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Akropolis
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Akropolis is a tile laying game from designer Jules Messaud with art by Pauline Detraz published by Gigamic.
This two to four player game tasks you with building the best city in the heart of the Mediterranean in Ancient Greece. You need to build housing, temples, markets, gardens and barracks all whilst collecting and spending the resource of stone. The game lasts 25 minutes and is suitable for ages 8 upwards.
The game uses mechanisms such as drafting, city building, and set collection and it includes 61 City Tiles, 4 Starting Tiles, 4 Player Aids, 1 Scorepad, 1 Start Player Marker and 40 Stone Cubes.
On the reverse of the city tiles it says how many players each tile is for so in a 2 player game you only need to take the tiles out of the box with a 2 on the reverse.
At the start of the game all players are given a starting tile and then 11 equal piles of city tiles are created face down (using 3 tiles per stack for a 2 player game, 4 tiles for a 3 player game, and 5 tiles for a 4 player game) in the middle of the table. The first player is given 1 stone, the second player is given 2, third player is given 3 and finally the fourth player is given 4. The remaining tiles not stacked are placed in a line face up and then play can commence.
The first tile does not cost anything to draft, however each tile after the first one will cost the player 1 stone cube which is paid to the bank. A player chooses a tile and adds it to their city. To add a tile to your city on the ground level it must border your existing city tiles along at least one edge. To build on a higher level it must be placed on top of three hexes (not over an empty space) and must cover at least 2 different tiles.
When you cover quarries (white spaces) you gain a stone for each hex. On some of the tiles you will find Plazas which are the multipliers used for scoring. You will also find houses (blue) which score for your largest group of connected houses. Markets (yellow) which only score if not next to other markets. Barracks (red) which only score if at the cities edge. Temples (purple) which only score if surrounded. Gardens (green) do not have any requirements for scoring.
Each round the players will be able to draft one city tile (except the starting player who gets to draft twice as they go first and last) and then the start player will move clockwise to the next player. At the start of each round one of the stacks of city tiles are turned over and placed alongside the previously unclaimed tile. The game continues like this until there are no more replacement stacks available.
To calculate each score you take the number of multipliers for each area (number of stars) and multiply that by the districts level. For example if you had 4 stars for markets and two separated markets one of which was on the ground level and the other was on the third level you would score (4×1 & 4×3) 16 points. At the end of the game you calculate everyone’s score using the scorepad and the player with the most points wins. Stones are used for tiebreaks and also provide 1 point per stone left in your supply at the end of the game.
The game includes variants for using all of the tiles for a 2 or 3 player game as well as an additional scoring variant which increases the difficulty for more experienced gamers.
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Description
Akropolis is a tile laying game from designer Jules Messaud with art by Pauline Detraz published by Gigamic.
This two to four player game tasks you with building the best city in the heart of the Mediterranean in Ancient Greece. You need to build housing, temples, markets, gardens and barracks all whilst collecting and spending the resource of stone. The game lasts 25 minutes and is suitable for ages 8 upwards.
The game uses mechanisms such as drafting, city building, and set collection and it includes 61 City Tiles, 4 Starting Tiles, 4 Player Aids, 1 Scorepad, 1 Start Player Marker and 40 Stone Cubes.
On the reverse of the city tiles it says how many players each tile is for so in a 2 player game you only need to take the tiles out of the box with a 2 on the reverse.
At the start of the game all players are given a starting tile and then 11 equal piles of city tiles are created face down (using 3 tiles per stack for a 2 player game, 4 tiles for a 3 player game, and 5 tiles for a 4 player game) in the middle of the table. The first player is given 1 stone, the second player is given 2, third player is given 3 and finally the fourth player is given 4. The remaining tiles not stacked are placed in a line face up and then play can commence.
The first tile does not cost anything to draft, however each tile after the first one will cost the player 1 stone cube which is paid to the bank. A player chooses a tile and adds it to their city. To add a tile to your city on the ground level it must border your existing city tiles along at least one edge. To build on a higher level it must be placed on top of three hexes (not over an empty space) and must cover at least 2 different tiles.
