My career advisor done me up like a kipper.
It’s circa 1991, and this guy looks so bored that I think he’s counting the veins on the backs of his eyeballs. He’s had to deal with classroom after classroom of feckless students with no interest in the future, and now it’s my turn. He asks me what I want to do with my life. I surprise him with an actual answer (I have it on good authority that most other answers were either shrugs or something rude). I said that I want to be an author like Stephen King. This was his opportunity to say, ‘Put that on the back burner, sunshine, let’s get you into something that will make you a ton of money, like becoming an architect. You’ve got the brains for it’. Did he do this? No. Instead, he told me ‘You’ve got no chance of making it, it’ll be shop work for you,’ and left it at that. My path was set. I would prove him wrong on the writing front! Or so I thought. I haven’t managed that yet. That waster of a career advisor should have at least attempted to point me in the right direction. ‘Here’s some jobs that will make you money, Steve. Why not become an architect? If you get good money, money will rain upon you from the skies!’ Did he make any mention of these salient facts? Nope, didn’t bother.
Perhaps it’s not too late.
My career advisor done me up like a kipper.
It’s circa 1991, and this guy looks so bored that I think he’s counting the veins on the backs of his eyeballs. He’s had to deal with classroom after classroom of feckless students with no interest in the future, and now it’s my turn. He asks me what I want to do with my life. I surprise him with an actual answer (I have it on good authority that most other answers were either shrugs or something rude). I said that I want to be an author like Stephen King. This was his opportunity to say, ‘Put that on the back burner, sunshine, let’s get you into something that will make you a ton of money, like becoming an architect. You’ve got the brains for it’. Did he do this? No. Instead, he told me ‘You’ve got no chance of making it, it’ll be shop work for you,’ and left it at that. My path was set. I would prove him wrong on the writing front! Or so I thought. I haven’t managed that yet. That waster of a career advisor should have at least attempted to point me in the right direction. ‘Here’s some jobs that will make you money, Steve. Why not become an architect? If you get good money, money will rain upon you from the skies!’ Did he make any mention of these salient facts? Nope, didn’t bother.
Perhaps it’s not too late.
Perhaps the opportunity to prove myself has finally arrived!
Architects of Amytis is a two player tile laying game from Hachette in which the King of Babylon has decided that he wants to offer a marvellous present to his wife, Queen Amytis: The most beautiful city ever created. He asks two of the best Architects in the world to design the city, and only the very best one will be built. It’s now up to you to create the best design. Get cracking!
First Impressions
I’d heard very little about Architects of Amytis before it reached me, and I was immediately struck by the lovely, vibrant artwork. It’s somewhat reminiscent of that isometric beauty Monument – on mobile. The tiles themselves are nice and chunky, which should help with the accessibility of this game, even for me – I have a few issues manipulating fiddly pieces, but should have no problems here. The meeples and characters are nice and stylised, and other than the project cards which are a little too flimsy for an important and oft-used part of the game, everything is very good quality.
For those who’ve read my reviews before, here comes a critical part: the rulebook! This one is a winner. Everything is clear and in the right order and – amazingly – I haven’t had a single issue learning, playing and teaching Architects of Amytis. Trust me, this is an occurrence far rarer than it should be. There’s a contents page that lists all components (again, trust me, I’ve read rulebooks that manage to mess this part up), a set-up diagram with clear step-by-step instructions on what to do, and the how to play and end game instructions are also super easy to follow. Thumbs up here, gals and guys.
How to Play
Architects of Amytis is no mere tile placement game: it cleverly draws mechanisms from worker placement and noughts and crosses.
Okay, there’s a possibility that this will end up sounding more complicated than it actually is: it makes way more sense when you’re playing – and it’s incredibly quick to pick up (trust me on this: I’m an idiot). The main board is made up of a 3×3 square of tiles (this is the tic tac toe bit). On that grid are building tiles, in stacks of five. There are six building types in four colours. Lots of numbers so far, but all of this is important. There are different building types and different colours for a reason (of course there is). Your player board is also a 3×3 grid, but at the start it is empty. This is where you will build your city. You can place your buildings haphazardly if you wish… but you won’t win. To achieve victory, you will have to fulfil the project cards that you both start with and attain during gameplay.
Each project card shows a specific arrangement of building colours that it wants you to replicate on your player board. Two yellow buildings above two green in a 2×2 pattern is an example. Pull this off, and you gain the victory points (VP) shows on the card (you get these points at the end of the game). How do you get the building tiles onto the board? Easy, my friend! The hard part is making the right choices at the right time. Once you’ve chosen the building tile you want, place one of your four architect meeples on top of its stack and take the top tile for your own. Position it on your player board where you see fit, bearing in mind that your project cards can be completed in any orientation, but not mirrored (if you’ve ever played Tetris then you’ll be good at getting your head around this).
