Last modified February 3, 2025 by jarjar

An acropolis is a high hill, often located in the center of a city, that houses important buildings or temples, usually from a religious and political perspective. The term comes from the Ancient Greek akropolis (Ἀκρόπολις), meaning "high city" (akros meaning "high" and polis meaning "city").

In Akropolis, you will strive to elevate your city to the most prosperous Acropolis by carefully combining tiles (squares and districts). It is a fluid and fast game, accessible, and generally well-liked by all, with games lasting around 20 minutes. The game reminds me of the excellent Taluva with this possibility of stacking tiles.

The Athena expansion adds small single-space tiles that we receive when completing a layout objective, which gives a feeling to Harmonies where we must place the tiles not only to optimize the base score, but to complete these objectives.

GAME FACTS
In an interview on cultura.com, the author tells us about the origin of the game, which sums up my feelings well: "I wanted to reproduce the pleasure I had in building sandcastles, in building a whole imaginary world in such a short time. Then came this idea of ​​small towns that develop before our eyes, whose shape, unique to each game, is the result of each of our choices. My love for architecture and antiquity is probably also a big part of the choice of this theme. But I also wanted a simple game, accessible to everyone, where you could enjoy exploring new strategies in each game, to have the joy of playing and replaying it endlessly.

TECHNICAL SHEET
Number of games played: 6
Best setup: 3 players
Level: family
My best score: 104

MY IMPRESSION
I loved :
>> Quick setup, with very few rules.
>> The almost total absence of positioning constraints opens the way to interesting strategic choices, where each decision represents a delicate balance between risk and reward.
>> The game can get tense when you're waiting for a tile that could double your score and it doesn't appear... or someone else takes it from you!
>> Very interesting scoring system with this “multiplier” aspect.
>> The box is well compartmentalized, each tile, piece and card has its place.

I liked less:
>> The rulebook, although quite simple, lacks a little precision, the wording "pay 1 stone for each tile" misled us during our first game: we thought that the stones should accumulate on the unpurchased tiles, whereas this is not the case.
>> It's easy to forget to factor in height when counting points.
>> While districts must follow placement rules when calculating points, places do not. However, both types of elements are colored/identified the same way.

A very pleasant game, easy to learn, fast and effective, that goes down well with everyone! The extension brings little twists that make it fun. A game that will stay in my library.

FUN FACTOR >> 🙂 🙂 🙂