I’d rather die in the mud with those men than live forever as a god.
Athena meets Hades in the miniature-game-without-miniatures that is Mythic Battles!
I love a bit of ancient mythology, and it’s a genre surprisingly underserved by boardgames, with only few springing to mind: Cyclades, Age of Mythology, Hera and Zeus, Risk: Godstorm, Iliad, Omen: Reign of War… So I was drawn to the excellent illustration and design of this offering by Iello some time ago. I’ve only just got around to picking up a copy, so let’s unbox it shall we?
Mythic Battles is a game that is crying out for miniatures, but in the meantime we have to make do with cardboard tokens. What we do have is a lot of beautiful cards and a card-driven system that brings some interesting twists to the usual skirmish formula. Most notably, each unit has a small stack of cards, each representing a wound level, and as the unit takes wounds these cards are discarded and the unit’s stats change. Nice! The units of Athena, including everyone’s favourite baby-killers the Spartans, go toe-to-toe against the dark dead things and monsters of Hades across a modular terrain board. There are two expansions available so I’m looking forward to trying this out. If it’s really good I might even start to look around for some mythological Greek-themed miniatures …
Looks fascinating.
Is there enough space for the tokens in the wells under cards in the plastic insert ?
Good spot, no there isn’t with the dice and counters, it’s a stupid insert! I’m going to replace it because I’ve sleeved the cards anyway.
More for pre-sale display than a gamer’s friend insert.
What’s happened to functional design these days ?
You really need to factor in construction time & additional costs of storage options when buying boxes games now as well as printing out your excellent reference sheets.
I know, box insert design is a dying art. With big companies like Fantasy Flight setting a precedent for not even including anything but a piece of one-colour printed cardboard, it’s only going to get worse, sadly.
I bought this game for like $13 a year ago, but never got around to playing it. I wouldn’t mind seeing a review, and a game guide if it’s any good.
They’ll definitely be a rules summary at the very least.