When you cover quarries (white spaces) you gain a stone for each hex. On some of the tiles you will find Plazas which are the multipliers used for scoring. You will also find houses (blue) which score for your largest group of connected houses. Markets (yellow) which only score if not next to other markets. Barracks (red) which only score if at the cities edge. Temples (purple) which only score if surrounded. Gardens (green) do not have any requirements for scoring.
Each round the players will be able to draft one city tile (except the starting player who gets to draft twice as they go first and last) and then the start player will move clockwise to the next player. At the start of each round one of the stacks of city tiles are turned over and placed alongside the previously unclaimed tile. The game continues like this until there are no more replacement stacks available.
To calculate each score you take the number of multipliers for each area (number of stars) and multiply that by the districts level. For example if you had 4 stars for markets and two separated markets one of which was on the ground level and the other was on the third level you would score (4x1 & 4x3) 16 points. At the end of the game you calculate everyone’s score using the scorepad and the player with the most points wins. Stones are used for tiebreaks and also provide 1 point per stone left in your supply at the end of the game.
The game includes variants for using all of the tiles for a 2 or 3 player game as well as an additional scoring variant which increases the difficulty for more experienced gamers.
Welcome to Greece. Are you ready to build housing, temples, markets, gardens and barracks and become the most renowned architect in all the land? Grow your city and ensure that it triumphs over your opponents. Certain buildings have specific requirements however, the barracks need to be on the outside of your city to offer protection, the merchants don’t like the competition so need to be placed away from other merchants. Your city can be further enhanced by the addition of plazas.
Stone is an essential resource and you will need quarries to ensure you don’t run short.
Akropolis is a one to four player game designed by Jules Messaud and published by Gigamic. It features mechanisms such as tile placement and pattern building with tile drafting and end game bonuses. On a player’s turn they must choose a tile from the construction site (a market consisting of tiles equal to the number of players plus two) and then place the tile in their city. Players may spend a stone for each tile they skip over; however, taking the first tile costs no stone.
The tile selected must be placed in your city. It can be placed on the 1st level and must border another previously played tile (or your starting city tile). A tile can also be placed on top of three other hexes and must cover at least two different tiles. When placing on the second and above levels, if you cover any quarries you receive one stone for each quarry covered.
Each city tile is made up of three hexes and there are three different types of city tiles. Quarries, which as mentioned above, grant you stone when they are covered up. Plazas which act as multipliers for your districts (based on the total number of stars displayed). Districts can grant you points assuming their placement rules are observed. There are five different types of districts:
- Houses which score based on the number of tiles in the largest group of houses.
- Markets only score if no other adjacent market.
- Barracks only score if they are on the outer edge.
- Temples score if fully surrounded
- Gardens do not have placement rules.
When there is only one tile left in the construction site the first player token is passed to the next player and the construction site is replenished from the available tiles. The last tile left in the construction site is moved to the first tile before replenishing.
Play continues this way until there are no available tiles to replenish the construction site. Points are based on the value of each district multiplied by the number of stars on the corresponding plaza tiles for that district. District values are calculated based on the level of construction of each tile, with tiles on the first level being worth one point, tiles on the second being worth two points and so on. Additional stone is worth one point each. The player with the most points is the winner.
Akropolis also has a solo mode where you can play against three different levels of difficulty and is very easy to implement. The AI doesn’t need to obey the placement rules and every tile is considered to be a viable scoring tile. The AI will prioritise plaza tiles if able and any stone that the player uses is passed to the AI rather than to the supply. The solo rules are not in the base game of Akropolis and will have to be downloaded from www.boardgamegeek.com but no other components are needed.
Final Thoughts
Akropolis is a game of simplicity and accessibility but it is also a game of tense choices and tough decisions. It is a balance that makes for a truly wonderful game all packed into a 30 minute game experience.
I don’t know what it is about this game but it just hits the spot. The rules are very straightforward; take a tile, then place a tile. In its simplest form that is it. Sure, there are some placement rules to worry about when placing your tile, but these are fairly straightforward as well. I feel that this is a very accessible game that could be taught to almost anyone. Yet, it has enough depth to keep people engaged and interested.
