A cosy two-player tile-laying game, The Architects of Amytis blends city-building, pattern matching, and a clever tic-tac-toe mechanic in a small, strategic box. A puzzler for relaxed competitive nights.
Written by George Barker
The Architects of Amytis is a competitive tile-laying game for two players that blends clever spatial planning with point-salad scoring and a twist of tic-tac-toe. Designed by Jérémy Ducret and Romaric Galonnier, and published by La Boîte de Jeu, this 30–45 minute game tasks you with building a beautiful, balanced city to win the favour of the King of Babylon.
At its core, it’s a relaxing blend of spatial puzzle, tile economy, and strategic blocking. Each player is creating a 3×3 city grid from building tiles, competing to outscore their opponent through three distinct scoring systems — immediate building bonuses, pattern-matching project cards, and powerful end-game favours.
Each turn, players take a tile from one of nine stacks on the market board. That tile is then placed into your 3×3 city grid. Tiles feature a building and a colour, and decisions quickly multiply: you’ll want to optimise building effects (like markets that score based on other building types) while also aligning colours to complete secret project card patterns.
The twist is that every time you take a tile, you also place one of your four architect meeples onto the stack you took it from. These serve dual purposes — they block stacks from your opponent and contribute to a tic-tac-toe-style minigame. Form a line of three architects and you’ll claim a powerful scoring opportunity from the favour board.
You retrieve your architects only when you’ve formed a line or have all four deployed. This adds a clever tempo and blocking element to an otherwise gentle tile-layer.
The Architects of Amytis isn’t trying to blow your mind. Instead, it finds joy in a handful of clean mechanics and small but meaningful decisions. The three separate scoring tracks — buildings, projects, and favours — give you multiple goals to weigh. Every tile presents a mini tug-of-war between long-term colour patterning, short-term building effects, and tactical blocking on the market board.
Despite its small box, the game takes up more table space than expected, with a favour board, market board, scoreboard, and two city grids all in play. But it’s beautifully presented, with charming isometric artwork and thoughtful accessibility touches — like colour shapes to help colourblind players.
Not all visuals are perfect though — some building silhouettes are similar enough to be confusing at a glance, especially early on.
Category: Strategy
Designers: Jérémy Ducret, Romaric Galonnier
Publisher: La Boîte de Jeu
Time to Play: 30–45 minutes
Players: 2
Ages: 10+
Price: £50
