[Review] Parthenon: Rise of the Aegean

What better way to write my 400th review, than about a game that
includes over 400 cards - Parthenon: Rise of the Aegean (Z-man Games,
2005 - Andrew Parks, Jason O. Hawkins). Indeed, that is certainly the
most striking thing about this game, as you see a mass of full-sized
cards included in the game. Parthenon is a trading game, slightly akin
to Settlers of Catan, but one in which players sail their ships over
treacherous seas and try to build up their island first.

Parthenon is a difficult game to explain why I like it - but I simply
do. It's lucky, and a bad twist of fate can hurt you at different
parts of the game - something I'm not normally fond of. But I can
forgive this in Parthenon because the game is simply so much fun!
Players are active and involved for the entire game; there's little if
any downtime; and every game plays differently. Parthenon will not
please those who want perfect control over their game - but all those
that I've played it with have had a blast - and there's just something
intriguing about having piles of cards all over the table!

A map of the ancient Aegean area is placed on the table with six
harbors indicated on it: three of them "foreign" harbors: Italy,
Carthage, and Egypt; and three of them "neighboring": Ionia, Sparta,
and Athens. Piles of basic commodities (grain, grapes, olives, ore,
timber, and wool) and rare commodities (pottery, spices, tools, and
papyrus) are placed near the board, as well as a pile of gold cards.
Each player is given an island card, along with an associated "build"
deck and three fleet counters. Piles of philosophy cards and Aegis
cards are placed face up near the board, as well as four shuffled face
down decks: "Wonder Plans", "Hazard", "Harbor Status" and "Event"
cards. One player is randomly selected to be the "Archon" and receives
the Archon counter. Four "Year 1" event cards are placed next to the
board face down, and players set up their individual areas. Each
player has two starting villages that they place next to their Island
card (reference card) to show that they are "built", along with their
"Fleet A" card. A random Harbor Status card is placed face down at
each of the six harbors, and the first round is ready to begin!

The game occurs in three "years", each of which consists of four
rounds. Each round consists of ten phases - in which all players
participate.
- Event Phase: The next event card is flipped face up (except at the
end of a year, in which four new event cards are placed near the
board). The effects of the event card are carried out immediately and
hold effect for the remainder of the year.
- Production Phase: Each player receives commodity cards for each
building they have that produces them.
- Island Trade Phase: Players may trade commodity and Aegis cards with
each other as much or little as they want.
- Journey Phase: Each player may load up their ships with cargo (Aegis
and/or Commodity cards) - six maximum. They show which cards are on
which ship by placing them under the Ship card. Players then determine
where the ships sail to, by placing the fleet counters on the board
next to the harbor they want to go to.
- Hazards: For all ships that are going to a neighboring harbor, one
hazard card is turned over - which may be nothing, or may cause an
accident for one or more ships. After this is resolved, two hazard
cards are turned over for the ships going to foreign harbors. Some
Aegis cards allow players to avoid certain hazards.
- Fleet Trade Phase: Players may examine the harbor status card at
their harbor and decide whether or not to reveal it (if they refuse,
they cannot trade there). There is a specific trade rate for
neighboring ports and foreign ports, but these harbor status cards
often change the value of a commodity or cause players other problems.
It is much better to trade at a foreign port then at a neighboring
port. (for example, a player can trade eight basic commodities for one
rare at a neighboring pots, while they can trade four for one at a
foreign port). Some ports allow special things, such as Papyrus may
only be purchased at Egypt, Fleets may be bought at Carthage, Armies
may be bought at Italy, and Great Wonder Plans can be picked up at
Athens.
- Return Phase: All fleets come home, and players must make sure that
they still have a maximum cargo of six cards.
- Build Phase: Players may spend Commodities to build any of the
structures in their build deck. Players can build more villages,
workshops, shrines, and more. Players can also use abilities of their
buildings, if applicable.
- Discard Phase: Players must discard all but three commodity cards,
or they may keep one of each commodity card but must display them to
all players.
- Archon Phase: Starting with the Archon, each player gives a special
Archon card that they have to another player, demonstrating that they
are voting for that person. The player with the most votes becomes the
Archon.

At any point, if any player has built all the structures on their
island, plus two Wonders of the World, they win the game. Otherwise,
the player that has built the most structures at the end of the third
year is the winner! There are plenty of other rules, and I'll mention
some of them in the following comments...

1.) Components: The majority of the components in the game are the
cards, which are good quality and have great artwork on them. It does
take a bit to sort the cards out and set them up each game, since there
are so many; but they have different backings / colorings, that it's
easy enough. One does need a decent amount of room on the table to fit
all the piles of cards - especially as each player's island area takes
up a lot of space. The ship tokens are simply cardboard counters in a
plastic holder; but since they're not used that much other than where
to show where each ship sails on the board, they're functional enough.
The Island cards are very nice, showing two trading charts (one for
neighboring lands, and one for foreign lands), as well as a pictorial
reference to each building a player has. On the back of each Island
card is a short description of what each special building a player has
does. Everything fits well in a plastic insert that holds all the
cards and other components well, and the small but very nicely drawn
board also fits inside the large square box quite well.

2.) Rules: The rulebook is a large one - with twenty-four pages of
rules with many, many examples and color pictures. The rulebook does
have some excellent formatting, and I found it easy to navigate,
although a table of contents would have been useful. Parthenon isn't
that difficult to learn, but it does take some explaining - maybe about
fifteen to twenty minutes, because there is a lot to absorb. I was
able to teach the game fairly easily to people, and teenagers as well
as adults grasped it; but it's not a game you can just throw down and
play. After about two turns, everyone quickly understands what is
going on, and suddenly they realize the vast array of options available
to them.