There are decisions to be made as to what tile you want. Do you have enough stone to offer you the flexibility and choice of taking a tile other than the first one available? Can you see that your opponent has amassed a large number of one district so you can take the plaza away from them? From the simple ruleset is birthed choices and decisions that you need to make. Admittedly, it is not a high, long term strategy game with multiple levers to pull, but there is enough in the game that it makes for a very pleasing 30 minute tile drafting game.
The puzzle of laying out your tiles in such a way to maximise the scoring potential for each district is crucial, but you also need the plazas to be able to score them. You will want to build up as this will yield more points (and stone if you cover up quarries) but to do so you may need to sacrifice other scoring opportunities. Weighing up when it is worth the sacrifice and when it is not is key.
The game length is fairly quick at around 30 minutes, possibly a bit longer for the higher player counts and a bit shorter for the solo (will get to the solo later) and this feels perfect. There is the option to add more tiles into a two or three player game to make for a longer game if you desire.
The game also comes with a variant which increases the difficulty. This simply gives more ways to score the districts by adding in further requirements. It is not a complex variant, but it a welcome addition for the people that want a slight bump in the difficulty.
In the retail box there are no rules for a solo play and the box cover even states it is a two to four player game. However, official solo rules are available on www.boardgamegeek.com. The solo AI is very easy to implement and can make for a challenging game. The solo AI prioritises gaining plazas and does not need to abide by the placement rules. Every district is considered to score. There are three levels of difficulty and it can be a challenge. It makes for a very interesting, engaging, yet quick playing puzzle with minimal upkeep. The solo mode is a very welcome addition and one that I have been enjoying a lot.
Overall, Akropolis is a fantastic tile laying game. The rules do not get in the way of great gameplay. It is quick playing, easy to teach and learn and very accessible. It plays well at all player counts but my preferred would be two players and solo, but that is just my preference. Akropolis is a game that I would highly recommend checking out if you are interested in anything that I have discussed above.
Easy to learn tricky to master, solo-able, spatial puzzle games are my manna. They soothe my overstimulated mind in an active way, and comfort me even when I lose spectacularly. Which I do. Nearly always. Because neuro diversity has given me a rather unique set of skills. But sadly none of them are the Liam Neeson of Taken kind. And neither do they include either a sense of direction or spatial awareness! But at the grand old age of 40 I’m realising that it’s okay. The rule book to life is written a certain way, and I’m working on a translation!
Akropolis solo therefore falls squarely in my happy place. And very lucky I am too as it almost didn’t happen. The original publication didn’t have a 1 player mode at all. But, by the mystical powers of BGG, the designer uploaded an official solo variant, and now we can all play against the Illustrious Architect!
And wowza, they are a tough nut to crack!
Setting Up Solo
This is easy (unlike your competition!). Solo is set up the same as a regular 2 player game. And we can play the normal version or the extended version (using all the city tiles). We’ll give Illustrious a starting tile and two stones, and we are the Chief Architect going first.
Playtime
Our turn in both picking and placing is exactly the same as the regular game except for one tweak. Instead of returning our spent cubes to the supply, we must give them to the Illustrious Architect. Yep, our tile choice directly increases their purchasing power!
On their turn, Illustrious always picks the cheapest city tile with a Plaza – they are star hunters! But if there are no Plazas or they can’t afford it, they’ll take the first tile in the Construction Site row which is always free. Any stones they pay go back into the supply.
Now, placing their tile in their city is even easier than following their prescribed picking order. We don’t need to make any placement decisions for them (yay!). They just collect tiles. But. And this is a big BUT. At end game scoring, it is presumed that they will have respected every single placement rule and will therefore score the maximum points for each District type (so long as they have matching colour Plazas). That is a lot of points! And if you play any of the advanced variants, well, you guessed it. They will automatically score as though they achieved it/them! Ooft!
Now, if you are thinking “the Illustrious Architect is no match for my superior spatial skills”, then firstly, I bow to your greatness! And secondly, the rules include 3 difficulty levels; Ouch, What-the-?, and My brain just exploded. Haha okay so they aren’t technically called that, but that’s what they feel like to me!
Slick City
Akropolis is a brilliant game at any player count and it is fast becoming one of my favourite games to solo. Quick to the table with no thinking to be done for the Illustrious Architect. I perform their turn in seconds which leaves prime gaming time for me to sweat over what I am going to take and where I am going to place it.
