Name: Pantheon
Designer: Bernd Brunnhofer
# of Players: 2-4
Playtime: 90 minutes
MSRP: $47.99 CDN
Photo Credit: Daniel Denzer
Link to Rules
Synopsis: In Pantheon, players take the role of various empires in the Mediterranean. Players travel their realms, accumulating materials and treasure, constructing monuments and building temples, all in the hopes of gaining favor with the pantheon of gods watching over the world. The one who succeeds in best honoring their gods will be declared the victor!
Pantheon's beautiful components are what initially drew me into the game. I'm especially fond of the little feet tokens (are feet meeples feetples?). Beyond the esthetics of the art design, I was attracted to the game because of my affinity for Stone Age, Bernd Brunnhofer's previous design.
Whereas Stone Age explores the “randomness” design space with dice, Pantheon explores it with card and tile draws. Serious boardgame players may argue that this game is too luck-based but I found that the random elements thematically captured the fickleness of the gods and the players’ attempts to capitalize on their favors. The card and tile draws also lend themselves to varied starts and in-game conditions, which consequently lead to unique playing experiences in each game.
In my opinion, a key component to any good game design is the existence of multiple paths to victory. In Pantheon, you can focus on building monuments, accumulating demi-god tokens, or building temples but the real power comes from the god tiles. If you let someone monopolize those, you will have a hard time catching up to them. Furthermore scoring is triggered in rounds 3 and 6, so timing and planning is also important.
Ultimately, this is a game that rewards multiple plays, especially to see the relative power of the various god tiles in play as well as their interactions and timing implications. Knowing what options are available and then planning for the future will allow an experienced player to make the most of any given situation.
I really enjoy Pantheon and I’ll personally be ensuring it hits the table a number of times at FallCon. Hopefully I will see you sitting across from me at the game table!
Darren
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