Akropolis: Athena is an expansion for the tile placement game, Akropolis, that turns players into ancient architects competing to build the most impressive city. This expansion introduces challenges that, when completed, earn players additional resources as well as the favour of the goddess Athena, who might in turn grant players extra points to outscore their fellow architects.
Build like the Greeks
Akropolis shines as a tile placement game because each player is responsible for their own tile tableau (called a City), and the majority of player interaction comes from the risk that other players may steal a tile you need.
The Athena expansion doesn’t change this dynamic, players are still required to choose either a free tile or purchase one by spending stone, then they try to place that tile in a way that meets certain scoring conditions (e.g. blue tiles have to be touching, red tiles need to be on the edge of the city). The expansion adds to gameplay, providing new opportunities to earn points and while also adding a little more player interaction.
When using the expansion, four construction cards are laid out for all players to see, each card has their own unique completion criteria. To complete a card a player must place tiles in their city in a specific pattern, for instance having two green tiles next to each other but one must be on a higher level than the other, or having a perfect circle of blue tiles with any other colour in the centre.
Beside each construction card you place four individual tile pieces (made from a single hexagon as opposed to the usual three) as well as enough pieces of an Athena statue for every player
On their turn when a player creates a pattern that matches the one shown on the construction card they choose one of the four tiles and add it to their city, they also collect a piece of Athena (this doesn’t provide any immediate benefit but we’ll get to that shortly).
The single tile can be placed anywhere in a city, and some of these new tiles are split into two colours, giving players the opportunity to add two types of tile at once. These individual tiles make it easier to complete quarries, which earn stone to spend, or can be used to join areas of a city that might otherwise be disconnected.
Make Athena Proud
Remember those Athena statue pieces? If you manage to complete all four construction cards you earn all four pieces of Athena, again during the game this provides no benefit. However, come the end of the game any stone that you haven’t spent will no longer be worth just one point each, they will be worth five.
It might not sound like much, but if used strategically it can have a huge impact. If one player ends the game with eight pieces of stone and a completed Athena statue, they earn 40 more points than a player who didn’t manage to finish their Athena statue.
Completing all four construction cards, and thus finishing Athena, can be challenging and whether or not you achieve it often depends on the construction cards that are drawn. There are a total of 18 construction cards and during some games you will naturally finish them, while others will take a concentrated effort and might only be achieved by one or two players. This adds a huge level of variability to the game, but may be a little challenging if you’re a completionist.
Should you add it to your collection?
The main goal of this expansion is to create a competitive element similar to Splendor's noble tiles, however since all players have the option to complete the construction cards the competition is watered down which makes for friendlier gameplay. As mentioned, the number of players who can complete construction cards often depends on the cards that are drawn, but this still enhances the player interaction from the base game, especially when one player gets there first and takes one of the individual tiles you wanted.
If you are already a fan of Akropolis and play it regularly, or if you enjoy it but it occasionally gets forgotten on your shelf, then this is a perfect addition. It will either enhance what you already enjoy or it will justify bringing it back off the shelf, adding a fresh take to what was already a great game.
