Ancient gods, mythological creatures and areacontrol – review of the game “Cyclades”

Despite the proliferation of new games, each of us has such titles on the shelf that, after a few or several years, still make us happy and attract us. They don’t have to be the best games in their category, and that’s not what sentimental journeys are all about. However, something makes us come back to them. I myself have a couple of such boxes, and one of them houses mythological monsters straight from ancient Greece. 

 

When the world was ruled by Zeus

Cyclades  is a game for 2 to 5 players that focuses on areacontrol, that is, occupying areas on the board. Sparta, Athens, Corinth, Thebes and Argos are fighting for the control of the islands of the eponymous archipelago. Everyone chooses or draws a city and receives their assigned components – a screen, ships, troops, offering and territory markers, as well as 5 coins to be hidden behind the screen. The board, consisting of two parts, should be adjusted to the number of players and ships and units should be placed on it as shown in the pictures in the manual. Next to the map, there is space for the Mythological Creature deck, Philosopher and Priest cards. Player offering markers are randomly placed along the turn order track. Place structures, metropolises, dice, prosperity tokens, and coins within easy reach.
The most important thing in the game, the tile deities are also placed randomly in designated places. Among them are Zeus, Athena, Poseidon and Ares. Below four places we also find Apollo, the fifth god who is always available and last in order.

How to gain power and glory

First, we’re updating the monster track. In the first round, we put the top card in the first place on the left, in the next one we move it to the right and add the next one, etc. players, it will end up in the discard pile. The deity tiles also change each round. Depending on the number of players, all of them may be available, or one may be hidden and unavailable until the next cycle. After disassembling the above items, players take a number of prosperity markers equal to the cornucopia symbols they have on the map, i.e. on the islands and sea areas they control.
The bidding phase takes place in which the players follow the turn order order to place their markers on the chosen god tile. If the chosen deity has already been seized, we can outbid the opponent by placing our marker on the higher number. It means coins that we will have to offer in exchange for God’s favor. The outbid player immediately moves his marker to another place. He may change the tile to empty or occupied, or stay on the same tile, but then he must propose a higher victim. Even without too many coins, you can always go to Apollo, who is free and the only one who can lend his power to more people. The other deities will only look favorably upon the one who offers the highest sacrifice.

When all markers are finally set, players discard the appropriate number of coins and take actions in the order of the deities, starting at the top. The marker is placed on the last available space of the track, so the player taking his turn first will bid last in the next. Each board shows how much each activity costs. Poseidon allows you to acquire and move the fleet and build a port. Thanks to Ares, we will recruit troops and move them and build a fortress. Zeus will help get priests, discard the monster and replace it with a new one, and build a temple, and Athena will provide us with philosophers and the opportunity to build a university. Apollo gives coins to everyone who selected him and a wealth marker to the first player on his space.

Of course, the above-mentioned actions cost money and it is the number of coins that is auctioned at the limit of our actions. In the example of Poseidon – the first ship is free to collect, the second costs 1 coin, the third costs 2 coins, and the fourth 3. If you want to increase the fleet by four, you must pay at least 6 coins. Placing a Port costs another 2 gold, and it costs 1 coin to move ships up to three hexes. With the above actions planned, you must bid and pay a minimum of 9 coins.
Players can also fight battles by entering fields occupied by others. The battle takes place at sea with ships and on islands with troops. It consists in comparing the number of units and rolling dice, which increase our strength by the number thrown. Additionally, buildings help in combat. If the defender has a fortress on the disputed island, he gains +1 to his score for each such building. The same thing happens with a sea battle if it is fought in a square adjacent to an island with a port.

