Hellas

• Designer: Stefan Dorra
• Publisher: Playte
• Players: 2-4
• Age: 14+
• Time: 45 minutes
• Preorder link: preorder.playte.com
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Hellas, 480 BC. It’s the rise of classic Greek civilization. After the overwhelming victory of Xerxes’ army at Thermopylae, the Greeks return to their country and continue the hard work at the islands. The building and development of large cities is the next step into a new era.

Found settlements on a Greek island and let them grow into large cities. Build statues in honor of the Gods or finish one of the various temples on the island. All this work needs a lot of marble, which can be found in the many quarries. Houses next to a quarry can mine marble, but some quarries produce more marble than others.

Each round in Hellas players choose an action in the display. When choosing to build a house, palace or square on the island, all others can perform that action, too. Deciding to mine marble (to get more money) will also help other players because they’ll earn money too through their houses next to mines. Building pillars in temples or raising a statue are the only type of actions you’ll perform by yourself, but at the end of the game all players might score points because of your work.

Strategically build your settlements on the island to gain the most profit from quarries. Timing is crucial: most of your chosen actions can also be immediately performed by all other players. Think ahead to outsmart your opponents and score the most points with your cities.

The board and the action boards are placed on the table.  3 Quarry tiles are randomly placed on any 3 coastal quarry spaces, and the quarry worker placed on any empty quarry space.  Each player gets 10 marble tokens to start as well as all the bits in their color.  Players should hide their money (marble) behind their player screen, but all their other components should be visible in front of the screen. Finally, players get black action markers (the quantity based on player count).

The game is played over three rounds. On a turn, the active player uses one of their action markers to take an available action from the action boards.  Each action can only be selected once per round.  Some of the actions are selective – that is only the active player has the option to take them – while others are general, and all players will get a chance to do them.  It is possible to select an action and then decline to perform it.

The general actions are done in clockwise order from the active player.  Each player must pay the cost if they choose to do the action, though it is always OK to pass on the action:

• Construct House – each player pays 1 marble to build a house on the coast or 2 marble to build in the interior.  Houses cannot be built on temple or quarry spaces. Only one house can be built with this action.
• Construct House or Square – Each player can build a house and/or a square on an empty space. 1 marble for a coastal space, 2 marble for an interior space
• Construct Palace – 5 marble for a coastal space, 7 marble for an interior space.  Note that an adjacent collection of a Palace and Houses of the same color are referred to as a city. 
• Mine Marble – All players receive marble for a house next to an active quarry. Gain marble equal to what is shown on the tile.  (Palaces and Squares do not mine marble)  Now, up to 4 quarry tiles are drawn one at a time.  With each reveal, first try to place the newly drawn quarry tile on top of an active quarry with a smaller number.  If this is not possible, then place the new tile on the quarry space where the quarry worker is.  Flip the quarry with the highest tile showing (to permanently close it) and then move the quarry worker to any unoccupied quarry space.  Once a Quarry is closed, no further tiles are flipped for this action

The selective actions are only performed by the active player who chooses it:

• Construct Temple (3 spaces) – build 2/3/5 columns onto any temple and then gain a ring.  You must build the exact number of the space you chose. The first player to build columns in a round becomes the start player in the next round.
• Construct a Statue – pay 7 marble to build a statue
• Mine 3 Marble

The round ends when all players have used their action markers – they are all taken back.  At the end of round 2, all players return one action marker to the supply.  The new starting player is whoever built columns first in the previous round.

At the end of 3 rounds, the game is scored.  Use the track on the back of the box.

• Largest City – each player finds their largest city and scores 1 point per house, square, palace in it  (it is possible for a city to have more than 1 palace)
• Temples – for each city adjacent to a temple, score points equal to the number of columns in that temple
• Statues – for each city, 3 points per adjacent statue 
• Rings – 2 points per ring.  3 point bonus to the player(s) with the most rings
• Marble – 1 point per 5 marble left over

The player with the most points wins.

My thoughts on the game

Hellas has long been one of those games that just got away.  Why?  On its initial release back in 2016, it was done by White Goblin Games, a firm out of the Netherlands.  I saw it at Spiel that year, but for whatever reason I didn’t bring a copy home.  I just assumed that I’d be able to get a copy later.  However, the game never got a US distribution partner, and so it became more difficult to get a copy.  Then, as things often do, the search got put aside for a bit.  When I later heard that the game was solid, felt to be Dorra’s best game by a number of friends, I looked again.  And, at that point, it was out of print – and now I was having to pay exorbitant Ebay prices on top of shipping from Europe.  

Fast forward to this summer, and I was so pleased to see that Playte was re-doing this one.  First, as a game miniaturizer myself, I simply LOVE the small format Playte games.  They have, in recent years, developed a line of games which come in super small boxes.  The boxes are surrounded with one or two magnetized boards which unfurl when needed.  I’m really impressed by how well Playte is able to take a big box game and put it into the smallest form factor possible!  For Hellas, the game requires two cardboard wraps to provide you with the board.  The score track is cleverly fit onto the bottom of the box as well.

The game is a strategic delight.  You’re free to place your pieces anywhere you like, so long as you can afford their marble costs.  You will therefore surely have to put some houses next to the mines in order to get marble.  However, each time that marble productions happens, there is a distinct possibility that your mine will be decommissioned and then you’ll be out of luck.  This is one of the most interesting decisions for me – the decision of whether to produce marble or not.  If you take the action, you’ll have as much control as possible over which mine gets deactivated. However, by doing this, this means that you’re possibly choosing not to build things.  And, when you choose building, you at least get priority in turn order – so you have the best chance of building in a spot that you want.

The game plays out quite differently at the range of player counts due to the relative competition for the board hexes.  It is definitely tight at 4p, and this is my favored way to play the game.  There are two boards that are used to shrink the game for 2p, but overall it feels like there is much more freedom to place your bits.

Of course, you don’t score points until you form cities, this is done by putting a Palace down next to some of your other pieces.  Once you do this, your city becomes a target for your opponents to try to limit its expansion.  Of course, if you wait too long, you might lose the opportunity to even place your Palace adjacent!

Hellas is a great game that often has you wanting to do multiple actions on your turn, but you’re of course limited to just one.  It is likely some consolation that you’ll be able to piggyback on all of the building and marble mining, though you’ll lose priority in the order of building if you don’t choose the action yourself.  The competition for board space is tight, and this results in lots of tense decision points.  When you take this solid gameplay and then pack it into a miniscule sized box, it’s an instant keeper for me.

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it! Dale Y
• I like it.
• Neutral.
• Not for me…

Preorder link: preorder.playte.com