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Games about epic wars often promise huge drama and then give you a lot of space and time to think. Iliad goes the other way. It drops Achilles and Hector into a tight little box and basically says: deal with it.
This is a two-player game set during the Trojan War, focused entirely on the rivalry between those two heroes. One of you plays Achilles and the Greeks, the other Hector and the Trojans. You are fighting over the favor of the gods while doing your best to make life difficult for the person across the table.
If you like games where interaction is not optional and every move feels like it matters a bit too much, this one deserves a closer look.
👥 2 players, ages 10+
⌛ Playing time: 30 minutes
📝 Designers: Reiner Knizia
🎨 Artwork: Harry Conway
🏢 Publisher: Bitewing Games (review copy provided)
Gameplay overview
The game is played on a cloth board with a 6×6 grid. Half the spaces are red, half are blue, one color per player. Around the edges of the board sit success tokens. These represent gods, positive point bonuses, negative effects, and two marriage tokens linked to Helen. They are not just decoration, they are the reason you care about most rows and columns.
Setup starts with drawing success tokens from a bag. Five non-negative tokens are placed face up next to the board. The rest are placed face up on the board itself, lining the outer edge. Each player gets 18 tiles in their color, three each of values 1 to 5 and three dolos tiles. Two tiles are placed face up on the central spaces of your own color, and you start with two tiles in hand.
On your turn, you place one tile onto an empty space of your own color. There is a strict rule here: your tile must be adjacent to at least one enemy tile. Because of how the board is colored, you will never place next to your own tiles. You are always stepping into your opponent’s space, whether you want to or not.
After placing a tile, you may resolve its effect if the tile has a value from 1 to 4. These effects let you reposition tiles, swap success tokens you already own with ones in the display, or turn tiles face down so they lose their value. Tiles with a value of 5 and dolos tiles don’t have effects, they’re just strong tiles you have to deal with.
At the end of each turn, the board is checked for completed rows or columns. Any full line that has not been scored yet is resolved immediately. Both players add up the values of their tiles in that line. Face-down tiles count as zero. Dolos tiles copy the combined value of the neighboring enemy tiles in that scoring line.
The player with the higher total wins the line and chooses one of the two success tokens at the ends of that line. The other token goes to the opponent. If both totals are equal, the active player wins the line. After all of that, the active player draws one tile from the top of their pile to refill their hand back to two tiles.
Once all tiles have been placed, the board is full, and all rows and columns have been scored, the game ends. First, the game checks divine support. If a player has all five gods, or four gods plus both marriage tokens, they win immediately unless the opponent has done the same. If neither or both players meet that condition, the winner is decided by points from success tokens.
Artwork, components, and visual design
Visually, Iliad is pretty clear about what it’s going for. The artwork sticks to deep reds, muted blues, black, and parchment-like tones. The figures are stylized and almost silhouetted, clearly inspired by ancient Greek pottery rather than detailed illustrations. It all feels deliberate and consistent.
The cloth board is the thing people usually comment on first. It looks good on the table and clearly separates the two sides. The worn texture makes it feel like a battlefield that has already seen some trouble, which fits the game nicely. The success tokens around the edges frame the board and constantly remind you that the perimeter matters just as much as the center.
The tiles are thick and sturdy, with clear numbers and icons. The symbols for tile effects are easy to read, even from across the table. When tiles are turned face down, they become dark and empty, which is a simple but effective way of showing that they are still blocking space but no longer contributing value.
The success tokens are clear and easy to distinguish. Gods stand out, positive and negative tokens are obvious, and the marriage tokens look different enough that you never confuse them with anything else. The cloth bag for the tokens matches the board and is a nice touch, even if it does not change how the game plays.
Our experience
Most games of Iliad start fairly calm. The board is open, options feel flexible, and it is easy to convince yourself that you have time. You do not. As the board fills up, the space tightens quickly, and suddenly every placement feels like it blocks something important.
The forced adjacency rule does exactly what it promises. You are always reacting to your opponent. There is no safe corner, no quiet buildup phase, and no turn where you can ignore what the other player just did. Sometimes that feels exciting, sometimes it feels a bit suffocating. To be fair, that is clearly the point.
The game tends to move in phases. Early turns are about shaping the board and figuring out which rows and columns are worth fighting over. The middle of the game is where tile effects start to matter more, and where repositioning and face-down tiles can slow things down or completely derail plans. Scoring itself is simple, but deciding when to trigger it and which token to take is usually where things start to get tense.
The endgame can feel tight to the point of discomfort. With limited space and only two tiles in hand, small effects can delay scoring or reopen lines you thought were settled. Sometimes this creates great moments of timing and control. Other times it feels like both players are stubbornly refusing to let the game move forward. Think less heroic charge, more tactical shoving match.
Our thoughts
At its heart, this is a very constrained, very confrontational abstract game. The constant interaction is refreshing if you enjoy pressure and denial, but it also means mistakes are hard to undo. If you fall behind in positioning, the game does not always give you a clean way back.
The line scoring system is interesting, but also a bit mean. When you win a line, you are not just taking points. You are deciding whether to push your own plan forward or block your opponent’s. Sometimes that means grabbing the right god, sometimes it means stopping a full set, and sometimes it just means dumping a bad token on the other side.
Tile effects add depth and sometimes slow things down, simply because you have to think. You are weighing where they help you most, where they hurt your opponent least, and when it is the right moment to finish a row or column. Timing matters a lot here, and when things line up, these effects can decide a scoring moment.
Dolos tiles change how you think about placement. You have to pay attention, because where you put things can suddenly matter a lot more than you expected. They reward planning ahead and good timing, especially when lines are close to scoring. Together with the random setup of success tokens around the board, every game asks you to react to what is in front of you. Some rows and columns start out more interesting than others, and that shapes the flow of the game from the first few turns.
Iliad makes the most sense if you enjoy tense two-player games where every move feels directed at the other person. It is the kind of game that opens up over repeat plays, especially if you keep facing the same opponent. Just do not expect much mercy from the gods or from the person across the table. It is ancient Greece after all, mercy is not really part of the theme.
📝 We received a copy of the game from Bitewing Games.
