Accessible Games

Game Info

Publisher: Mayfair Games

Year Published: 2006

Number of Players: 2 to 4

Play Time: 45 minutes

Set-up Time: About 10 minutes

Ages: 10 and up

Table Size: Medium Table

Review

The year is 79 A.D. and you are a humble Roman citizen who has just moved in to the fine city of Pompeii. It’s so enjoyable here that you invite your friends and relatives to join you, and soon the city is abuzz with happy citizens. Unfortunately for you, a dark omen falls upon the city; nearby Mount Vesuvius is about to erupt, and all of your friends and family must now try to escape for their lives before becoming victims of one of the deadliest volcanoes in history!

Pompeii is a game with a historical premise, but more unique is its three-stage gameplay. In stage one, you simply move your citizens — represented by colored pieces of wood — in to the city. You do this by playing numbered cards drawn from a universal deck; by playing a 1 card, you get to put one of your citizens in the building marked with the number 1 (and so forth). Eventually someone will draw the first 79 A.D. card, which signals the second phase of the game.

Phase 2 is very similar to the first. Continue placing citizens in numbered buildings by playing one of the cards in your hand. In this phase though, you will get to add additional “neighbor” pieces as long as you place a citizen in a building that is already occupied by one of your pieces. For example, if you already have a citizen in building 1 and you place another citizen there, you get a free neighbor piece to place on the board. This is where the majority of the game’s actual strategy comes from; it is possible to gain multiple neighbor pieces in a single turn if you play your hand right. The more citizens you get in to the town, the better chances you have of attaining victory. However, phase 2 isn’t totally in your control; if a rival player draws an Omen card, they may choose one citizen on the board (maybe yours) and sacrifice that citizen to the volcano, removing it from the game.

Eventually someone will draw the Vesuvius Erupts card, which will start phase 3 of the game. In phase 3 you stop drawing cards to place tiles and start drawing “lava tileS” from the included cloth bag. Each round you place a lava tile on the board in a space that corresponds to the tile drawn; each tile has a picture (a helmet or scroll, for example) and various places on the game board have pictures to match. You may place your tile on any space which contains a matching picture. If citizens are on that tile when you place the lava tile, they all get sacrificed to the volcano.

After placing a lava tile you get to decide who to move out of the city. Having placed your citizens with neighbors and family members previously, you may now choose to move 2 of your citizens each turn, and each citizen can move a number of spaces on the board equal to the number of citizens on his starting tile. It’s important to try to keep your family members together so that they can take advantage of movement and flee as quickly as possible. Once your citizen has reached one of the game’s gate tiles on the edge of the board, he has successfully escaped Pompeii and will live to tell the tale — and live to earn you a victory point.

Phase 3 ends when all citizens have been removed from the board or when all lava tiles have been placed. The person with the greatest number of living citizens at the end of the game is declared the winner.

The most unique aspect to Pompeii’s gameplay is the dual nature of its phases. Instead of just trying to move in as many people to the city as possible — which is the case with most civilization building games — you also have to try to rush them back out. It seems almost counterintuitive, but that’s the brilliance of it. It behooves you to try to place as many citizens in the city as you can because it increases your odds of having a lot of citizens left when the game ends, but it also makes you a bigger target for enemy fire, so to speak. Players who have a clear advantage are more likely to have rival players sacrifice their citizens to the volcano or douse them with lava. It is possible to win the game even if you aren’t in the lead when phase 2 ends, so the trick is to balance your placement of citizens in the early game.

Pompeii itself is also produced with a quality typical of Mayfair games, which is to say the game board, cards, tiles, and various other pieces are made from high quality materials. In addition to the glossy board and tiles, a nice cloth sack has been included for your lava tiles (an accessory I find extremely handy and lacking from many games) and a plastic, 3D volcano in which sacrificed citizens can be placed. These little extras make the game fun to show off to friends.

For all of its strong points though, Pompeii isn’t without its faults. The game seems to encourage the use of tactics and strategy, but the nature of drawing cards and lava tiles at random means that players will only be able to strategize within the limits of what they are randomly given. As the number of players increases this becomes even more difficult, since it is almost impossible to set up tile placement 3 turns in advance without having someone ruin your plans (intentionally or not). Players who prefer a more strategic game will not necessarily find it in Pompeii.

Overall, this game is worth a purchase for people who enjoy a fun game with an interesting and very different premise. It isn’t for everyone, though; strategy diehards will shy away from the random nature of each turn and the game does have its share of accessibility concerns. If you’re in to fun, family oriented games though, Pompeii fits the bill.

Accessibility

Pompeii is a good family game with a unique premise. Unless you are opposed to games in which luck can sometimes win over strategy, the game is definitely worth picking up. However, there are a few things to consider before purchasing Pompeii.

In-game Text: Pompeii has almost no in-game text, but it is important to be able to read the numbers printed on your cards. The numbers are printed fairly large on the cards and even with a visual impairment you may be able to read them. The nature of the game does not completely rule out the option to Braille the cards with numbers either, although the Omen and Vesuvius Erupts cards are supposed to remain hidden until drawn so brailling them may give away their identity to other players.

Fine Manipulation: Game pieces for your citizens are small, wooden blocks that may be difficult for some people to grasp. Manipulating the deck of cards may also prove difficult, though hand sizes are small so use of a Scrabble stand, card holder, or similar aid could help with hand management. Placing citizen piece on the numbered game board will be difficult without heavy modification; tactile use of the board is made difficult because there are sometimes dozens of small pieces resting on the game board at any given time, and it is easy to accidentally brush pieces off of their spaces. It may be necessary to seek help from other players with tile placement.

Multiple Colors: Each player is represented by a different color, as is common with many board games. However, each block of wood representing the game’s citizens looks and feels identical to someone who cannot easily discern one color from another. It would be possible to use different tokens to represent your pieces, such as small glass beads, but the size of the pieces would require that alternative game pieces be no bigger than a dime in size.

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