It’s all Greek to me!
•••Game Stats: Kronia•••
•Publishers: Broadway Toys LTD / CMON Limited / Reflexshop / Spaghetti Western Games
•Designers: Sérgio Halaban / André Zatz
•Players: 2-5
•Sweet Spot: 3-4
•Mechanics: Bidding / Take That-ish / Hand Management
•Long-Distance Hacks: If only one side has a copy, the other side needs a basic deck of cards and a handful of tokens in five different colors (Pandemic cubes worked perfectly for Liz before she got a copy)!
Kronia is a tricky and tense treat, rife with mind games and undercutting to earn favor from the gods. Who knew praying could be so… devious!
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•THOUGHTS•
Brooks: Since deception is a theme I can always get behind and Greek mythology is awesomely rad, we knew immediately this would be another hit for us. Kronia is small, sleek, and nicely designed. There’s a fair balance of risking low cards, rationing high cards, and collecting valuable sets, all while trying to fool your opponents into screwing up their own decisions. I often wonder what our desire to constantly deceive each other says about us.
Lizzy: It says that we’re sly and amazing social deduction masters! And besides that, Kronia delivers a surprising amount of strategy. There’s choosing which gods you want to gain ultimate favor with, sussing out what cards you think your opponents have left, and attempting to ensure certain gods don’t suddenly become nullified turning your favor tokens into horrible, worthless, lumps of sadness!
Brooks: Well that got dark…
Kitty: Yeah, well, lumps of sadness aside, Kronia is also very quick to learn and play, perfect as a starter or end-cap. It was also super easy to hack for Long-Distance gaming, needing only a few components for the copy-less side. Liz nabbed her Pandemic cubes of various colors for favor token substitutes, and used a simple deck of cards as a proxy for betting. Although, the artwork is so cute that we went ahead and bought her a copy for her side!
Lizzy: Yeeesss! The artwork is so pretty in person and super detailed. The small Parthenon-style buildings that come with it are an awesome addition to such a small and compact game. The favor chips are sturdy and provide a vivid pop of color, while also being etched with nice details. All of these touches transform what could’ve been another overlooked mini-game, into a theme-infused bolt of strategic lightning!
Brooks: See Liz, now you get to have even prettier versions of your lumps of sadness! And anyway… you’re a serial math assassin so I don’t wanna hear about how difficult it was for you. Seriously, though, Kronia is a speedy, colorful, and cheeky fix when you get that creeping desire to lie to your friends.
Kitty: Or in my case, try to lie.
Lizzy: Yes, Kitty… None of us saw that move coming… pat-pat
Brooks: 7/10 ~ Kitty: 7.5/10 ~ Lizzy: 8/10
!!!Game Playlist!!!
Icarus ~ Bastille
Orpheus ~ Sara Bareilles
Aphrodite ~ RINI
Eros ~ Young the Giant
Apollo ~ St. Paul & The Broken Bones
Awful Sound (Oh Eurydice) ~ Arcade Fire
Hercules ~ Sara Bareilles
Gods & Monsters ~ Tyler Glenn
Athena ~ The Who
Medusa ~ Kailee Morgue
Long Distance Gamers 