Wouter & Ymke 
Take on the role of a gladiator and enter the arena! Not to fight the other gladiators or the lion present, but to collect as many dice with coins as possible. Each action involves taking a die, which is how you and your fellow gladiators will explore the arena and try to bring this rather abstract game to a successful end.
2-6 players, ages 8+
Playing time: 15-30 minutes
Designer: Alex Pchelintsev
Artwork: Paul Titov
Publisher: al-Khwarizmi Games
https://alkhwarizmi.games/
🔸 The fact that there are dice in the game does not mean that the game depends on luck; Ave, Leo! is a pure (abstract) strategy game. The dice are drafted by the players and depending on their color they have a different function: the red one allows you to move the lion and the green one allows you to move your own gladiator, both depending on the number of steps shown on the die. The yellow dice are placed on the board, and the goal is for the gladiators to pick them up. For each die taken, you get a coin, after which the dice are added to the pool of dice to be rolled the next round.
🔸 The game is played continuously until one player has collected 7 coins, and that player immediately wins the game.
💭 Ave, Leo! is an accessible game that only takes a couple of minutes to explain and about 20 minutes to play. There is a certain racing element to it, with players trying to collect their gold as quickly as possible. To that end, they try to arrange the board ideally for their own positions, and try to prevent other players from taking the gold. Since movement is allowed only in straight lines, and hexes require an additional movement point next to a gladiator or a lion, this is perfectly possible.
👉 While the game seems rather abstract to us, I imagine certain groups can really get absorbed in the theme. Therefore, there is a lot of opportunity to thwart each other and withhold things, and because of the many interactions we found the game at its best at higher player counts.
🔹 Overall we really enjoyed playing the game with our kids, we also find that the game teaches them fine thinking and planning ahead which is always a welcome thing. Definitely give this one a look if you love playing tactical games that involve a lot of interaction between players!
