Antike: Risk on 'Roids

Played a fantastic game last weekend...

Friday night, I dropped by my friendly local gameshop to pick up a book: Primal. It's a much anticipated book that many of us had waited ages to get. Got a special price due to my status as PressGanger, a position I might elaborate upon some other time.

There's quite a good crowd at the shop that night. Many were there for Primal, either to buy, or to hassle those who bought it for a quick read.

Yes, this is what I do on some Friday nights. No pubbing, no dancing. Completely devoid of wench nor wine. Just basking in the camaderie of fellow gamers.

Then someone brought a new boardgame: Antike.

It is a game of conquest, almost like Risk, but runs much faster with no dice-rolling for combat resolution. Antike is German for Antique, refering to the age of the ancient civilizations around the mediterranean region, like the Greek and Arabic civilizations etc.... probably...

We got a group of 6, mostly first (me) or second time players. It took no more than 15min to learn to play, and another 10min to get a feel for the flow of the game.

You collect resources in the form of gold, marble, iron or coin; which you then spend to build cities, troops, galleys, temples, technology etc. Sounds simple, and it really is.

But the action is fast paced, and the tension is sharp. It requires constant vigilance of your borders, and non-stop mindgames with your neighbours to anticipate aggression.

I won the first game I played by feigning weakness all through the game while my neighbour's aggression was diverted elsewhere ^_^.

Everyone was so charged that they couldn't stop at just one game, and we went another round even though it was already midnight. This time I was most aggressively attacking, but victory eluded me.

Got home at 2.30am, still too charged to sleep. The moment I closed my eyes, the math and numbers rattled unceasingly in my head, trying to come up with a superior strategy to dominate the board.


The guys who brought the boardgame will be putting the game up for play at their new cafe opening on 1st May.

Be sure to check out:
The Settler's Cafe
32, Jln SS22/21 Damansara Jaya
47400 Petaling Jaya.


This is affiliated with the Settler's Cafes that are already enjoying popularity in Singapore.