Knowing what the Illustrious Architect is going to take each turn does give the game a different feel to MP mode. The insider information effect of knowing which tile they will take does impact my strategy. But that’s not a bad thing. It works really well in Calico, Cascadia, Verdant, and other spatial puzzles and open drafting games. It’s even in ones like Red Rising. And it works brilliantly here too. And what the Illustrious Architect lacks in choice is mitigated to a degree by the random tile offerings in the Construction Zone each round.
And having to pay over any stones I use directly to them adds another layer of tricky-trade off decision dilemmas to my city District picks. I could pay to take a juicy tile I know they need. But that could give them the resources to pay for the perfect tile next pick! I don’t know about Chief Architect. When playing against the Illustrious Architect, I know that I could well be (and generally am) the architect of my own demise!
Final Thoughts
I think you already know that I am a huge fan of this game. And the fact that I can solo it is the cherry on the city construction cake! As a single player tile layer, it feels even faster to set up that Cascadia. And that game used to be my benchmark for box-to-table rapidity! Having the tiles face down in the box in stacks helps to get the game going in just a few minutes. And for me, where game time is always at a premium, sneaking in a solo session is made possible with a game like Akropolis. If you love puzzly, spatial games that you can learn to play in seconds and that bring the crunch, I would highly recommend Akropolis!
I love tile laying games. I love easy to learn hard to master crunchiness. I love spatial puzzles. And I am very pleased to say that Akropolis achieves this trifecta of board gaming bliss.
My mighty fellow blogger has reviewed Akropolis, so I am here to give you a quick run down of how it plays. And quick it will be as you will be building like a boss within a few turns!
Set Up
This is straightforward at any count thanks to the handy player number markers on the back of each tile. So, first off, count how many people around your table. Done? Éxochos! Then flip over all the city tiles and pick out the ones with the matching number of minimum players (i.e. 2+ for 2 players, 2+ and 3+ for 3 players, and all the tiles for a 4 player game (I’ll cover the extended 2 player and solo modes in a moment).
Shuffle them up and place them in 11 equal stacks, face down close to all players.
Then give each Architect (that’s you!) a starting tile and a number of stones. player 1 gets one going down to 4th player receiving 4. Well, they’ve got to get something good for picking last!
At the beginning of a round, grab a stack of city tiles and lay them face up in the Construction Site (i.e. drafting pool). They should be in a horizontal line moving away from all the stacks, and before first pick, there should always be 2 more tiles than the number of players.
That’s it! First player (i.e. Chief Architect) is then ready to pick their first tile!
NB: If you want to play an extended version at lower player counts, you can. Just use all the tiles and make 19 equal sized stacks for a 2 player game and 15 stacks for a 3 player game. And If you want to play solo (regular or extended), set the game up just like a regular 2 player game with you as Chief Architect).
Playtime
Every round of Akropolis you are going to be picking a tile and adding it to your ancient city. Each tile colour/design is a different district types with different basic (and advanced) placement and scoring criteria. The basic rules are:
Houses (blue) – estates are in demand so these need to be placed adjacently to form a group
Barracks (red) – these are your look-outs so they must be on the edge of your city to score
Markets (yellow) – competition is rife, so markets can’t be sited next to each other
Temples (purple) – popular places these, so they must be completely surrounded to score
Gardens (green) – everybody loves a garden, so just having them somewhere is fine!
Stone Supplies
Now you’ll also notice two things about the tiles. The grey hexes – these aren’t mentioned above. These are quarries which produce stone when they are covered up by other tiles. Because, for several reasons, in Akropolis, you can’t just be thinking “out”. You must also be thinking “up”. And why are stones important?
Well, the closer a tile is to those stacks in the Construction Site, the more expensive they become. The first tile in the row is free, but after that, real estate prices skyrocket! For example, if you were to choose the 5th tile in a 3 player game, that would cost you 4 stones! Ooft!
So you need stones, my friend! And luckily, you can place tiles on top of each other in Akropolis! The base layer must be completely covered, mind you. And one upper tile must cover at least two tiles on the layer below it. No hang-over Henries allowed in this game! And don’t forget; after you spend any stones, they go back to the supply(*).
