources and profit. The goal is to build aworking infrastructure and manufacture prestigious items – such as books,ceramics, ornaments, and relics – to gain the most victory points at the endof the game.

Ora et Labora, Uwe Rosenberg's fifth “big” game, has game playmechanisms similar to his Le Havre, such as two-sided resource tiles that can beupgraded from a basic item to something more useful. Instead of adding resourcesto the board turn by turn as in Agricola and Le Havre, Ora et Labora uses anumbered rondel to show how many of each resource is available at any time. Atthe beginning of each round, players turn the rondel by one segment, adjustingthe counts of all resources at the same time.

Each player has a personal game board. New buildings enter the game from timeto time, and players can construct them on their game boards with the buildingmaterials they gather, with some terrain restrictions on what can be builtwhere. Some spaces start with trees or moors on them, as in Agricola: Farmers ofthe Moor, so they hinder development until a player clears the land, but theyprovide resources when they are removed. Clever building on your personal gameboard will impact your final score, and players can buy additional terrainduring the game, if needed.

Players also have three workers who can enter buildings to take the actionassociated with that location. Workers must stay in place until you've placedall three. You can enter your own buildings with these workers, but to enter anduse another player's buildings, you must pay that player an entry fee so thathe'll move one of his workers into that building to do the work for you.