This great game by <PERSON> just does not get the recognition that it deserves. <PERSON> mentioned on a recent interview that he considers Tyros to be one of his favorite designs, and I can certainly understand why--the game has escalating tension, and tight game play, that builds to the very end. I don't know all the reasons why it hasn't garnered higher ratings, although it is obvious from some of the remarks in the ratings that quite a few people may simply be playing incorrectly. I’ll discuss the different very cool mechanics of the game as well as some of the basic strategies to consider.
Components
The box is fine, typical Kosmos sturdiness in the long, narrow box format. The cardboard bits were die cut a little poorly--everything lined up fine but the pieces were not cut through enough to allow easy removal. It was easy to accidentally tear the colored portion slightly as the pieces were punched out. I ended up cutting the pieces out with a hobby knife, something unusual for most German games. Perhaps this was just my copy? The player colors were unusual, and I would say having gray and white is not a great idea since in poor lighting the white city markers look gray--they are quite obviously different when you compare them directly, but just glancing at the board doesn't work.
The Game
The game itself is a unique combination of area-influence, initiative timing, and hand management. There is luck involved in that you draw area tiles which indicate which area you can influence in terms of empire expansion next, as well as a hand of cards which will allow player expansion. However, that said, the luck is mitigated in that you can sacrifice 'tempo' or initiative to adjust your hand by trading up to 3 cards with the bank. There is also player-trading, although I think people may be looking for far more of this game play element than is here. Although it is allowed, I would say this is definitely NOT a “trading game.” Don't come to this thinking Settlers (because your motives are much more transparent here than in Settlers and that therefore discourages trading as a mainstay of hand-adjustment) and you might be delighted by this deep, middleweight game.
The Mechanics and Strategic Thoughts
The game has two main phases for each turn, and a variable number of rounds within the second phase. 92
The phases are expanding the 4 neutral empires, and player expansion. At the beginning of the game, the four neutral empires--green, yellow, purple, and orange--begin in randomly determined locations on the Mediterranean map by drawing starting tiles. There is a numbered tile that corresponds to each numbered location on the 7x5 gridded map, with 2 spaces, off limits--one is landlocked, the other is deep water. Since you are Phoenician traders, you are limited to skirting around the edges of the Med, never straying too far from land.
Once the starting locations for the empires is set, each player is dealt 4 face down tiles, which will correspond to locations where they can influence where empire expansion takes place. It should be noted that here, as well as for movement, only orthogonal locations are valid--no expansion or sailing on the diagonal!
In the first phase, the starting player (this rotates at the end of each "turn") can choose one of their tiles that are orthogonally adjacent to an existing empire marker. They then place an empire marker of the same color on that location--that empire has now expanded into that location. In areas where 2 or more empires are adjacent to the tile, the player gets to pick the color. Although you MUST if you can, play a tile, with 4 to choose from you usually have some influence as to which empire is actually expanding--this is important for scoring. On the first turn this cycles twice, with each player getting to place two tiles, one each time.
You are vying with the other players to control, and/or keep hidden which empire will end up occupying the most areas--and you don't always need to control which has the most--keeping secret which one may end up with the least is valuable as well, as it may keep 2 of the 4 empires seemingly less valuable. Initially, the first couple rounds, there is quite a bit of chaos as most of the future expansion is unknown, but that is okay because it will be both the area tiles you play, as well as your apparent intentions for cities, which will help to mold how the other players will lay down their tiles. There is much strategy in the later 3/4 of the game, in timing your area tiles so that the empires you want to expand will expand at the rate you desire. In the beginning of the game, the expansion is more chaotic because the areas you can expand to are so rigidly determined by the tile number and required orthogonal adjacency. 349