Designed by Jay Cormier and Sen-Foong Lim for Z-Man Games, Akrotiri is a two-player strategy game set in ancient times in the Aegean Sea, with components engagingly designed to reflect a classically Greek aesthetic. Originally launched in 2014 and in a lightly-revised edition in 2017, Akrotiri offers an unusual blend of mechanics in one compact and quick-to-play package. I’ve enjoyed revisiting the game, and I think it still has enough challenge and playability to warrant a place in the collections of strategy fans. You can see what other players think at BoardGameGeek.
What’s the aim of Akrotiri?
Players race to explore the seas around the home island of Thera, gathering and selling resources to fund their search for ancient Minoan temples. Successful excavation of temples brings you fame (measured in victory points), and you can add to your points total by meeting the conditions on secret Goal cards. Akrotiri might seem quite complex in combining tile placing, fetch-and-deliver, market management and contract fulfilment mechanics, all in one turn! But in fact, play progresses smoothly as each player tries to build unique conditions for success while keeping an eye on the rival expedition.
How is the board created?
The game starts with the large Thera tile as the centre of the playing area. Each edge of the square tile shows shipping routes (white lines) and island segments. There are 36 smaller, square Land tiles with a shipping route in the middle of each side and an island segment in each corner. A turn begins with the player drawing unseen and laying down one Land tile so that it connects to a trade route and an island segment on one or more existing tiles. Because each Land tile also shows one of four colour-coded Terrains which yield Resource cubes, it quickly becomes important to place your tiles to join up shipping routes between Thera and your target Resources. A cunning placement might even block your opponent’s moves. One of the attractions of Akrotiri is that the tile-laying sequence is different in each game, so the board is fresh every time.
When you lay down a Land tile, you also place two coloured Resource cubes onto it: one of the same colour on the Terrain icon, and one of any colour on a different island segment. As islands grow with more tiles being laid, the amount of Resource cubes per island will increase and some can quickly turn into rich pickings. Your ship will voyage between islands to collect Resource cubes. Bear in mind that your opponent sitting opposite will view the board from a different perspective – this becomes significant when seeking those Minoan temples!
How do I collect Resources?
Starting the game in dock on Thera, a ship can move to any other dock to which it has a completed shipping route. If your ship is docked on one side of an island and there is a dock on another side but no sea route to it, you can choose to ‘portage’ your ship overland. This is helpful in navigating an incomplete board where shipping routes might not join up (quite common in Akrotiri). An empty ship may travel twice in a turn (sailing only or combined with portage), a loaded ship only once; ship movement counts as one ‘action’ from your total allowed for that turn. When you dock on an island, you can load up to three Resource cubes from anywhere on that island onto your ship, which takes up one ‘action’ and prevents further movement that turn. On your next turn, you can sail your loaded ship to a different island to collect more Resources if you have space, or back to Thera to sell what you’ve collected.
How do I sell the Resources I’ve collected?
The ‘market management’ aspect of Akrotiri takes place once your ship has returned to the home island of Thera. Here you unload your collected Resources and ‘sell’ them in the Thera marketplace; this is a free action (no ‘action’ cost to pay). Transactions are recorded on a separate tally board, onto which you place the Resource cubes you’re selling from right (best price) to left (lowest price). When a Resource line is full, no more can be sold. So you face a choice between grabbing just one Resource cube and scooting back to Thera to sell quickly at a good price, or taking time to collect more cubes which you’ll probably be selling at a lower price but in greater volume.
While your ship is on Thera, and only there, you can spend the ‘drachmae’ your goods have earned on buying Map cards which reveal the hidden locations of the ancient Minoan temples you seek. There is a sliding scale of costs here: you can buy one Map card for one drachma, but buying two Maps together will cost you three drachmae, and three Maps will cost seven drachmae! The cost penalty reflects the desirability of getting your hands on a bunch of Map cards, among which you’re quite likely to find a possible temple site you can reach. You can choose to buy ‘easy’, ‘medium’ or ‘hard’ Map cards - they all cost the same – depending on how confident you are about fulfilling them. Buying Map cards one at a time is cheaper but much slower, and you might lose the race to excavate the six temples you need to end the game. You can sail to a temple site only on the turn after you buy the relevant Map card, as the turn sequence puts the ‘Move’ and ‘Excavate a temple’ steps before the ‘Buy maps’ step.
