Review: Ants

Introduction & Overview

Take charge of an ant colony in an eternal struggle to dominate the territory. Develop your anthill, explore the garden marking the ground with your pheromones, gather food and leaves, and defeat enemy creatures. Lay eggs and tend to the larvae to obtain more specialized workers. Evolve your abilities, optimize your nest chambers, and pull off astonishing feats to secure supremacy over your rivals. For the Colony!

This is how Ants is presented to us, a design by Renato Ciervo and Andrea Robbiani (the debut for both). First published in 2025 by Cranio Creations in an English and Italian edition. The artwork is handled by Candida Corsi and Sara Valentino, who were responsible for the look of Rats of Wistar.

It is published in Spain by Maldito Games (although the game is completely language-independent). It accommodates 2 to 4 players, with a minimum recommended age of 14 and an approximate duration of 90 minutes. The MSRP is €60. A review copy of the Spanish edition by Maldito Games—kindly provided by the publisher—was used for this review.

Important: if you already know the game and/or are only interested in my opinion about it, you can go directly to the Opinion section. The Content and Mechanics sections are especially intended for those who do not know the game and prefer to get a general idea of how it works.

Go to Personal Opinion

Components

Inside a two-piece cardboard box (lid and bottom) measuring 31.5 × 22.5 × 8 cm (a rectangular box similar to Fields of Arle or Barrage), we find the following items:

• 4-piece Game Board (cardboard)
• 4 Anthill Boards (cardboard)
• 2 Garden Tiles (cardboard)
• 6 Leaf Tiles (cardboard)
• 29 Enemy Tokens (cardboard)
• 8 Special Item Tiles (cardboard)
• 52 Chamber Tiles (in 4 different sizes) (cardboard)
• 4 Summary Tiles (cardboard)
• 4 Anthill Tiles (cardboard)
• 12 Incubation Tiles (divided into 4 sets) (cardboard)
• 9 Queen Tiles (cardboard)
• 8 Queen Tokens (cardboard)
• 25 Aggression Tokens (cardboard)
• 10 Mutation Tokens (cardboard)
• 5 3x Tokens (cardboard)
• 5 -3 VP Tokens (cardboard)
• First Player Token (cardboard)
• 36 Star Tokens (9 in each color) (cardboard)
• 158 Cards (58×88 mm):
  • 120 Development Cards
  • 8 Queen’s Chamber Cards
  • 30 Starting Cards
• 75 Resource Cubes (wood):
  • 45 Food
  • 20 Leaves
  • 10 Mushrooms
• 44 Player Cubes (11 in each color) (wood)
• 160 Discs (40 in each color) (wood)
• Scorepad (paper)
• Rulebook

How to Play

Ants is a game in which each player leads an ant colony competing to dominate the garden and optimize their own nest. Over an indeterminate number of turns, players alternate taking one of the six main available actions: digging to place chamber tiles onto their nest grid, exploring the garden by deploying scout ants and revealing enemies and resources, gathering at the board’s vertices to harvest food or foliage and emit pheromones, playing two cards from hand, playing one card and defeating an available enemy to unlock abilities on their player board, or incubating. This last action advances the colony’s life cycle, turning eggs into larvae and larvae into adult ants once fed with food, while simultaneously triggering production phases and recurring effects. To execute actions on the map or anthill, specialized ants of a specific strength are spent, with players being able to rely on wild ants or free actions such as boosting actions, converting specializations using food, or drawing from emergency storage in exchange for penalties. The game heads toward its conclusion as soon as the star track on the central board is filled, triggering a final full round and a mandatory final incubation for all players. The final score is determined by adding points gained from claimed stars, nuptial flight advancements and swarms, played cards, defeated enemies, special items, achieved production levels, and surviving ants in the nest, minus any emergency storage penalties. The player with the most victory points wins.

Key Concepts

The Game Board depicts the outdoor garden where the ant colonies interact and is double-sided depending on player count (one side for 2 players and the other for 3 or 4). Its central area features a map composed of hexagonal spaces of varying terrain types, interconnected at vertices with circular spots. The centers of these hexagons house spots for special item tiles, enemy tokens, or scouts, while their vertices provide spaces for gatherers. Along the borders and edges, we find spaces for leaf tiles, a display of development cards arranged in three rows of three cards each, the nuptial flight track with associated swarm spaces, and the star track that tracks progress toward the game’s end.

The Leaf Tiles are elongated hexagonal tiles placed in designated slots around the game board, associated with the different garden terrain types. When a hex of a terrain type is emptied of resources, every player with discs placed on that hex will emit a pheromone, allowing them to place their pheromone cube there. Furthermore, the player who triggered the depletion may immediately activate the benefit printed on the tile. Any other participants who emitted pheromones on that same terrain will also place their cube on it to register the emission, though without receiving the bonus.

