Santorini: Thank the Gods
An Abstract Game With Heavenly Charm
Published by: Roxley Games Created by: Gordon Hamilton
There was something fascinating, as a kid, stacking Lego into these monstrous structures of colorful ABS plastic. Buildings, robots, cars—wheels plugged into the bottom of chassis, with hinges of polycarbonate windows swinging from the sides, DeLorian style, in the most anti-aerodynamic way possible. I would spend hours imagining in ignorant bliss creations that would have made architects and safety inspectors cringe in agony.
Obviously, I grew out of that child-like creativity, but the endearment of stacking and building ever upwards still lingers about in my mind—even though my construction acumen has severely diminished. However, once in a while a board game comes along to pat that part of my brain into alertness, even if it’s in small quantities.
Santorini manages to do this with a simple rule set and some heavenly powers. Its charm a cutesy aesthetic that hides a mean game. Its depth as dastardly as Hades. You’ll find out why this is one my favorite abstract games around.
what goes up…
Worker On Top Of a Tower
I appreciate when some games, via design, necessity or both, buck the trend and aim upwards in their pursuit of novel mechanics. Santorini is an abstract game that pushes its players to build ever upwards, both as a countermeasure to an opponent, or for victory. As stated above, the rules are fairly straightforward; a player chooses one of their two workers and moves it over one space, orthogonally or diagonally within the same plane or moving upwards or downwards one level. Then, they construct adjacent to the worker moved one piece of the structures that will eventually become the towers that they’ll need to climb.
Players then will need to jockey from space to space navigating their worker around the increasing verticality of the map in hopes of reaching an empty third level. Their opponent in turn capping off three-level towers with a (satisfyingly attractive) blue dome effectively cutting off any chances of victory on them; a cat and mouse game where both players are cat and mouse at the same time.
The Game Board
The trick then is to not create a path for your opponent they can capitalize and steal victory from you, while also maneuvering your own workers into places that they can launch a final push for that third level. With such a restrictive movement rule, every piece placed and worker moved can be the deciding factor for your win or theirs. Santorini is deceptively simple, but each choice made monumental—a win condition can be met on a hairpin turn by a single miscalculated decision.
With that being said, when the god cards are brought into play, the game suddenly opens up with possibilities.
the gods must be crazy
The God Cards
After you’ve properly acquainted yourself to the mechanics, the next step in Santorini is introducing the god powers that flip the game on its head. These cards are rule breakers. They perform a function that either extends what you can do from the normal movement and placement of building parts, sets restrictions on win conditions, or introduces new mechanics into the game. The kicker here is that a god power is held by each player, setting up an asymmetrical confrontation the likes of Cerberus versus Heracles that will determine who can wrap their heads around their special ability for victory.
The Game Pieces
While some powers dovetail nicely with each other—their power set akin to a mongoose fending off a cobra—some others still feel like placing a tractor vs a polar bear; both effective at what they do yet we’re wondering how they managed to get onto the same ring. This brings forth one of the few quibbles I have with Santorini, mainly when including some god powers, the asymmetry breaks down and feels a bit off kilter when certain powers face off each other. A player may have an easier time utilizing a particular power over their competitor, while that person may have a narrower use case to succeed.
Mind you, this small hiccup is mitigated by the drafting system used in the game. A player picking the cards will try to keep them as even as possible as they have the last pick in the draft. In that regard, the game allows for a balanced approach to the god powers getting into your hands. Even then, players can just use whichever set of powers they feel have a good balance between them and skip any that don’t.
on top of mount olympus
Victory At The Top
Santorini will probably become one of those gateway games in due time. At least for me, it’s one of them already. If I need a game to gently introduce to someone what modern board games can be, this is a game that could do that. It’s a springboard to other games of this nature that have more involved mechanics and ramp up the difficulty. With the god powers, this game has some of that depth as well.
Its tactile nature—the stackable pieces, the mini workers with a sly smile, the floating board that elevates the playing area from the table, even the god cards are nice, big, tarot sized—it all lends to a pleasant little game that feels impressive once you’re done, and gives a sense of satisfaction when you unlock the ascending structures and find yourself victorious at the top. If you want a game to make you feel clever, this is it.
It’s also a fine example that these introductory titles can be quick teaches and even quicker games. Once you settle into the rhythm of things and have a couple of rounds under your belt, the sessions can be done within 10 to 15 minutes. All that under an attractive, top notch production. The artwork by David Forest and Lina Cossette is charming and easygoing sidestepping the admittedly tragic source material’s mythology.
As far as games of this nature go, Santorini is a prime title for your library. Highly recommended.
To Consider…
+ Easy game to teach and play
+ Gorgeous production; easily one of the prettiest abstract games around
+ Has added depth and replayabilty with the God Powers
+ Has a quick turnaround for games. Plenty of “One more round” to it
+ Very affordable; Great bang for your buck
+/- Some God Powers don’t mesh well together, but mitigated by card drafting
+/- It plays up to 4 (in teams), but this is best at 2 and playable at 3 but not that fun
