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Santorini is an abstract game by mathematician Dr. Gordon Hamilton, for two to four players. Santorini, was originally self-published by its designer in 2004 and it consisted of wooden blocks with a very simple design. In 2016, Roxley Games successfully Kickstarted a new version of the game with beautifully designed plastic cubes, colourful illustrations and a 3D platform to build your own beautiful representation of the Greek island, Santorini! Its Kickstarter campaign raised CA$ 700,524 with the help of 7,112 backers, achieving 824% of its goal.
To anyone who has visited or seen an image of this great island the art and components of Santorini will definitely be familiar. This new version of the game has beautifully stylised components inspired by the namesake island. As well as cutesy Greek mythology art, and thematic abilities for countless gods from the aforementioned Pantheon.
The Kickstarter Edition of the game came with an expansion, Golden Fleece, that includes new gods, a new way to play the game, and Heroes, whose abilities can only be used once during every game.
While at its core it’s an abstract game, Santorini merges its abstract elements like simple rules and strong balance, with a very pretty theme through its god powers and components. In its thematic approach, that is told beautifully in the story book which came with the Kickstarter Edition of the game, Santorini is a game invented by Aphrodite and Ares and played by the Greek gods in the island of Santorini, they play this by guiding the workers that are trying to build the island. It’s the game of Gods!
Playing Santorini
Santorini, as with most abstract games, is a game best suited for two players. A game of Santorini generally lasts for 10-20 minutes and without the god powers it’s a symmetrical abstract game of floor building. Every player has two workers on the 5x5 game board. Players will move one of their workers to a neighbouring tile, including diagonals and build one floor on an adjacent tile. Then it’s the next player’s turn.
When moving, you can only ascend one floor higher, but you can descend in any number. When building, you can build on any floor, including building domes on the third floor to block it to the opponent. The first player to climb up to the third floor, wins.
As you can see, its a simple mechanism that allows for limitless plays, just like Chess or Checkers. But Santorini doesn’t stop there, this is where the Pantheon comes into play.
Every god has one or more abilities, bringing new movements, attack and defence moves, winning conditions and turns every game into a different experience, with countless combinations. You could say that every combination of gods and heroes feel like different games using same base mechanism but different rules.
For example, Pan, the god of the nature, has a new winning condition: he wins if he descends two floors at once. This turns the game into cat-mouse with the other player chasing Pan to block his ways to descend but also trying to win by climbing up to the third floor.
Or Hecate, the goddess of magic and crossroads, who plays the game with hidden information! The little map and tokens that comes with Golden Fleece expansion allows Hecate to move secretly and the game become much more subtle.
The base game comes with 30 gods with various abilities. Some have limitless or better movement, some block opponents from moving in different circumstances, some have advanced building abilities like building two floors in one turn. With 30 gods, Santorini can be played 870 different ways!
Golden Fleece
The Golden Fleece expansion brings 15 new gods to Santorini. This brings lots of new and interesting ways to play. These relatively advanced gods add new secret boards, additional workers, tokens and cool mechanisms.
For example, Siren, a creature that is known to lure sailors to rocky coasts with their enchanting music has the ability to use the Siren’s Song mechanism. Every turn, instead of doing a regular move she can move an opponent worker in the direction that she choose during Game Setup.
Additionally, Golden Fleece has 10 Heroes. These characters represent the great heroes from Greek mythology like Heracles and Achilles, and can use their ability only once in the game. This adds a deterrence element to the game and make the game a tighter experience. In order to win, you must use your ability wisely!
In God vs. God games, the flow of the game is dominated by god powers. While the gods are balanced and every God has equal chances against the others, the strategies and tactics used in a game nearly completely depends on your and your opponent’s God of choice.
In Hero vs. Hero games however, the game is purer and more symmetrical. Characters are only a flavour and they are not as important as Gods, even though they’re equally powerful.
There is also the possibility to play God vs. Hero, which is recommended for games where inexperienced players play against veterans. It’s exactly what it sounds like, man vs immortal god.
The last thing to mention in the Golden Fleece expansion is the Golden Fleece. This adds a variant to the game in order to make it more symmetrical. The Golden Fleece is placed into a square and a God that is compatible with Golden Fleece expansion is chosen. The Golden Fleece is immovable and it gives the God’s power to any workers that are adjacent to it.
Players who’d prefer to use God powers and want an equal balanced game could make use of this variant. Personally, I prefer the original variant with different God powers.
Final Thoughts
One thing I didn’t mention in this review is three and four player variants. While I believe they are nice addition for those who want to play with three & four players, they take away from game’s simpleness. The three player variant makes the game too complicated with Three sides (and Three Gods). Whereas the four player version makes the game into a team game.
Roxley's name has become associated with beautiful, high quality components and Santorini is the grand example of this. The game comes with more than 60 building pieces in white and blue. The colours of the domes complement greatly with the white houses, though we should thank Greek architects for that! The building platform is a 3D pedestal, representing the cliffs of the island, and it makes the game’s theme much more active as you feel like you’re doing the building of the island yourself!
This game is a beautiful project of love, and it definitely shows in the components. My only wish is for a deluxe edition of the game in the future, with realistic wooden components! This is a game that definitely deserves an expensive special edition.
Santorini is a very elegant, simple game that requires a lot of strategic thinking. The game is easy to learn and hard to master. The theme and components are so beautiful that even if you don’t like abstract games, I’m sure this will lure you in. While it takes only 10-20 minutes to play, I wouldn’t count this as a filler as you’ll play at least three times in a row! Additionally, this game is perfect for the tournament scene!
