Ora & Labora

In Ora et Labora, each player is head of a monastery in the Medieval era who acquires land and constructs buildings – little enterprises that will gain resources and profit. The goal is to build a working infrastructure and manufacture prestigious items – such as books, ceramics, ornaments, and relics – to gain the most victory points at the end of the game.

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

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

Players also have three workers who can enter buildings to take the action associated with that location. Workers must stay in place until you’ve placed all three. You can enter your own buildings with these workers, but to enter and use another player’s buildings, you must pay that player an entry fee so that he’ll move one of his workers into that building to do the work for you.

Ora et Labora features two variants: France and Ireland.

AWARDS & HONORS:
2013 Ludoteca Ideale Official Selection Winner.
2012 Spiel des Jahres Kennerspiel des Jahres Recommended.
2012 JoTa Best Gamer Game Nominee.
2012 International Gamers Award - General Strategy: Multi-player Nominee.
2012 Gra Roku Game of the Year Nominee.
2012 Golden Geek Best Strategy Board Game Nominee.
2012 Best Gamer Game Critic Award.
2011 Meeples’ Choice Award.
2011 Jogo do Ano — Jogo do Ano Winner (Spiel Portugal)
2011 Jogo do Ano Nominee.
2011 Jocul Anului în România Advanced Finalist.
2013 Ludoteca Ideale (Italy).
2012 JoTa — Best Gamers Game (Critic Award).

Components (Z-Man edition 2011):
Cardboard:
2 round game boards (20cm dia.)
2 production wheels that attach to the game boards.
4 Heartland (player) boards (139x219mm)
9 District Landscapes (69x219mm)
9 Plot Landscapes (89x139mm)
8 Wonder tiles (5x marker on reverse)
2 Starting Player markers (Ireland, France)
450 double-sided Goods tiles:
40x Peat/Coal
40x Livestock/Meat
45x Grain/Straw
45x Wood/Whiskey (Ireland only)
55x Clay/Pottery
45x 1 Coin/Book
30x 5 Coins/Reliquary
40x Stone/Ornament
30x Grapes/Wine (France only)
30x Flour/Bread (France only)
40x Malt/Beer (Ireland only).
8 double-sided Game Summaries/Building References (4 for Ireland, 4 for France; 146x210mm card stock)

110 cards (43x66mm):
41 double-sided Building cards (Irish/French)
32 Settlement cards (8 for each player)
37 double-sided Forest/Moor cards

Wood:
12 Clergymen pawns (1x Prior and 2x Lay Brother per player color - red, blue, natural, green)
9 Goods indicators (brown wood, reddish brown clay, yellow grain, black stone, gray peat, white sheep (livestock), round gold coin, orange square joker, purple grapes)
1 turquoise house-shaped Building marker

1 scoring pad
Detailed Rules book (8 p.)
General Rules (4 p.).
Game Set-up sheet (2 p.)
Appendix/Index (12 p.)

NB: Lookout Games, the developer of this game, uses the title ”Ora et Labora”. Some licensees use this title, some use ”Ora & Labora”, and some are inconsistent and use both. Since the ampersand is actually a ligature of ”et”, this is more of a typographical inconsistency than anything.

1-4

681706070926

Z-MAN GAMES

180

2011

13+

Ora & Labora

2018-06-21 12:04:54

~$38.95

2025-12-04

2018-06-21 12:04:54