All gods, except Apollo, allow you to summon a mythical creature, and its cost depends on where it is located (2, 3 or 4 coins). They have different skills that can help us or harm our rivals. For example, Pegasus will move our troops to another island, while in normal mode it can only be successful when we have a connection thanks to ships and we use Ares to move the units. Griffin will steal half of the gold of the chosen player for us, Satyr will kidnap somebody’s philosopher, and Dryad will kidnap priest. Five monsters have their own figures because their effect is not immediate and this fact should be noted by placing the creature on the map. The Minotaur fights for us and has the strength of two troops, while Chiron protects the island he is on from the Harpy, Pegasus and the Giant. Polyphemus deters the fleet from the island, Medusa, in turn, blocks the troops next to it. My favorite in annoying teammates, the Kraken, eats ships from the space where we put it.
Gaining favor with the gods, moving troops and ships, constructing structures, and using monster abilities continues until one player has two metropolises. Such a tile is obtained through economic development if you own all four buildings (harbor, fortress, university, and temple). They are changed into one large tile and placed on the designated place for it. The second way to conquer the metropolis is intellectual development, that is, the exchange of four philosophers. After the player has acquired the second tile, the game continues until the end of the cycle. It may happen that before it is over, someone will take over our metropolis and the game will continue.

The game is (almost) perfect

The Cyclades  are part of a trilogy of mythological games that are often compared with each other. The other two are  Inis , in the world of Celtic myths, and  Kemet , set in ancient Egypt. When 10 years ago I decided to expand my collection with a slightly larger game and saw a short fictional description about ancient Greece, my hand unknowingly threw this item into the basket and clicked “buy”. I fell in love with the  Cyclades by the time they got to me, and although I was a budding board enthusiast at the time and the rules slowed my enthusiasm a bit, I knew this box would stay with me forever. The two mentioned titles were released in Poland later, and although many players consider them as good or even better, my love for ancient Greece decided that I was not tempted to buy them.

Although the  Cyclades  may seem complicated at first, a careful reading of a few pages of instructions is enough to master the rules. The colors assigned to the gods help to find information about the actions in question, and the exemplary moves are well described and illustrated. People at the level of family games who want to try something more difficult should be able to cope and after a few rounds they should not have a problem with the rules.

I still like the design of the game, despite the passage of time. If it was released now, the figures would definitely be tweaked and the graphics improved, but for me they are good enough. I am talking about monsters, of course, because ships and troops could be a little tidier. Despite this, the components were not damaged, although the box very often landed on my table.

Despite the simple rules, we have to make some effort when planning the action. We can’t do everything with one god, so planned action will require more rounds. Carrying out the attack is to use Ares to increase the troops, then Poseidon to capture the ships and connect the two islands by sea, and then Ares again to move to the rival island. Luck when laying out monster cards can help us shorten this plan, but we are not the only ones waiting for useful actions. In addition, there are still buildings to be built, because they will provide us with a metropolis, and coins to collect, because without them we will not get the grace of the deity of our choosing.

You have to think not only about what you want to achieve and how to win, but also watch what your opponents do. It is very easy to miss the moment when someone has gathered four philosophers and thus obtained the token required to win. Once we have a metropolis on our island, we must remember to defend it. Yes, economic and intellectual development is important, but the tedious building of our power will not help us in victory, if a hostile army enters our territory and simply takes away from us the metropolis that took us so much time and money to conquer.
Cycladesthey are an almost perfect game for me. Topic – the best possible. Workmanship – beautiful, and the above “almost” applies to smaller figures. Climate – well felt, although it is not an adventure game. The bidding mechanics, usually very annoying to me, fit perfectly here in conjunction with the available actions and areacontrol, which makes the game smooth and there is no major downtime. The variable size of the map adapted to the players and the limited access to the gods make the game play well in any squad, which is not common with a range of 2 to 5. Randomness is limited to the monsters spawning and the order of the deities, so it works well for replayability and doesn’t get in the way. And finally the negative interaction that is indispensable to this title. There is even quite a lot of it, but in such an ideal dose that marriages will not fall apart, a few days at most they will be silent. Be delighted overI could do the Cyclades for a long time, but I think it’s better to just try it out for yourself. If by some miracle you haven’t heard of this game yet, now I have fixed your unforgivable mistake. You’re welcome.