Santorini (2004)
Santorini (2004) Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Santorini Instructions
The object of Santorini is to climb to the highest level.
To setup the game, make a five by five platform of white squares. One player takes the two men shaped as cubes — the other player takes the two men shaped as cylinders. The cube player begins by placing his two men on different squares. The cylinder player then does the same. Men can never occupy the same square.
Starting with the cube player, the players alternate turns. A turn has two parts: moving and building.
Each turn a player moves one of their men, to an unoccupied neighbouring square.
That man then builds a tile on an unoccupied neighbouring square. The highest level is three tiles above the platform. A tile built on this third level is immediately replaced by a dome. A man cannot climb on top of a dome and a tile cannot be placed on top of a dome.
When moving, a man can jump down any number of levels, but can climb up at most one level. A man who climbs to the third level has won the game.
Beginners should play Santorini without gods or heroes. After playing some games, players may wish to add gods and heroes.
Santorini's Gods & Heroes
Before the game begins, deal some gods or heroes face-up on the table. Players simultaneously point to the god / hero they would like their men to follow.* Put away all the other gods and heroes.
Gods are usually more powerful than heroes. Gods can use their powers as often as they wish. A hero can only use their power once.
*Different players may follow the same god or hero.
The Eight Godly Powers
Pan — God of wild passion You also win if you jump down 2 levels.
Hermes — Messenger of the gods You may move a man twice before placing a tile or dome.
Aphrodite — Goddess of love If an opponent's man starts its turn near one of your men, it must end its turn near one of your men.
Ares — God of war You may move onto a square with an opponent if you can push the opponent straight back onto an unoccupied square.
Athena — Goddess of wisdom When you step up a level, no other man may step up a level until your next turn.
Herakles — Strong man made god You may build an additional tile. Build it on a different square than the first tile.
Atlas — Shoulders Earth You may build domes as if they were tiles.
Dionysus — God of wine When you build a dome, take an additional turn as if you were any other player. Use that player's godly power and move their men. If you win when moving for another player, they get the glory.
Santorini FAQs
What's the most common mistake? Players trying to build more than one square away from the man who moved.
Must I move? You must move a man each turn and then build around that man. If this is impossible, you have lost the game and your men are removed from play.
My Greek god seems to allow me to break the rules. Gods have a way of doing that. Follow your god rather than the rules.
I've run out of tiles! What can I do? For extra tiles, a tower of tiles with a dome on top may be removed along with the platform tile underneath. This empty space behaves the same as a domed tower.
My opponent is weak. What can I do to make our games more interesting? Let your opponent choose a god while you go without (or choose a hero).
My opponent and I disagree over the interpretation of a godly power. What should we do? Agree on an interpretation before your next game. You may want to try out both interpretations to see which one leads to a more interesting game.
Where can I get heroes and more gods? Download heroes and more gods on www.boardgamegeek.com
What other variants are worth trying? Try playing on a 4x4 board. Experienced players may try pointing to two gods, instead of just one. A 3-player game requires that at least one, and preferably two of the players take a chaos-creating god like Ate (Goddess of Mischief) or Triton (Trumpeter of the Sea).
Contents
This version of Santorini includes 75 tiles, 10 domes, 2 cube-men, 2 cylinder-men, a set of instructions, 8 gods, a 5"x5"x5" box, and a lowly rubber band. Everything is white.
160 games of Santorini are in this limited edition run. The major two differences with this run versus the previous run is that I have substituted a box for the nice-but-expensive mesh bag and have included three more gods.
Credits
© 2007 Dr. Gordon Hamilton ([email protected]). Santorini may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes.
Credit: Thanks to Stephen Tavener for programming Santorini on Zillions of Games! All profits from Santorini go to the Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens.