It’s a rare board game that leaves me as conflicted as Ezra and Nehemiah, the latest creation from design duo Shem Phillips and Sam Macdonald.

Set during the resettlement of Jerusalem following the Babylonian Captivity, it sees players rebuilding the destroyed temple and walls of the city, strengthening the priestly classes, and translating and preaching the torah. As much a work of Biblical exegesis as it is a plaything, it calls to mind the golden darics mentioned by its sources: where one side of these coins features an expressive slice of history, the other is little more than an empty divot.

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