How do I find those Minoan temples?
You’ll start the game with two Map cards, one ‘easy’ and one ‘medium’, and you can buy more as described above. You need to identify a possible temple site which meets the criteria shown on your map - this is one of the ‘contract fulfilment’ mechanics of Akrotiri. Each Map card shows a temple in the centre with various Terrain icons distributed around three sides: you need to find an island where you can see from your perspective the same Terrains in the same configuration as on the Map card. For example, your Map card might show a blue Lake icon above the temple, a grey Mountain icon to the left, and a green Forest icon below. Look for an island segment from which you can point to at least one Lake anywhere above the line where your possible temple site sits (there might be more than one Lake above your site, but that doesn’t matter for this example map where only one is required). You then do the same for the Mountain (anywhere to the left of your site) and the Forest (anywhere below your site) that this map requires.
When you’ve identified a suitable site, sail your ship to that island, play the relevant Map card, and point out where the Terrain icons are that meet the map’s requirements. Pay the cost of excavation as shown by the number of drachmae in the top left corner of the Map card – be sure to have enough cash available to pay! You can then place the left-most temple piece from your player mat onto the board; this reveals a bonus on the mat, either more actions per turn or drawing Goal cards (more about those below). You will score victory points for completed excavations as shown in the top right hand corner of each Map card. Excavating a temple means that no more temples can be sited on the same island, though further tile placements could join up two islands that already have temples. Once either player’s sixth and final temple is excavated, the game ends when both players have completed that turn, and victory points are counted up.
What are these secret Goal cards?
Akrotiri likes to keep you busy, so at the start of the game each player is dealt two Goal cards and chooses one to keep, hidden from your opponent. When you place your second and fourth temples onto the board, the bonus is to draw two further Goal cards and choose one to keep, so you’ll probably end up with three missions to complete. Each Goal card shows a different mission that will score you extra victory points if you meet its conditions by the end of the game - this is the second ‘contract fulfilment’ aspect of Akrotiri. For example, one of the cards has “Score 4 points for each of your temples located on an island with no Terrain icons on it.” Another has “Score 1 point for each tile that makes up the biggest completed island on which you’ve placed a temple.” You already know what your mission is as you lay down Land tiles and choose which Map cards to activate, but your opponent doesn’t. So with some careful play you can set up a successful Goal completion that might win you the game when you reveal the card at the end.
Is there just one more wrinkle to Akrotiri?
Of course there is! The designers have clearly thought about softening the random element of drawing Land tiles unseen. To help create a board that’s more useful to you, once per turn as the final step you can call on the Oracle of the ancient Greeks to provide a Land tile with a specific Terrain icon on it. Simply say which icon you want and flip over Land tiles until you find a matching one. You keep that tile to lay down at the start of your next turn, and any other revealed tiles are put to one side in a discard pile which can be shuffled and reset if the Land tile deck runs out.
How many victory points do I score?
At the end of the round in which at least one player’s sixth and final temple has been placed onto the board, the game ends and victory points are totalled. Score each completed Map card (for which you’ve excavated a temple) according to the figure in the top right corner – ‘hard’ maps are worth 7 points, ‘medium’ 3 points and ‘easy’ only 1 point. So you face a choice during the game of racing around the board fulfilling several ‘easy’ maps for a low score each, or waiting patiently to complete a ‘medium’ or ‘hard’ map that will score you more. If you’ve managed to meet the conditions of any of your Goal cards, you score those points too. Finally, count up any drachmae you have left and score one point for every ten drachmae (though I usually have empty pockets by the end…)
Because you have six temples to excavate, you’ll score most of your points with Map cards. But the well-constructed fulfilment of a Goal card mission can certainly tip the balance in your favour, and your opponent won’t know whether you’ve snatched victory until the Goals are revealed at the end.
Is Akrotiri suitable for a range of ages?
The game is billed as suitable for 14+, which does feel about right for the quite unusual blend of different mechanics it offers. But younger children would enjoy the ‘fetch-and-deliver’ aspect without paying too much attention to whole-game strategy, and with a bit of adult help could probably cope with finding and excavating temples via Map cards. You could leave the Goal cards out if you want to play a simpler version that omits one of the ‘contract fulfilment’ elements. All in all, it’s a game that works on more than one level, so why not tinker with the rules and mechanics to get what you enjoy?
