Mythologies
Publisher: Super Meeple (via Hachette Boardgames USA)
Release Date: October 2026
MSRP: $39.99
Designer(s): Maxime Babad and Mickael “Froh” Garcin
Illustrator: Arthur Boccard
Number of Players: 2 to 4
Playing Time: 20–40 min.
Age Rating: 10 and up
ICv2 Rating: 4 Stars out of 5
Most ancient cultures crafted extensive mythological explanations for their world, assembling a pantheon of incredible beings to rule over it. Each deity would star in their own tales, often moral lessons doubling as revelations about the mechanisms of the universe. In Mythologies, players concoct their own pantheon, borrowing from an assortment of real-world mythologies. The question is, do these deities play nice?
Summary: Mythologies combines two popular mechanics: card drafting and tableau building. Each round is divided into two steps based on those mechanics. In the first step, players simultaneously draft cards representing creatures and deities from four mythologies, using the “Destiny cards” to determine which mythology they may draft across four turns. At the same time, all players choose to select a card or pass, then those who did not pass pick a single card from their fated mythology. Each player must draft exactly two cards each round, forcing them to be strategic about when they pass.
In the second step, in turn order, the players play the cards they drafted into their own three-by-three grid. Usually, playing a card triggers an immediate reward, either Gem tokens to use as currency to play more powerful Deity cards or Favor tokens that award victory points. Each card also has an effect unique to that creature or deity, which often interacts with other cards in their tableau or even an opponent’s tableau, so much of the strategy revolves around triggering effective combos. After four rounds, bonus points are awarded for meeting goals and Deity effects, then the one with the most Favor wins.
Originality: I found the simultaneous card-drafting mechanic to be quite clever, and the decision of when and what to draft was more challenging than expected. Many designs would have been satisfied with this on its own, but here it is pushed further by combining it with a solid tableau-building mechanic. These seemingly disconnected mechanics have been melded together nicely, and the choices made during one part of the round often has a direct impact on those in the other part.
Presentation: The cover is visually interesting, contrasting a complex depiction of deities from multiple mythologies with stark open space and a title font evocative of ancient carvings. The effect is busy yet tranquil at the same time, capturing the game’s two-fold nature while using bold lines to draw the eye across the piece. The back displays the components beautifully and provides a good description of the game’s theme and concept, but is a bit light on revealing the gameplay style.
Quality: The components are a bit of a mix. For the most part, they are excellent. The player pieces are extra-thick wooden discs that offer a wonderful tactile feel and are beautifully decorated with player symbols that are easy to identify. The cardboard tokens are thick and sturdy, as are the boards. The rulebook is extravagant, packed with illustrations and examples of play, printed in deluxe linen-finish paper and equipped with an extensive glossary of card effects. The cards are flexible and sturdy, but feel flat in the hand, without any texture at all.
There are little tuckboxes included for each of the eight mythologies, but surprisingly no consideration is made for the common cards used in every game, like the Destiny cards, and the components fit awkwardly in the box, requiring a bit of creativity to arrange everything safely once punched out and assembled. I’m all for making the packaging as tight as can be, but I think that the envelope might have been pushed a little too far this time.
Marketability: There seem to be a lot of games based on collecting and utilizing the powers of ancient mythologies floating around the ether lately. While I don’t think that genre has been fully explored or is being oversaturated, it doesn’t have the same freshness it once had either. Looking beyond that, though, Mythologies is a solid design that combines popular game mechanics in an interesting way and offers good strategic depth without excessive complexity, so I think it has a potential home among fans of these types of games.
Overall: There is a lot going on in Mythologies. It offers meaningful decision-making and rewards long-term strategy while presenting surprises in a way that forces players to adjust their plans as they go. The two parts of the round feature different mechanics, but they mesh well together. The result is an enjoyable intellectual challenge with more player interaction than appears on the surface. And with eight mythologies to mix and match, it has superb replayability – the box claims there are 70 different combinations, so realistically you never have to play the same game twice.
While the rules are easy enough to learn and the mechanics are not complicated, the game does have a steep learning curve because of the way different cards work in combination. I worry that an experienced player will have a huge advantage over the neophyte. The cards are a bit hard to read from a distance, so gameplay can bog down as players try to consider all of their options, especially when confronted with unfamiliar cards.
So there are things in Mythologies that I really like, and some that leave me a little underwhelmed. But the overall result is very much a positive one and makes for an enjoyable gameplay experience. And that’s why I’m giving this game 4 out of 5.
Source: ICv2
