Cyclades - played

We managed a get together at Steedo’s to play Cyclades - a game set in the myths of Greece as you try and create 3 (mega) metropolises to win (I assume this means dominance over the Greek islands). 

To build a metropolis you need to have built 4 other settlements - Fort, Temple, Port and University. There are other ways of getting metropolis - using Heroes attributes and exchanging 4 philosophers …

The game sets up in a similar way to Catan with troop and ship placement - gaining either priestesses or food. You establish the order and actions by bidding on which God you want - each god gives a different building and soldier/ship/priestess/philosopher/mercenary and the opportunity to buy more or a hero or monster (which could be a play once or a placement on the board (which may need upkeep by sacrificing a priestess).

We played with 5 - Steedo (Red), DK (Yellow), Sylon (Purple), BUR (Green) and myself (Blue). The placement caused a tad of frustration for me as DK took two priestesses meaning that none were available for me. So we ended up closely placed on the islands.

Early game I pick up a monster which allowed me to collect extra food and Jason as a hero. There was much building. DK built some ports - which was very nice of him as I was able to use Jason’s hero power (using opponents ships as if they were mine) - so a quick invasion gave me two ports and blocked DK’s ships. 

The game continued on with other players picking up metropolises - much of the game is a look over there while you do something else somewhere else. DK was struggling to get back into the game … BUR had attacked Sylon and I had stolen one of Steedo’s settlements to get a second metropolis. 

In the final turn I picked Poseidon (who allows to build ships), so I would be able to use Jason’s other hero skill - burn the hero if all of your ships are in play for a metropolis - which is what I did for the win. Apparently Steedo and Sylon had spotted another way I could have gone for the win using Jason’s power to travel to BUR island and steal a university …

So Cyclades was a fun game - I don’t think we scratched the surface of the game play. Certainly the bidding was incredibly civilised - we should have been more challenging to each other. Heroes and monsters was something we didn’t use very much - these can be very powerful. I’m not sure that I will get a win - the others will have leant. 

Morts