WHAT IS IT?

Mykerinos is an archaeological themed tactical strategy game for 2-4 players, designed by Nicolas Oury, published and distributed by Ystari and Rio Grande.


WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA?

Each player is an archaeologist trying to earn prestige from excavations and museum showings.


WHAT'S IN IT FOR ME?

Mykerinos comes in a smallish box that includes several parcel tiles, a board for the museum, several small wooden cubes of different colors, player markers and a rules sheet.




WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO WITH THAT?

In each of four game turns, or "seasons", the tiles (called "parcels") are laid out in four groups of two tiles (six groups of two tiles during the final season). The tile groups are considered to be connected for movement purposes, but are scored separately, so they are usually placed with a little space between them to distinguish the sections. Players explore these parcel areas by placing their cubes into the sections, trying to claim a majority of each area. The first placement must be a single cube, but subsequent placements can be two cubes as long as the first of the two cubes can connect to a previously placed cube and the second cube can connect to the cube just placed.



At any point during a turn, a player may "pass", thus ending their turn and giving other players an extra turn(s). The advantage of passing first is that ties on parcel areas are broken by whoever passed first. Thus, if red, blue and green each have 2 cubes in a parcel, but red passed first, green second and blue last, then red would win the parcel and green would get 2nd place. Also, since you begin each exploration phase by receiving only a set number of cubes from your general supply (11 for a 2 or 3 player game, 8 for a 4 player game), if you pass earlier, you will likely have more cubes available for the following turns, as your unused cubes remain accessible for the next turn.

Once all players have passed, each section is resolved, with the winner having the first option of choosing either one of the two parcel tiles or placing one of their cubes into the museum. The player who finished 2nd in the parcel area will then get to choose from the remaining tile (if the first person took one of them) or to place one of their cubes into the museum. If either the first or second place players chose to place a cube in the museum, then the 3rd place player (if there is one... not all parcels will necessarily have all players' cubes in them) will get to take a tile.

The tiles are significant in that some of them contain prestige points (2-5), which are scored immediately, and all of them except for one (the 5 pointer) allow access to a special "patron", which is pictured on the back of the tile and referred to by symbol on the front of the tile (so you always know which ones you're going for and getting). There are five patrons, and during the exploration phases, you can use your patron tiles to give you special abilities while exploring, as follows:

Lady Violet (purple heart): allows you to take a cube from your general supply (normally not useable) and use it
Lord Lemon (yellow triangle): allows you to place a cube on a pyramid space on a tile, which are otherwise not accessible
Sir Brown (brown circle): allows you to place a cube into the museum, instead of playing onto the parcel tiles
Mrs. Blackmore (black plus sign): allows you to place two cubes onto the parcel area when beginning an exploration
Colonel Tangerine (orange diamond): allows you to place three cubes to extend an exploration, instead of the usual two cubes



Each of these patrons can only be used once per season per tile that you have, so for example, if you have two Lord Lemon tiles, then twice during each excavation season you will be able to place a cube on a pyramid space. Patron tiles are held and collected throughout the game, so by the fourth turn of the game, each player will likely have a collection of several different patron tiles at their disposal. In addition to their special abilities during excavations and the scoring factors patrons afford in the museum (see below), complete sets of all five patrons are also worth 5 prestige points each.

- The Museum -

Each wing of the museum features one of the five patrons, and the numbers 2, 3 and 5. When adding cubes to the museum, players must first place a cube into either the 2 or the 3 rooms, and then into the 5, provided one of their cubes is already in the adjacent 2 or 3 room. At the end of the game, a player will score their highest numbered occupied room in a wing times the number of patron tiles for that wing that they hold. So if you have 4 or 5 Lady Violet cards, you're going to want to have a cube in the 5 room of Lady Violet's wing in the museum. Or it can work the opposite way, where try to get a cube into the 5 room of Lady Violet's wing early in the game and then try to win as many of her tiles as you can during the excavation phases. Only one cube can occupy any room, so as with the parcel tiles, there can be some tough decisions about when/where to place cubes.




WHAT TIME IS IT?

Mykerinos seems to fly by, and takes about 40-50 minutes, give or take 5-10 minutes depending on the players and how much time each spends making decisions.


WHAT DO YOU CARE?

I love Mykerinos. I think it's an excellent game with a lot of great tactical decisions throughout. Every aspect of Mykerinos has an important decision that impacts both your own game and what the other players must decide to do; the cube placement on the parcels, which can block off desired paths for other players; the choice of when to pass and thus take the advantage on a tied parcel, forcing another player to choose whether to use their remaining cubes to take it over; the choices of what cards you take during the survey phase; and the choices you make as far as when and where to place your cubes into the museum.

I've played Mykerinos twice with 3 players and once with 2 players. The 2 player version makes good use of a third neutral player, which both players employ cubes for during the excavation phase, allowing for the same kinds of placement challenges that will occur in the 3 player game. The neutral player makes no use of patron cards, but in situations where the neutral player wins or places 2nd on a parcel areas, the decision of what card it takes (removing it from the game) can be important, and the neutral player is always in the 2nd pass position, giving the pass choice the same vital importance as in the 3-4 player game. I think the designer did a particularly good job making the 2 player version play well, and I appreciate that. I think the game is still better with 3 players (and presumably 4) for having the extra mind involved to interact actively in the game, but the 2 player version doesn't lose any of what makes the game enjoyable for me, and that's a really cool thing.

Another thing I like about the game is its size... It feels like a very substantial game, and yet the box is small, the pieces are small, and it should fit well into the cache of games that my wife and I will be bringing along on our travels in the RV this year.

There is already an expansion for the game called Mykerinos: The Nile, which I am very interested to try out. Considering the theme, I thought it might be fun if there were some kind of "mummy's curse" variant for the game, whereby a cube can be lost during excavation. I'll have to explore the sandy deserts of my brain and see if I can come up with something for that...


Grudunza's rating: 9.5/10