I was excited to finally get Atheneum: Mystic Library to the table. I had considered a number of library themed games before picking this one as the winner, so let’s talk about what makes this particular game special.
What’s it all about
It’s the day before the big magic test and you need to study. Players will head to the library where you’ll need to organize the books and dust off the shelves when you leave! That’s the price you pay for using it after hours.
What’s in the box
The components in Atheneum: Mystic Library are nice. The player boards and tokens are thick cardboard. I’ve gotten used to cards with a linen finish, but the cards for Atheneum have a very glossy feel to them. I’m indifferent, but it’s something to be aware of.
There are bins you’ll need to build in order to store the various books you’ll be organizing. This is a nice touch, but it makes putting everything away a little complicated. Do you take stuff out of the bins to put it in zippie bags? If you don’t, the little book tokens are going to fly everywhere when you move the box!
The only component I find disappointing are the spider tokens. In fact, when I first read the instructions and it referenced the spiders, I thought they had been left out of our box. A closer look at what I thought was watermelon seeds did indeed turn out to be little spiders though.
Objective Cards and Deck Cards
Before we get into the details of gameplay, I want to talk about the two types of cards in the game.
Objective Cards:
These cards are really the whole point of the game. Each one will tell you how to organize books on your your shelves. It may tell you to put certain types (colors) of books together on a specific shelf. Other cards are less specific, meaning you can put any color book on the shelf, as long as they’re in the right order.
There will always be 4 objective cards available for players to work towards. Every turn, the objective card furthest to the right is discarded, the remaining cards are slid down, and a new objective card is added to the board.
Study Cards:
There is a phase A deck and a phase B deck of study cards. Players will use these cards to gain the resources they need to complete objectives.
The study cards are the “twist” in Atheneum. Each card has 3 sections. The bottom yellow section shows the rewards you will earn for playing the card. The green section shows the rewards the person on your right will earn if you play the card. The blue section are the rewards for the person sitting on your left. So not only are you trying to decide which are the best rewards for you to claim, you’re also having to decide which rewards you want (and don’t want) your neighbors to gain if you play a card!
How do you play Atheneum: Mystic Library
Atheneum is played over 2 phases which are differentiated as the A phase and the B phase. Both phases have a corresponding deck of cards. Each phase has 5 turns, and every turn has 4 steps.
To begin each phase, shuffle the appropriate study deck and deal 6 cards to each player (one card is discarded at the end of the round). On each turn you will select a card to keep and play, and then you’ll pass the remaining cards to the player sitting next to you (like you would in Sushi Go!).
Everyone plays their selected card at the same time, and the benefits of those cards are then distributed to the appropriate players. At this point you’ll place any of the book tokens you’ve gained onto your shelves, paying close attention to the available objectives!
If you’ve managed to complete an objective, step 3 of your turn is to claim those objectives. Place a wand onto the objective card you wish to score, and then move your meeple along the score track! What are wands, you ask? Wands are a resource in the game, and everyone starts with 2 of them. You can gain more wands through the cards and bonus actions as you play!
Lastly, you’ll do a bit of cleanup by eliminating the objective card that’s furthest right.
Eeek, Spiders!
Not only do you have to organize the books, you have to dust the cobwebs off of the shelves and get rid of the spiders. Each shelf in your library is occupied by a spider. When you have filled your shelf with books, you get to claim the spider and trade it in for something special. This can be a book of your choice, an extra wand, or even a draw from the bonus bag!
How to score points and win!
There’s several different ways to score points. The main way to score points is through the completion of multiple objective cards. The more complicated those cards are, the more points they’re worth.
You can also score points by completely filling each of your shelves with books. Each shelf is worth a certain number of points when filled, and those are counted and scored at the end of the game. There’s a reshuffle action on study cards and bonus tokens that allows you rearrange your books, so just because you filled a shelf, it doesn’t mean it’ll stay that way!
In the bonus bag, the tokens have candles on their backsides. These candle tokens can be placed at the top of your library shelves. You’ll notice their value is marked directly below their location on the board.
Each of the library boards has a unique book type noted in the upper right corner. That’s your favorite subject. You gain points for each of the books of that type that are adjacent to each other.
Our thoughts on Atheneum: Mystic Library
Atheneum is a cute, puzzly game that offers some interesting player interaction. It’s pretty to look at, and organizing the books on the shelves is entertaining. You’ll need some strategy to claim those objective cards, but it’s probably not going to make your head hurt as much as Calico!
We’ve generally found that games of Atheneum seem to go quickly. For the weight and style of the game, playtime seems right on target.
You can play this game with 2 people (your opponent receives both of the benefits on the top of your study card), but I highly recommend you try it with 3 instead!
Other board games with library themes
There was an advertisement in the box for another game called Ex Libris. I thought it was interesting that Renegade had already published a board game about libraries, and I was curious to read more about it. Unfortunately, Ex Libris no longer appears to be in print. Anyone out there have this one in their collection?
Also, we picked this game over Biblios because the theme seemed irrelevant on the latter. Anyone play both? Did we make the right decision?
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