3.) Archon: At first, the Archon doesn't seem to be that powerful of a
person. As the game progresses, they are shown to be a rather mighty
force at the right moment. For example, some Hazard cards state
something to the effect "the ship with the most goods loses all of
them". If there is a tie between players, then the Archon decides who
breaks that tie. An Archon breaks all ties, actually - including those
that involve timing. Ties don't happen all the time; but when they do,
it's a big deal, thus the voting phase for the Archon is crucial.
Players can't vote for themselves, so some wheeling and dealing occurs,
as players try to vote for a player who will help them. The Archon
often is the player who is in last place, so it serves slightly as a
game equalizer.

4.) Trading: I've seen on the internet that some people advocate that
they never have to send their ships out and can simply stay at home and
trade with other players. This will certainly decrease a player's
risks, but I don't think canny players will allow one person to "sit at
home". They can simply stop trading with him. Besides, there are often
some useful trades at certain harbors, as well as the fact that a
player can get cheap armies and warships overseas. It's certainly fun
to trade and get good deals, and players must learn to balance trading
with other players and with the different harbors.

5.) Hazards: Of course, every ship that sails takes a risk. The more
goods that a player carries, the greater the risk, and I enjoyed how
there is a distinct difference between sailing to a neighboring land
and a foreign land. Players can help decrease bad events by hiring
warships to ward off the pirates, or "Gifts of Poseidon", which allow
them to redraw a hazard card. Yes, it's frustrating to have a fleet
wiped out with a lot of goods on it, but a player should know what
risks they are taking and can spread out their trading on several ships
to help mitigate the risks.

6.) Great Wonders: The first time a player goes to Athens, they
receive a random "Great Wonder Plans". If they follow the instructions
on that card (for example - pay two gold commodities), they can upgrade
the card to "partial construction". Following the instructions on that
card, they can then upgrade it to the Great Wonder card itself, which
gives a special ability. A player cannot avoid getting Great Wonders,
since they are necessary to win, but they are expensive; and so a
player must be careful when to pay for them. The effects a Great
Wonder gives are fairly good benefits (I particularly like the Temple
of Isis, which allows a player to ignore Storm Hazard Cards when going
to a foreign port). A player has no real choice over which Wonder they
build, and the Wonders are of unequal power, so at first it might seem
that luck of the draw is important. But the wonders that are more
powerful than the others are also much more expensive, so it all evens
out in the end. The first Wonder plans are free, but the second cost
one gold.

7.) Philosophy: A player needs to get Papyrus from Egypt (the only way
to get it), because it allows them to build an Academy. When a player
builds an Academy, they choose one available Philosophy (Epicureanism,
Idealism, Materialism, Nihilism, Sophistry, or Stoicism). Each
philosophy gives a special ability to the player - such as Stoicism,
which allows a player to ignore all hazard cards for one fleet once per
year. Players can expend gold to adopt the philosophies of other
players, which is an interesting twist, and can give a shrewd player
many multiple powers. Philosophies may seem like a waste of time to
novice players (why not build more villages?), but they can help a
player win the game when used correctly.

8.) Commodities: The way a player gets commodities is a little like
Settlers of Catan, in that the more villages they have, the more goods
they have. In fact, I've seen most beginner players build all of their
villages as quickly as they can. But avoiding the more expensive,
powerful buildings may put a player behind. The rare commodities are
much more valuable, and each player has one specific one that they can
produce.

9.) Players: The game plays best with three or six players, because
the rare commodities are distributed most evenly in that situation.
However, the game rules acknowledge this and give the players in a four
or five player game who are at a small disadvantage extra bonuses in
the beginning. Still, a six player game is my favorite, not just
because of how evenly the game runs, but because the player
interaction, especially the trading and voting, is so high.

10.) Time: I've found that our games run about two hours, if all
players move at a good clip. Two hours may seem long for a trading
game of this type; but since all players are involved throughout each
phase, the time flies by. Yes, a three player game goes much more
quickly, but I'll sacrifice time to have more players.

11.) Choices: A player has a huge amount of choices in the game. What
buildings should they build? Should they go for the Academy, which
gives them powerful, useful philosophies? Should they build a
Fortress, so they can produce their own armies? Should they build the
Treasury, so that they can store six cards per turn, instead of three?
Should they build their villages and workshops, to produce more goods?
And which Philosophy to pick? And where to send your goods? Should
you buy warships to protect each of your fleets, or suffer the vagaries
of chance? There are a LOT of choices in this game, and each player
can play a completely different game, and try different tactics and
strategies.

12.) Fun Factor: Because of all the choices involved, I thought the
game was immensely fun. Even when one of my best ships sank to the
bottom of the sea, I still had a great time. There's just something
satisfying about building up your island and slowly increasing in power
and wealth as the game goes by. The battle to see who is Archon, the
fierce trading, and the way that players are totally immersed in the
experience, make this one of the most fun games I've played recently.

13.) Education: I normally can find an excuse to use most board games
in education, but Parthenon naturally lends itself to it. When playing
with my school kids, I was able to teach them about the different
philosophies of the ancient Greeks, the importance of certain trade
goods, the hazards of ancient travel, and how to be a shrewd trader.
Parthenon is an excellent classroom tool.

If you don't mind a bit of luck in exchange for an excellent, immersive
theme, then Parthenon is great choice. I haven't seen it on too many
top ten lists for 2005, but I suspect that it has great staying power
and will be played in the years to come. If Z-man Games continues to
produce original, fun-filled games such as Parthenon, they will surely
become an American board company to be reckoned with. Are you tired of
Mediterranean trading games? Don't let that discourage you from picking
this one up - it's one of the best.

Tom Vasel
"Real men play board games"
www.tomvasel.com

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