Age of Mythology Review

Balancing licensed properties with original products, but making sure that components and graphic design are created to the highest standards seems to be Eagle Games' main aim. Age of Mythology: The Board Game is no exception - combining a strong license (it is based on the hugely popular Microsoft/Ensemble Studios game Age of Mythology) with superbly designed components (and lots of them!) and an excellent game system, it really is a huge leap from the licensed-from-popular-videogames properties of yesteryear (Donkey Kong? Q*Bert? No thanks!). To be fair, this is mostly due to the fact that computer and video games themselves have evolved to become exceptionally deep and complex, whereas the video to board game translations of 20 years ago were based on games with a handful of levels and hugely repetitive gameplay.

Age of Mythology comes in a sturdy and beautifully illustrated box, which contains some excellent components and gorgeous boards. The rules are well presented and while there are a few minor holes here and there, they are for the most part very well laid out with many examples of strategies and hints for play. For gamers that mostly play pretty light games, it’s a little daunting upon first inspection - but we soon found the rules to be very easy to digest and to understand.

The game itself plays well, with very fast gameplay given its complexity and the range of options available each turn. It is very intuitive, with players seeming to take only a couple of turns before strategies start to fall into place, and objectives begin to become clear. One major complaint that we do have is that of the combat system - it dramatically slows the flow of the game, and seems too reliant on luck for its outcome. At far too many times have expensive units fallen to far inferior ones, which seems to lessen the point of buying large units in the first place - especially given their cost – although this does actually serve to sometimes bring a David & Goliath feel to the battles, it is more often than not very frustrating. Also, due to the fact that only two players are involved in combat, it leaves other players with nothing to do, which can last for quite some time - even 5 minutes seems like a long time for someone simply watching two other players taking turns to throw dice! The winner of the combat is the player that throws the most sixes during each fight between two units - with surviving units remaining in the battle. As you can imagine, this is not the most elegant or strategic of battle systems.

Perhaps its biggest crime in the eyes of some players is not that it has a very slow, luck-dependent combat system, but that it doesn't play like a translation of a real time strategy game. Age of Mythology definitely plays like a board game, but both its territorial expansion and combat do make it feel like less of an RTS than something turn based. Obviously it is hard to implement a suitably 'real time' system that feels right while at the same time creating a balanced game system, but something that I feel comes close to this is - perhaps rather surprisingly - the Cheapass Games release One False Step for Mankind. As the majority of Age of Mythology: The Board Game's mechanics are so well implemented and balanced - with extra thematic flavouring compensating even further - it is hard to complain about them except to mention the fact that the RTS feel is somewhat lost in translation.

The length of the game seems just about right for a game of this complexity, and with an adequate combat variant (using 5s and 6s seems to be a very good solution) this can be streamlined even further. The mechanic of drawing cards but only being able to use three during any given turn adds a welcome frisson of agony - it is often very hard to choose what to do next, or even what cards to keep hold of or discard.

Age of Mythology comes highly recommended for players wanting to make a small leap from lighter fare into deeper games, as the level of complexity is pitched at just the right level to be understood and appreciated even by novice gamers, but it is also deep and involving enough even for those who are more experienced. A quality game that, despite not really having the feel of an RTS, definitely feels like an excellent board game - and fortunately it isn't a game that is hugely dependent on combat, so the potentially devastating effect of the cumbersome combat system doesn't hurt it too much.

Summary

Presentation: Gorgeously painted artwork adorns box, cards and boards. No inner tray to store all of the miniatures and resource cubes though, which is a massive oversight. 7.3/10

Clarity of Rules: For such an intimidatingly long rulebook, learning is made easy with well structured and helpfully illustrated rules. 9.0/10

Game Length: The game has a ‘timed’ ending, so never seems to go on too long. On the contrary, games always seem at least one turn too short to accomplish all that budding emperors want to achieve! 9.2/10

Value: Tons of components and lots of replayability means that Age of Mythology provides great value for money. 9.5/10

Overall: A superb translation of computer game to board game. While not necessarily faithful to the real time strategy style of game that the computer-based Age of Mythology is, it is a very well designed game of resource management and occasional (thankfully!) combat. 8.8/10 (not an average)

Review by Jason M. Brown