Review of Santorini

By Jorge Zhang

November 13th, 2019

Introduction:

Santorini is a 2-4 player abstract game that is perfect for some quick fun. It’s also a game that you can easily 3D print!

Rules:

In Santorini, players each control 2 workers. They take turns moving and then building with one of these workers. Workers can move and build orthogonally or diagonally. The goal of the game is to move a worker to the top of a third level building. However, because workers can only ever move up one level at a time, this takes several turns to set up. In addition, a worker can build a cap on top of a third level building, making it inaccessible for the rest of the game. 

3D Printing Santorini:

Because of the limitations involved when I was 3D printing the game, the colors aren’t as pleasing as the blue and white of the original. It is also a more simplistic design, and doesn’t have the “role cards” included in the original box. For those reasons, I think it is a lot more convenient to simply buy a copy of the game. That being said, 3D printing this game was a lot of fun, and I encourage you to try printing a copy if you can. I found this particular design on Thingiverse here:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2202667

Thoughts:

At the time of this article, Santorini is ranked 112th on Board Game Geek. In addition, according to an anonymous polling of members at Georgetown Board Game Club, Santorini received 3 likes and 1 dislike, meaning that 75% of people who voted liked the game. I personally really enjoyed Santorini as a quick and simple game that I could easily introduce to a non-board gamer. Santorini is like Chess in many ways, except it is a lot more beginner-friendly. It’s one that a lot of people want to play a second time in a row to try out a new strategy. Speaking of strategies, there never seemed to be a dominant way to play that made the game too boring. Due to highly flexible opening moves, each game developed differently. In addition, having two ways to win (forcing your opponent to not be able to legally move, and getting a meeple onto the third level of a building) kept things interesting. However, some people in our club commented that the game could sometimes be drawn-out if the two players are equally strong. That’s not necessarily a bad thing: but for some people, Santorini overstayed its welcome.

Have you ever been to Santorini? Let me know in the comments! Thanks for reading as always!