The Tholos of Delphi is under construction and the builders are trying to leave as much of their mark on the temple as possible, hoping that the gods will be merciful to them.
2 players, ages 9+
Playing time: 15-25 minutes
Designer: David Bernal
Artwork: Jesús Fuentes
Publisher: Perro Loko Games
https://www.perrolokogames.com/en/
During their turn players are shipping stones from the quarry to their workshop or delivering stones to one of the temple sites of Delphi. There are three colors of stones in the quarry: white, black and gray being the players own color, the opponent’s color and a neutral color. All are available to take but players are allowed to bring in more of their own color then those of the opponent’s or the neutral color.
When placing stones in the temple, choosing the right color to place can be crucial as when players place their own color they can activate the action of the site giving them an extra action like taking stones from the quarry, placing another stone or moving stones from one temple site to another. However each site can only contain five stones, which makes planning what color to place or move very important.
As soon as all columns consist of five stones, the game ends. For each column, the player who has the majority earns points: while own stones and opponents stones will respectively award one and three points, the gray stones will give minus points making it even possible to end with a negative score for a column.
Tholos is an intense, abstract playing game for 2 players, fast to learn thanks to the easy actions but with plenty of interesting decisions to make. The gameplay feels very strategic, with constantly keeping an eye on what stones your opponent has in his workshop and trying to predict what their possible next move is going to be. The actions you may take after placing a stone of your own colour definitely add an interesting layer to the game, not only making placing for the majorities important, as with a well-timed action you can tilt the game in your favor.
If you’re looking for a solid 2-player game, Tholos is one I can highly recommend!
Tabletopping 