Akropolis | Strategy Game for Teens and Adults | Ages 8+ | 2 to 4 Players | 30 Minutes

My first bit of praise for Akropolis comes from the fact that there is no waste punchboard from which pieces have to be poked out -- the tiles come pre-set in a little holder in the box, ready to play. As someone who sincerely dislikes having to unpackage and recycle all those tiny little pieces in a board game, this was a notable and refreshing improvement. Second, I felt that this was a fairly easy game to learn, set-up, and play. Roughly speaking, while the time expected for a round is listed as half an hour to 45 minutes, the first round of gameplay, including set-up and learning the rules, really only lasted about an hour. Third, just as important as ease and speed of play for me is the tactility of a game. Akropolis does not lack in that department. I liked the tile colors and illustrations quite a bit, and they were sturdy and appear to be able to hold up to repeated use. While the stone cubes are kind of lacklustre -- just simple grey blocks -- I don't necessarily see the point to having a more extravagant token when it is ultimately representing rocks. So, that was a stylistic choice that was fine with me. Fourth, regarding the gameplay itself, I found Akropolis to be delightful: fast-paced, with tactical depth, and pleasing to look at as the city is built up by stacking tiles next to and on top of each other. Other types of games that I would compare its gameplay to include Spirits of the Forest and Carcassonne (both tile-drafting games), and Splendor (a tile-drafting game structured around building mining economies). In sum, I would highly recommend this board game, especially to board gamers that like speedy, simple, tactics that can combine into layered and strategically deep play over the course of repeated plays.

Great game. One of my favorites. Not tricky to learn and plays in under an hour. Good production quality and easy to use rules and player aids. Highly recommended.

Akropolis is a welcome addition to my board game collection, mainly due to its easy-to-learn rules. This means that I can play it with my partner, who is turned off by complicated rules and too much depth. So really we just get to play Codenames and Seven Wonders together. I'm happy to add this to the list.We played Akropolis as soon as it arrived yesterday, and we intend to play another game tonight! Despite how often I think we'll play, the pieces are so well-made that they should last us quite some time. The design here is excellent, and the vertical building is a nice touch that's fun to construct. Instead of building horizontally like most games, I'm a fan of watching my city grow taller than my partner's. It's an interesting mechanic that I hope is adopted elsewhere.Finally, there is much room for replayability here with tile placement rules and conditions. While we haven't been able to test this out yet, I am eager to do so and I have a feeling we'll reach it soon enough.

Another good minimalist design in the same vein as a Kingdomino or Cascadia. I do wish the design was a bid more daring like being able to convert stones into bridges or towers or maybe a modifier or something other than 1 point (which I fully understand can be its own end game strategy). For me, minimalist designs mostly suffer the same fate, that being, after a few plays the 'samey, samey feel' starts to set in and returning to it becomes less and less appealing and while I enjoy the gameplay and excellent graphic design ultimately I prefer either Miyabi or Jubako for this scoring style.

Easy to learn, hard to master. With the expansion it's awesome and deifnitley a top 20 for my collection.

I worked the booth at Gen Con where this game was demoed. However I was teaching a different game and was on the opposite side of the curtain wall. I wanted to play it so bad because it was flying off the shelf so quickly. It literally sold out every day within an hour of opening. Unfortunately I never got a chance to play before Gen Con was over, but I did get a quick demonstration from one of its teachers.I was so excited when It became available and ordered asap. This really is a simple, easy to learn, easy to play game. That doesn’t mean there is no strategy. The true difficulty in the game is the person(s) you are playing against and their skills. Nice artwork, simple game pieces, and easy to follow instructions make this a great game!My only complaint is that all the game pieces were already separated so I didn’t get my “punch” time 🤨. (You gamers know what I am talking about).

I am a gamer and have played many designer games. This one is fantastic. With simple rules and gameplay, but with strategic choices, it hit a sweet spot for me. This can be played with several generations at the table, which is a huge plus. I taught a seven year old, and he grasped it quickly, needing absolutely no help from me. And the short length means it can be played several times back to back, between heavier games, or as a nightcap game with the littles. I love, love it!

I was not sure if I would like this game when my wife gave it to me for my birthday. Just being honest, I was judging a game by the cover. but... This game is awesome!It takes no time to set up, it is easy to learn, and the strategy is basic, but challenging. It allows players of all skill levels to have a chance at getting the win and mess with their opponent by taking the piece they were hoping to grab. (That is what my wife seems to always do to me anyways haha!)We greatly enjoy this game for wind down evenings with a tea and conversation.