I have a hard time deciding how to rate Attika. It's a decent game on its own merits--fast-paced, and offering a high degree of strategy for a game that is approachable. But in the end I can't help but find myself disappointed, thinking that this decent game could have been really great.

Attika has all the things that have come to define Eurogaming. First, it has high production value. The large hexogonal tiles used to assemble a board are thick and sturdy, the disks used to lay the foundations of your "civilization" are colorful, the player mats are well-designed, even the rulebook and box are colorful and carefully arranged. Second, the game plays quickly (particularly with 2), emphasizes multiple strategies, each of which can bring victory, avoids player elimination, and (most of all for Attika) is essentially a game about the efficient collection and use of resources.

But Attika also suffers from some of the popular Euros' limitations--I was particularly disappointed (and other reviewers echo this) in its total abandonment of any real theme or flavor. In theory, the four colors of player tokens represent different civilizations--but each has identical tokens and no particular abilities. Like T&E, Attika's thematic elements are mere window dressing.

But Attika has an important feature that makes up for this shortcoming--it scales wonderfully. While geeklists on this site claim it's best with 2, I think it plays well with more as well. And it has a fairly high replay value too. Bottom line--if you like other popular Euros, then you will likely find Attika satisfying. And the game's ability to scale and short playing time will probably make it easy to find opponents.