Points For Plazas
The other thing you’ll notice are the tiles with stars on them. Everybody begins with a blue one on their starting tile These are Plazas and these are essential for points! And I mean foundation-bedrock necessary! Because they are the multipliers in this game. So there’s no point having 5 temples or 15 houses unless you also have a corresponding star in the same colour located somewhere in your city. I am no mathematician but even I know 0 x anything is zero! So if you have zero plazas of a certain district type, your score for those tiles will be zero! As such, if you start covering up Plazas, make sure you still have them on show somewhere else!
So once everybody has picked, paid, and laid, the round ends and the unpicked tile becomes the freebie for the next round with the new stack of tiles being unveiled in the row next to it. Chief Architect becomes the player to the left, and it’s building time again! When there is only one city tile left, the game is over and it’s scoring time!
Scoring Time
In the basic game of Akropolis, you’ll score points for visible Districts x visible Plazas of the same colour IF those Districts have been laid according to their basic placement rules. So, e.g. 3 separate markets with 3 yellow Plazas is 3 x 3 = 9 points. 3 separate markets with zero yellow Plazas is 3 x 0 = 0! 3 adjacent markets with 3 Plazas is 0 x 0 = 0!
PLUS, remember I said this game is also about going “up”? Well, if you manage to place any Districts on a higher level, their base value increases by 1 for every level they go up. So a yellow market on level 2 in the above 3 market example will be with 2 points so the total there would be 4 (1+1+2) x 3 = 12! So be sure to add up your Districts before you apply the Plaza multipliers!
Stones are also worth 1 point at the end of the game so be sure to add them into your final score.
Go through each District and fill the score in on the score pad, and the player with the most points is the winner!
Advanced Scoring Variants
Now, if the multiplying mathematicals and spatial puzzliness weren’t fun enough, there is an added advanced scoring variant for each of the District types. As this is some crunchy play even at the basic level, it is recommended that you add 1 or a couple into each game (and I am definitely NOT going to admit that we add them ALL in for brain burn of the highest order!haha):
Houses (blue) – if your group has a value (not number of tiles!) worth 10+, the total housing score is doubled before applying the regular Plaza and level multipliers
Barracks (red) – if any barracks tile has 3 or 4 edges exposed at end game, double its value before applying the regular Plaza and level multipliers
Markets (yellow) – if you can site a market adjacent to a yellow Plaza then its value is doubled before applying the regular Plaza and level multipliers
Temples (purple) -if your temples are on higher levels, double their point values before applying the regular Plaza and level multipliers r – so this could be a multiple multiplying effect if they are on level 2 or 3 o higher!
Gardens (green) – if you green Gardens border an enclosed empty space (called Lakes), their value is doubled before applying the regular Plaza and level multipliers
NB: If you don’t achieve any advanced variants but they are in play, your city will score using the regular rules for that particular District.
And if you’re playing solo, you can add the variants in but beware. The Illustrious Architect you are competing against (who never actually builds a city but rather just collects tiles) will always score the maximum! So it is presumed that they will have achieved the advanced variant scoring for each District AV you add into the game! Check out the solo review of Akropolis for more details!
(*) Bonus Favouritefoe Double Crunch Helping
Now, due to pilot error when we first played a game of Akropolis, we made a snafoo on the rules. Instead of returning the stones we paid back to the supply when we purchased a tile, we popped one (or more) on each of the preceding tiles in the row. That meant whoever picked next (or subsequently) could end up getting stones as well as a tile. And whoeee that ups the trade-off tension to another level! Now, I’m not recommending you break the rules or house rule Akropolis. But we do love double crunch around our table…..so I’ll just leave this here as a parting gift of the most exquisitely painfully fun sort! You’re welcome! Haha
That concludes our guide on how to play Akropolis. Did this help you? Let us know your thoughts and tag us on social media @zatugames.
Zatu Score
You might like
- The light ruleset but interesting gameplay
- Accessibility
- Quick play time
- Poin maximisation
Might not like
- Might be too light for some
- Without stone you have no tile choice.