Akropolis: Pantheon
Akropolis: Pantheon Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Overview and Goal of the Game
The goal of the Architects is to work together to construct the Capital and achieve the highest possible score. You'll need to combine your skills and play cooperatively.
As you progress through the Scenarios, it will become increasingly difficult to score top points!
Construct beautiful Divine Altars to the gods who will protect your Capital, radiating its glory throughout the ancient world.
Contents
- 20 Architectural Challenge tiles
- 3 Scenario tiles (Corinth, Sparta, Athens)
- 5 starting tiles
- 20 Divine Altar markers:
- 5 blue, for HESTIA, goddess of the hearth
- 4 yellow, for HERMES, god of trade
- 4 red, for ARES, god of war
- 4 purple, for ZEUS, king of the gods
- 3 green, for DEMETER, goddess of agriculture
Setup
PANTHEON expansion components:
- Choose as a team which Scenario tile you wish to play: Corinth, Sparta or Athens (in increasing difficulty).
- Give each Architect 1 starting tile, at random.
- Place the remaining starting tile(s) face up in the center of the table, to create the Capital. If you have more than 1 starting tile remaining, decide together how you wish to connect them, but do not stack them.
- Shuffle the 20 Architectural Challenge tiles face down, then flip 3 face up. Next to each faceup Architectural Challenge tile, place 1 Divine Altar marker of its color.
- Keep the remaining Divine Altar markers in a reserve.
You'll need the following components from the AKROPOLIS base game:
- Give each Architect 2 Stone cubes. Keep the remaining cubes in a reserve.
- Give each Architect 3 City tiles. Hold your City tiles in your hand as if they were cards, without showing the other players.
- Keep the remaining City tiles nearby, face down. Unlike in the base game, you do not create stacks or a Construction Site. Use all the City tiles, no matter how many Architects are playing.
Do not use the starting tiles from the original base game. Return them to the box.
You can use the scorepad to count your points.
Example setup for 3 Architects.
Playing the Game
Decide who plays first. Each Architect will have 3 tiles in their hand, as explained during Setup.
On your turn, you have 2 options:
- Add 1 tile to your City, OR
- Add 1 tile to the Capital.
AKROPOLIS PANTHEON is a cooperative game, so you win or lose as a team. You'll need to communicate well and share information to coordinate your strategies. You can describe your tiles, but cannot show them to others.
Add 1 Tile to Your City
Placing tiles in your City allows you to complete one or more Architectural Challenge tiles (see explanation of Architectural Challenge tiles, below). Place your tiles as you would in the AKROPOLIS base game.
- A tile placed on the 1st level must border another of your City tiles along at least one edge.
- A tile placed on a higher level must be constructed on top of 3 hexes and must cover hexes on at least 2 different tiles. It cannot hang over empty space.
- You take 1 Stone for each Quarry you cover.
Add 1 Tile to the Capital (cost: 1 Stone)
Sending a tile to the distant Capital will cost you: You must pay the transport cost of 1 Stone.
Once an Architect has paid 1 Stone into the reserve, they can add 1 tile to the Capital. The same tile placement rules apply as for your City.
Reminder: You only count the points for the Capital at the end of the game.
Finish your turn by drawing a City tile to bring your hand back up to 3 tiles.
Architectural Challenges and Divine Altars
There is one major difference between PANTHEON and the base game: You only score the Plazas in the Capital that contain a Divine Altar of their color. There are 20 Divine Altars, for the 20 Architectural Challenges:
- 5 Altars to HESTIA, goddess of the hearth (blue)
- 4 Altars to HERMES, god of trade (yellow)
- 4 Altars to ARES, god of war (red)
- 4 Altars to ZEUS, king of the gods (purple)
- 3 Altars to DEMETER, goddess of agriculture (green)
On your turn, if your own City meets the conditions of an Architectural Challenge tile, you can choose to complete that Challenge.
Discard that Architectural Challenge tile and immediately place its Divine Altar on an unoccupied Plaza in the Capital.
It does not cost anything to construct a Divine Altar.
Anatomy of an Architectural Challenge Tile
The anatomy diagram labels an Architectural Challenge tile as follows:
- Name of the Architectural Challenge.
- You must place the tile stated to complete this Architectural Challenge.
- You can complete the Architectural Challenge if you have this layout in your city.
- Example layout to be constructed.
- Architectural Challenge to complete.
- A District of the corresponding color.
On Architectural Challenge tiles with a BIRD'S-EYE VIEW, the level of the tiles is not taken into account.
On Architectural Challenge tiles with a 3D VIEW, the levels of your tiles may differ from the ones in the illustration: The diagram simply demonstrates the condition that card requires.
Immediately replace a completed Architectural Challenge with another tile and its Altar. You can complete more than one Architectural Challenge card on a single turn.
You can discard an Architectural Challenge tile (and its matching Divine Altar) for the cost of 1 Stone, and then replace it with a new Architectural Challenge/Altar pair. Once an Architectural Challenge has been discarded, you can no longer complete it.
At the start of the game, you can only have 3 Architectural Challenge tiles. At any point, an Architect may pay 5 Stones to unlock 1 additional space and immediately place an Architectural Challenge tile in it, giving you a wider choice. There is no limit to the number of additional spaces you can unlock.
Additional spaces remain unlocked for the remainder of the game.
When an Architect pays a cost (to send a tile to the Capital, or unlock 1 additional space), they must pay all those Stones from their personal supply. However, other players may give you Stones, as long as they pay tax on them. For each Stone you give to someone, you must also pay 1 Stone into the reserve.
Example: Sophia wants to give 2 Stones to Hugo, who has too few. This means she must spend 4 Stones (2 to Hugo; 2 return to the reserve).
End of the Game
The game ends when all the City tiles have been played, including those in the Architects' hands.
Check your score in the Capital. You only count Plazas that have a Divine Altar. To help you count your points, remove any Divine Altars that do not meet the conditions for the Scenario chosen.
Your individual Cities do not score you any points.
You can use the scorepad to help you add up your points, as in the base game. Compare your score with the Scenario tile.
Scenario Tiles
Choose as a team which Scenario tile to play: Corinth, Sparta or Athens (in increasing difficulty). Each Scenario tile sets the conditions for which Divine Altars are scored and the score to compare your total against at the end of the game.
The Athens tile, the only one fully visible in the printed setup illustration, carries this printed text above its scoring grid: "Only Divine Altars on higher levels (2nd level or above) are scored." Its bottom edge also shows three altar-color icons (purple, red and blue), each marked with a small check or cross.
Transcriber's note: the target score values on each Scenario tile (two rows of player-count figures, three columns each) and the exact meaning of the altar-color marks are printed as small artwork in the source PDF and cannot be read reliably at the available resolution. They are not transcribed here, and no values have been guessed. The Corinth and Sparta tile text is hidden in the source illustration. Consult the physical Scenario tiles, or a higher-resolution copy, for the thresholds and for which Altars are scored in each Scenario.
Advice and Clarifications
- By working together, you can make sure you have free Plazas at the optimum time.
- Stone is an essential resource: You can produce it in your City, but also in the Capital.
- Consider how best to complete the Architectural Challenges among you, taking into account the layout of your Cities and the tiles you each hold.
- You can anticipate the type of Architectural Challenges that will come up by looking at the Divine Altars that remain.
- It is possible to crush a Divine Altar. A crushed Altar is lost forever.
- The diagrams on the Architectural Challenge tiles are simply examples. Although you must adhere to the explanation, your layout may look slightly different.