Pantheum: Demigods of Olympia

Designer: Trevor Kerth

Artist: Tyler Baird, Brian Flores, Ivan Vidic

Published: 2025
Players: 1-4
Playing Time: 45-60 Mins
BGG Rating: 8.1
BGG Ranking: 13332

Publisher: Archwood Games

Mechanisms: Area Majority, Dice Rolling, Solitaire Game,

Sleeves: S63 63x63mm, TCG 63,5x88mm

Game Description:

The war between the Titans and Olympians has left the world barren and empty. As humans begin to settle Farms, Cities and Temples, Zeus calls upon the gods to reshape the desert land. Play as one of the major Greek gods tasked with adding Forests, Mountains, and Rivers according to your Divine Plan. But watch out, the other gods have a different vision for how the world should be reformed.

Quick play overview:

Players are gods trying to shape the land according to their preferences (a card that shows you how do you want the land to look like at the end of the game).

Gods will move around the 4x4 grid placing or moving existing coloured tokens on different tiles and locking them up once there are enough tokens on a specific tile.

Each turn you can also hire demigods to assist you with your endeavour by adding them to one of the 3 available actions that you will do each turn, making these actions more powerful for future turns.

After a certain number of tiles are locked, the game immediately ends and players will count the points from tiles that they locked up, tiles that are locked and are the colour that you needed, and points from demigod cards. Of course the highest score sins the game.

Final thoughts:

The game is a bit easier than expected. It’s a family weight game that looks like it should pack a bigger punch.

If the player’s end goals don’t match, the game is a fun game of swaping token around the board until somebody gives up and goes to their own side of the land or they get enough demigods to overpower the other players swaping abilites.

FINAL SCORE:

Gameplay & How often I want to play it: 7/10

It’s an easy gameplay with 3 options each turn. Once the demigods join the party, the game gets a bit more interesting.

It’s a good game for easy evenings when the group doesn’t want to put too much effort. There are always enough of those during a year.

Art & Graphic Design:

The cards were so beautiful that players had to wait for me to finish admiring the art and reading the interesting flavour history text. Graphic design is also great as everything is clear from afar.

Rules & Complexity:

The rules are simple to teach and the game hits the table fast.

Each player will add a few demigods per game, so the complexity will not increase much during the game.

Theme & Mechanism fit:

You can feel the struggle of gods who are changing the lands and also uprooting the plans of the other gods just because…

A nice fit of theme and mechanisms.

Fun & Replayability:

The game doesn’t offer many different and interesting strategies. You will see everything it has to offer after a game or two, and there are no special combos that you might strive to achieve.  

If the group enjoys the back and forth of building and tearing down of each other’s plans then this game will be fun. It’s definitely not a solitaire-multiplayer game. Players will get in your face all the time.