Iliad (2025)

The reviewers highly praise "Iliad" as an excellent and tense two-player abstract strategy game by Reiner Knizia, noting its intuitive mechanics and engaging player interaction that encourages players to anticipate their opponent's moves. They expressed excitement for future titles in the "Mythos" game line.

The reviewer praises Iliad as a tense, abstract two-player tile-placement game, highlighting the strategic choices players face in committing their tiles despite the game not strongly adhering to its Trojan War theme.

“Call me Thersites, for I am willing to speak out of turn and declare this the most remarkable original Knizia design that I’ve played in many years. While this conflict may be impure, it is glorious and capricious, with both serpents intertwined and striking at each other’s throat.”

Iliad offers a strategically engaging and challenging gameplay experience that becomes increasingly intricate as the game progresses and spaces fill, demanding thoughtful tile placements from players.

The reviewer found 'Iliad: Heroes of Troy' to be a charming, fast-playing, and smart tactical card game with interesting decisions, which he and his wife thoroughly enjoyed. He highlighted its clever approach to different player counts and overall deemed it a sharp and fun experience.

“Tops among those is Iliad, a new two-player game that shares a lot of Samurai’s DNA, but ultimately plays out differently, including an extremely tense endgame that really makes it a winner.”

“You’d think straightforward tile-layers would be tapped out by now, after thirty or forty years of design, but then you sit down and play something like Iliad, which feels as fresh as the day Carcassonne was born.”

“While many of the mechanics in Iliad feel familiar, Dr. Knizia has molded them into an interesting and challenging form that feels fresh and new, requiring players to consider multiple aspects in tandem each turn.”

The reviewers found Iliad to be a really solid card game, particularly for two players, offering great depth and interesting decision-making, especially appealing to those who enjoy tracking cards. They did note that the small iconography could lead to analysis paralysis.

“Players lead their Greek characters in a daring action to besiege Troy and rescue the beautiful Helen. Nominated for 1 award.”

The reviewer provides an unboxing of the game, highlighting its good quality components and straightforward design. They express positive anticipation for its streamlined gameplay, quick setup, and tactical nature, while acknowledging a potential element of luck.

“It’s hard to imagine there are many gamers who won’t enjoy this quick but tactical board game for 2 players”

The reviewer found "Iliad" to be a good two-player abstract strategy game with appealing art and a Greek theme. However, the experience was diminished by the significant amount of necessary number counting, which made the gameplay feel tedious rather than outstanding.

The reviewer found 'Iliad' to be a cerebral two-player abstract strategy game with clever gameplay, but personally felt it was too math-intensive and fiddly with its tile-shifting mechanics, and also noted issues with the cloth playmats. While objectively appreciating its design, the reviewer ultimately considered it 'decent' for their personal preferences.

The reviewer described "Iliad" as a fine and standard abstract strategy game that, while somewhat dry and lacking unique elements, offered an approachable experience thanks to its checkered board layout, which was particularly appreciated by a reviewer who doesn't typically favor abstract games.

Alex from BoardGameCo found "Iliad" to be a good abstract strategy game with an appealing Greek theme and art. However, he felt that the constant need for calculation and a somewhat limited decision space ultimately made the game more tedious than great.

The reviewer found "Iliad" to be a good abstract strategy game with an engaging Greek theme and beautiful art, but felt that a significant amount of constant number-counting held it back from being truly great.

The reviewer found 'Iliad' to be an enjoyable, math-heavy tile-laying game, but while he liked it, he didn't love it, acknowledging that fans of mathematical abstract strategy games would likely appreciate it more.