Musings On... Attika (#6)

 Jeremy: Attika is set in ancient Greece, and is a game of turning a chunk of undeveloped land into a thriving megalopolis. Players strive to develop their own cities the quickest by getting their buildings onto the board quicker than other players, taking advantage of building discounts available on the board, as well as discounts available for building certain sequences of buildings. Throw in the fact the designer, Marcel-Andre Casasola Merkle, designed one of my favorite card games, Meuterer, and the publisher, Hans im Gluck, has consistently produced some of the better games of the last decade, and I was very excited to try this gem. Sadly, in this instance, the sum of the game experience, for me, was less than its parts.

Fraser: I find the amphora mechanism, where as a reward for completing a set of connected buildings you gain an amphora which can then be used at any later stage as a bonus draw or build action to be a good one. There is also the angst of deciding to go for the quick(er) victory of connecting two shrines or by building all of your buildings for the complete city. Further decision-making occurs every turn. Do you draw new buildings from the building place on your mat, or do you build buildings from your mat to the game board? When you finish a stack an extra tile gets placed on the game board, but almost always another player will get to utilize this before you. Then there are the resource cards which you must sacrifice a building draw or build to obtain, when do you do this and how often? If a player is going for the connect the shrines victory, then it is up to the other players to stop this. All this and it plays quickly. After a couple of three player games my wife and I were happy to purchase this. I'm curious where or why Jeremy felt the experience was less than the sum of its parts, because there are some very nice parts.

Tom: My biggest problem with the sum of the parts is that the parts aren't all there! I found it quite annoying that no markers were included to place on the mats for used buildings. Almost everyone I've played the game with has dug up markers for this purpose; and it's a minor annoyance, I know, but an annoyance nonetheless. And, for the purpose of this discussion - can we call the amphoras carrots? I dislike when a game uses big, silly words that cause confusion when the game is taught. But all of these are minor problems I have with the game. I think when it comes to Attika, I really enjoy it as a two player game but heartily dislike it as anything else. The "Kill Dr. Lucky" syndrome totally destroys any "fun factor" that I might have found in the game.

Fraser: OK, carrots it is, although I would like to see the end of amp^H^H^H carrots painted green then. Interesting that you prefer it as a two player game Tom, my wife and I have played it mostly two player and prefer it as three. The interaction in the two player seems a bit more like being on autopilot compared to playing it with more than two.

Jeremy: Not pretending to speak for anyone but myself, I prefer it as a 0-player game. As in, as long as I am not playing it, I'm better off. It's not that the game is horrible -- in some ways I think it is very clever -- but it's just so boring to me. Part of it may be the graphics, but they are fairly clear, and not annoying, so that can't be all of it. Something about the gameplay just leaves me cold. Which is odd, since I am predisposed to really enjoy almost every tile laying game. The "sequencing" mechanic, where placing one tile allows for the free placement of the next tile in sequence, again, is clever, but the whole game taken together just feels like a string of optimized placements, and I about a third of the way through a playing start to feel like it's an abstract game. I want to like this. I keep sitting down to it thinking my last impressions were all false, and this time I'll enjoy it. And yet, I never do.

Tom: Again, I mentioned the "Kill Dr. Lucky" syndrome, where a player can throw the game because they are too stubborn to block another person. I agree with Jeremy that the game theme is boring; but because I went into the game thinking that it was an abstract game, I didn't have a problem with it. I actually think some of the mechanics are quite clever, and with a good theme and some different artwork I think the game would have had a shot at some major awards. The only niggling problem I have with the mechanics is the above-mentioned syndrome, which is non-existent in a two-player game. The game is fun and easy, although I don't consider it as "auto-pilot" as Fraser says. Maybe one of the biggest strikes against it is all the different mechanics. There's so many things that need to be taught, and the game really doesn't rise above its rules. For example, Ticket to Ride has only a few rules and is a simple, easy-to-play game. Goa has a lot of rules, and therefore is a heavier, meatier game. Attika has a decent amount of rules, but in reality, it is still only a simplistic game. Why not just avoid the headache and play a different game?

