Olympus

Great family game. Simple and complex at the same time. A little luck is good to have as the best deals often depends on who goes before you.Each player starts with three "priests." Every round of play, who goes first rotates and each time a player is the first, he has to make a choice of what area to place their priest. Following players can choose the same area, but receive a lesser reward than the first. They can also pass and wait until they are first and can place a priest first. Play continues around until all priests are allocated. Shrewd strategy and a little luck in who goes first can spring you ahead or mire you in the scraps. But everyone gets a chance at making the shrewdest choices.You acquire resources and armies, can attack or cause a plague. You can build or buy exclusive privilege with the various gods of Greek mythology.

This is a fun game that is great for strategic players. If you get frustrated that you can't carry out your plans because of the roll of a die, this would be a good game for you. It is all in the planning, as long as someone doesn't get there before you . . .

Olympus is a worker-placement game that takes about 2 hours to play. You start the game with 3 priests, and you send each of them to worship one of several Greek deities, who grant favors in return. These favors either help you produce meat/grain/fish, increase your population, increase your military, construct buildings, develop your culture, or bring a plague upon your rivals.Each player's progress for these categories is tracked on individual playmats. When you reach the final space for any category, you get a Glory Bonus card. When the 4th Glory Bonus is awarded, the game ends after that round, and the player with the most points on the score track wins. Points are generally awarded by constructing buildings, but can also be granted by worshiping Apollo or Zeus, or from certain building effects.The central game board is simply for displaying the deities and the unique temple cards you can purchase for various effects, and the scoring track. Each player also has their own deck of cards that represent different buildings. The cards in every player's deck are identical, and each player can decide for themselves what they wish to build, based on their cultural progress and available resources. You will probably end up with about 10 or 12 of these cards in front of you by game's end.If you are new to worker placement games or enjoy Greek Mythology, you will really have fun with Olympus. There are several ways to win, and you are less likely to have a runaway leader since there are ways to force players backward on their progress tracks, and take their resources through battle. If you've already played Carcasonne, Lords of Waterdeep, or Kingsburg, you might also appreciate the lack of anything random in this game. No dice, no drawing of cards or tiles. Where you send your priests and what you build are entirely up to you.Since I play a lot of these games, maybe this one feels easier to me than some others, which is why I don't rate it higher, but the mechanics are solid, if simple, the artwork is excellent, and the theme is strong, from the names of the Greek buildings to the favors each deity grants. It just doesn't feel like a "board game" to me. I guess I just prefer a board to look like a map or a physical representation of a place, even if its purpose is merely to display buildings/resources.

fun quick game to play

now a favorite game. who doesn't like worshiping zeus

great game, great price, came earlier than I thought it would

Great fun game, we enjoy playing it a lot.