Cyclades | Strategy Game | Ages 14+ | 2 to 6 Players | 60-90 Minutes

Great upgrade from the original but fair warning this does not include the hero or monster minis.

First off, I never played the older editions of Cyclades so I'm new to this game with this edition. I have played Kemet in the same family, as well as several other similar area control games. That said, area control is not generally my main go-to type of game. I'm more in the vein of strategic resource engine-buildy eurogames, but a quick fun "dudes on a map" game is great to hit up every once in awhile with the right group. For someone who doesn't normally love this type of game, there's a lot here I really enjoy and appreciate.In regard to components, this is excellent as a "standard" edition. So many games have fancy deluxe editions now, and there are nicer versions of this as well, but I was super pleased with the bits in here. The cardboard is nice and thick, the cards are good quality, the shaped meeples are awesome, the standees are really nice, and even a really nice box insert. My only super minor gripe with the insert is that the cool flap is actually attached to the box, so you can't slide everything up to put the empty punchboards underneath for keeping it flush with the lid, so vertical storage isn't ideal. The art is also wonderful - I love the options for a color-neutral side of the map, and the overall artwork is super well done. Iconography is great and we had basically no visual issues with the game. For color-blind folks, the different colored units are all the same shape, so that might cause some issues. High marks for all the visuals and physical bits.Mechanically, the rules here are slightly complex, but not as bad as I expected and once we got going the overall flow of each round/cycle is pretty smooth. I love the idea of running through the auction to each get a god, then just going down through those actions. This limits what you can do on your turn, but in a good way - it keeps you focused and your turns relatively short. The map is semi-randomly set up so each game will vary, which definitely helps for scaling to different players counts, and very likely creates interesting strategic geography from game to game. The combat system is simple and quick, and pretty much all of the actions are fairly straight-forward. It took us a bit to get used to the different icons for units, mercenaries, and heroes, but you're generally just adding cool stuff to the map or moving stuff around on the map. The goal of getting 3 metropolises is great since there's a few different ways to get them. You can actually play a completely defensive non-confrontational game if desired, or just go for all out combat. Likely everyone will do a mix of both and it takes a bit to ramp up, but games can end quick with the right moves. We did find that the monsters added a decent amount of chaos and disruption, but they are available to all players and you do get to bid for action order, so it's hard to argue that they're imbalanced. Overall, for an area control game this had a familiar feel but does some unique stuff I really like and it feels a lot less like a standard "defend/attack/roll dice" game than the visuals might imply.For all my praise, I will say that not everyone in my group loved it. It is possible to beat up on certain players, (although you cannot completely eliminate someone) which can be frustrating but one of the players getting heavily attacked early on almost came back to win. Once you take heavy losses it's hard to not feel completely out of the game, but the game overall should be quick enough that this hopefully happens fairly late anyway. There's generally not a huge incentive to gang up on a certain player, but this is kind of the nature of area control games anyway so folks should know what they're getting into. I think the swinginess of your strength on the map and available resources can be a hurdle, especially with some of the monsters than can shake things up quite a bit - wiping out regions, stealing money, stealing troops, blocking areas, etc. But again, that's kind of the point of these games - constantly fighting to keep what you have.Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by this. As a primarily strategy euro gamer, this is an area control game I am happy to play. Rules are approachable, play time is relatively short once you understand the rules, it has some mechanically cool stuff going on, and the components are just a joy to play with. Zero problem recommending this!

I took this game out of the box and was impressed by the quality of the components. I guess other versions of this game come with minis that are not included in this issue. Be aware of this if you're a collector.This an area control game so there is not a lot in the way of story inclusion like Gloomhaven or other more rpg leaning games.While the directions are complete and not too difficult, I turned to the internet for a play tutorial. I just learn better that way.While not really up my alley gamewise, you do get a quality game for your money.