Fraser: For the reasons I mentioned above, I like this game, although it does lack some sort of zest or zing to make it truly engaging. I equate Attika with Chinese food. I like Chinese food; I enjoy eating it, but I will never actually choose it. Somebody else can suggest it, and I will happily go along with the choice. Attika is my Chinese food game; I like the game. I enjoy playing it when I am playing it and do not regret playing it afterwards; but I am never going to be the one to suggest playing it, which is the reason I could never rate it above a 7 regardless of how much I like it.
I think Attika could become more engaging with a retheming. I had vague thoughts along the lines of very low-level cellular organism, or maybe viruses or some sort of alien creatures perhaps. The city, the large number of off shoot buildings, would become some sort of blob organism, and the other smaller structures different sorts of creatures. They could be attempting to grow or colonize a new area (e.g. a virus would be trying to connect to other cells or just fully develop). The resources on the tiles could change to be proteins for a virus or stay as resources for alien creatures. Somehow, at least initially, I think this would make the game a little less dry.

Jeremy: Attika to me is like potatoes. A big plate of potatoes. A huge heaping helping of nothing but potatoes. And there's nothing wrong with potatoes -- but by themselves, they are boring. Attika to me is boring. Like potatoes. A big fat plate of... (Note to Tom, from now on, food analogies are forbidden in this series... =) I wanted to like Attika, but is about as abstract as German games get and still have decorative illustrations. Not even my preferred mechanic of tile-placement and modular boards can redeem it. It is an interesting idea that, as a game, somehow leaves me indifferent. Tom put it well when he said that Attika never rises above its rules.

Tom: Potatoes are a bad analogy, as I can eat a big plate of potatoes anytime. Of course, I always add hot sauce, but that seems to get a little off topic. (Are we musing on...food or games?) Anyway, I can't deny that a lot of people were crazy about the game when it first came out. But where is that craze now? The simple truth is that it died that the game had no real staying power and was only a flash in the pan. I currently don't own the game, as I have no real desire to play it. However, if someone offered to play me in a two-player game, I would gladly do so. It wouldn't, however, be my copy. It's a good game, just not good enough to own.

Fraser: It's not a bring it out every night with anticipation sort of game that's for sure. However, it is an occasional, and it may have staying power there regardless of who owns the copy.

Jeremy: There's not much more I can say about the game that I already haven't. The abstract nature of the game, coupled with the blind luck of the tile draws, makes for a combination that leaves me underwhelmed. This game got a lot of play time in the gaming community, and it charted in the Top 25 for several months; but it's starting to fall fairly quickly. It leads me to think that there will always be a core of fans playing this game (Fraser being one of them) while most other people move on to greener pastures. There's something to be said for a game that charts high for that long, so I can't knock the popular appeal of the game, only to say I don't quite understand the early claims that Attika was going to be "the next Settlers of Catan" -- lofty claims that it couldn't quite meet.

Fraser: Agreed that Attika is never going to be "the next Settlers of Catan," a very lofty claim for any game. It has some great mechanisms but in the end, to paraphrase Woody Allen, "It is a good game but not a great game". We were happy to purchase it after a couple of plays, and it will stay on the shelves. I doubt that it will come off the shelves as often as some of the other games there, but I see it continuing to make appearances. For people who haven't played it, make it a try before you buy.

Tom's rating: 5.5 out of 10
Jeremy's rating: 6 out of 10
Fraser's rating: 7 out of 10

Tom Vasel is a game enthusiast currently living in Korea. He has written over 200 reviews which can be found at www.boardgamegeek.com, and plays games solely to have fun.

Jeremy Avery writes reviews for www.funagain.com, and is the designer of www.geocities.com/yahugaming - a web page devoted to helping people learn more about 'German' games.

Our guest reviewer is:

Fraser McHarg is a life long gamer from the land of Down Under. In the early years it was the traditional children's games as well as Chess and various card games. He then moved into board wargames, role playing games and board games at school. Then, as they became available, came computer games and German games. Table top miniatures is about all he has steered clear of games wise. He married a fellow gamer and they have two small children which usually restricts the current gaming options to board games and role playing sessions to four hours or less. However when the children get older there will be a ready made group of four at home.