Now, your architect meeple isn’t just a placeholder. It has a much more important function. You will use them to play tic tac toe (noughts and crosses) as mentioned earlier. You will take turns with your opponent, selecting tiles and placing architects. If you manage to get three in a row horizontally, vertically or diagonally, you earn a King’s Favour, which means you can place one of your player counters on the bonus board. There are multiple bonuses to claim, so choose wisely: they will come into play during the end game scoring. You could claim the bonus that gives you 6 VP for every stack of three tiles on your player board at the end, for example, or gain extra points if you manage to create a staircase, e.g a single tile, next to a stack of two which is next to a stack of three.
You’ll need to carefully juggle the placement of buildings, the claiming of projects, and the taking of bonuses in order to land the highest score at the end. You might think that claiming three in a row is the most important play to make… but what if you have three Wall buildings around the edges of your player board, and claiming that one Wall on the main board could net you 2 VP for each wall you already have? What if claiming that Wall means missing out on the three in a row? 8 VP is not to be sniffed at… and perhaps that Wall will help you complete a project for even more points…
How Well Does It Play?
Very well, thank you very much. As I said earlier, I knew very little about Architects of Amytis, so it’s ended up being a really nice surprise. It’s the equivalent of a mate saying, here’s a game you’ve never heard of, trust me it’s great, and then it is great. Attention to detail across the board (pun intended, honest) is spot on. The rulebook helps you into the game quickly and clearly, everything makes sense and is easy to read/understand. I usually have some kind of moment in which I ‘fess up and tell you about the rule or rules I messed up and how I didn’t play the game properly until the second go. None of that here, people (I will now wait for the comments that point out all the errors I have made in this review).
The range of strategic choices available is surprising. Claim 3 in a row or take that green tile you need to complete a project instead? Which bonus should you take: get 6 points per stack of 3 tiles at the end – which will require serious forethought – or claim an easy four points extra? You need a blue tile – take the wall, which will give 2 points per wall tile around the edge of your player board, or the palace, which allows you to claim a much needed fresh project?
Placing three architects in a row proves vital to success, as it allows you to claim an end game bonus modifier. Get rows as often as you can to claim more bonuses! Conversely, there’s a real urgency to ensuring you block your opponent from claiming three in a row too often. Okay, there’s a market tile that you desperately need, but should you claim it now and let the other player (the enemy!) get that King’s Favour, or should you block them and hope you get that needed tile in the next turn? I’ve seen it claimed that the only real tactic to the game is to keep blocking your opponent from landing three in a row – I strongly disagree. You will miss out on scoring opportunities this way. I’ve tried it, it doesn’t really work. You end up unable to complete the majority of projects because you aren’t picking the optimal tile, you’re finding yourself stuck with a random colour and nowhere sensible to place it on your board.
Bear in mind that 2 empty building piles will trigger the end game. If you believe you’re ahead, how quickly can you bring the game to an end? And if you sense your opponent is attempting exactly this, then you’ll have to switch up your tactics, and fast.
I’ve just realised that the building tiles remind me of choosing what I wanted to construct next in the old PC game series Caesar. It’s so much fun choosing. I only wish that the tiles were a bit chunkier so that your stacks could end up being a bit higher – it’s cool creating this multi-layer 3×3 cities, but I’d like the height element to be a little more exaggerated.
Conclusion
Architects of Amytis is a low priced game, but it’s no less compelling for that. The artwork is unified across the product – even for the board game insert – and it’s clear that plenty of time and effort has gone into the game design and the playtesting. This is a no-brainer purchase for me. For the sake of clarification, in my reviews I focus solely on the game at hand and the price it goes for. I don’t compare the game I’m reviewing to other games, I’m only interested in whether or not this specific product entertained me, and how much I was entertained. In the fortnight I’ve had Architects of Amytis, we’ve played a couple of dozen times. That pretty much says it all. But I’ll say a bit more before I’m done (never quite know when to shut up, do I?).
The blending of tile placement and noughts and crosses across two separate boards could have produced a disjointed experience. In fact, I’ve played a few board games recently with disparate boards in which it felt like playing two separate games at once, switching from one to the other. In those other games the two boards look fairly different, which accentuates their separate nature, whereas here there’s a unified aesthetic and a proportional similarity between the two: they even implement the same tiles. Also, in this instance the dual nature of the boards works so smoothly that you’ll only really think about the fact that the boards are separate if you’re writing a review. The combination allows for a wide range of strategic possibilities and tough decisions. You could be focused on completing a particular project one minute, and find that a single turn later your plan has gone out of the window. There’s plenty of tension when awaiting your opponent’s turn: how are they going to screw you up this time? It leads to a further question: get your revenge, or try to keep a cool head (revenge, it’s always revenge).
I’ve enjoyed my years as an author, but I think I’ll spend a while longer as an architect.
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About the author:
Steve is currently a freelance board game blogger, but often dreams of life as a pirate, or as a ghost herder in the Lake District, or as an evil estate agent who sells haunted houses for his own dark pleasure. Instead of figuring out how to do these jobs in real life like a normal lunatic, he tries to write about them instead, and releases the resultant books upon the unsuspecting world via famous digital bookstores. More books are bound to follow. Find this peculiar entity here!
