Pillars of Heracles Game Review

Mythology from Mount Olympus

Some might say we’re in the golden age of board gaming. It seems nearly every week there’s a major release, and the revolving door of hype is always spinning. So many games are vying for attention, and only so many can make it through the door. When Pillars of Heracles hit the table, one player said, “Where did this come from? I’ve heard absolutely nothing about this.” And there lies the downside of board game hype: not every new game gets love.

Admittedly, I also hadn’t heard of this game until I walked by the Grand Gamers Guild booth at Origins and caught a couple of turns in action. Pillars comes to us from Hungarian designer Oláh Tamás, and after a successful Kickstarter, the game has made its way to retail. The pitch—an epic history of Ancient Greece mixed with Greek gods and asymmetric powers—had me running to the table. But with so many Ancient Greek-themed games already out there (Cyclades, Khora, Akropolis, and Santorini, to name a few), where does this one fall in the pack?

Pillars of Heracles is more of a “3.5X” game rather than a full 4X (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate). Its standout feature is the boatload of game modes and modular mechanics that let…

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