Each player has an Anthill Board, which serves to manage and customize the progression of their own colony. On the left side are three slots designed to fit the incubation tiles representing the developmental stages of the ants, alongside three ant storage spaces by specialization and a shared space for wild ants. In the upper-central section lies the nest grid. Directly underneath is the slot for the chosen queen tile and anthill tile, the emergency food storage area, and five production tracks (food, leaves, and three egg types). The upper right holds the stacks of personal star tokens, while extending down along the right side is the ability area with eleven slots where defeated enemy tokens are placed to unlock permanent, immediate, or end-game scoring effects, finishing at the bottom with six spaces for pheromone cubes.

The Anthill Tiles are rectangular inserts slotted into the center of the anthill board during setup to configure the personal play area. These tiles are double-sided: a standard side identical for all players and an asymmetrical side marked with a cog icon for advanced games. Once placed in the personal board, the tile remains a permanent part of it throughout the game, shaping the layout and bonuses of the nest spaces. The upper-central portion displays the nest grid, divided into three sectors (I, II, and III) featuring square spaces and printed bonuses to be covered with chamber tiles. To the right are spaces where defeated enemies are placed to claim bonuses.

The Enemy Tokens represent various hostile creatures and rival bugs roaming the garden’s terrains, classified into three difficulty levels (I, II, and III) indicated on their front side. Each token shows the combat requirements needed to overcome it (specific icons or symbols) and is placed on matching hexes when explored. Upon defeating an enemy, the player takes its token and places it face-down into one of the ability slots on their personal board—adhering to row difficulty restrictions—thereby unlocking the associated ability and scoring victory points at the end of the game.

The Special Item Tiles are curved tiles placed face-up at the start of the game on specific hexes of the board or alongside it. Players can acquire them by exploring those hexes or through anthill board bonuses. Once earned, they are kept in the player’s personal area, granting direct perks, special abilities, or end-game victory points.

The Chamber Tiles are polyominoes of various dimensions consisting of 1, 2, 3, or 4 square spaces that feature two sides: a dark side representing an empty chamber and a light side representing a finished chamber. They are acquired and placed onto the personal nest grid via the main Dig action, covering empty spaces to connect areas and trigger immediate bonuses. Their essential purpose is supporting chamber cards, as playing one of these cards requires flipping an empty chamber tile in the nest of equal or greater size to its filled side.

The Incubation Tiles represent the three stages of the ants’ life cycle within the colony (eggs, larvae, and ants) and fit into the three vertical slots on the left of the anthill board. Internally, each tile is divided into three sections matching the three possible specializations (diggers, scouts, and gatherers), while also displaying a feat with a specific requirement at the bottom. During the Incubation action, if that feat is met, the top tile flips to its completed side to upgrade a production track; immediately afterward, all tiles shift upward from bottom to top, sending the top tile to the bottom and transforming eggs into larvae and larvae into adult ants ready for action.

The Queen Tiles define the lineage and starting traits of each player’s colony. The front of each tile displays the initial resources (food, leaves, or mushrooms) received during setup, and flipping it reveals a unique passive ability, free action, or scoring condition that remains active for that player throughout the entire game.

The Aggression Tokens and Mutation Tokens serve as wild symbols when defeating enemies or playing cards. Aggression tokens display the combat icon and may be discarded at any moment to provide an immediate combat symbol. Mutation tokens display a question mark and can be discarded to provide any game symbol of the player’s choice, including aggression. Both token types primarily help fulfill the requirements needed to play cards or fight and defeat enemy tokens on the map.

The Star Tokens are circular tokens in each player’s color stacked in three sets on the anthill board according to three achievement categories: completing nest areas, emitting pheromone cubes, and fulfilling feats (either by playing feat cards or resolving incubation tiles). The reverse side of each token reveals the accumulated victory points granted by the previous star in the stack and the requirement to unlock the next. Whenever a player meets one of these conditions, they remove the top token from the corresponding stack and place it on the first available space of the central board’s star track, scoring points at game end and acting as the endgame timer once the track is full.

The Development Cards drive the colony’s engine and specialization, categorized into starting cards, basic cards, and queen’s chamber cards. In gameplay terms, they fall into three types: ability cards, which cost leaves and offer immediate or incubation effects; feat cards, which cost no resources but require specific symbols or conditions to play and award endgame points; and chamber cards, which require flipping empty chamber tiles in the nest to play and provide permanent icons and ongoing benefits. Each card specifies its cost or prerequisites, its effect type (immediate, incubation, permanent, or endgame scoring), the symbols it grants the colony, and its victory point value.

The Resources sustain the colony’s growth and upkeep, represented by three types of cubes: yellow food cubes, green leaf cubes, and purple mushroom cubes. Food is primarily spent to feed larvae during the incubation phase, to convert ant or larva specializations, and to boost actions via free actions. Leaves are used mainly to pay the cost of playing cards from hand. Mushrooms act as wild resources, freely spent in place of either food or leaves to cover costs.

The Player Cubes track states and markers on personal boards. They begin on the pheromone spaces of the six terrain types to show which pheromones remain to be emitted, as well as on the first spaces of the five production tracks to monitor the output levels of food, leaves, and eggs across all three specializations throughout the game.

The Discs represent each player’s ants as well as position markers. Placed on incubation tiles or anthill board reserve spaces, they embody colony members, indicating their current stage (eggs, larvae, or adult ants) and specialization (diggers, scouts, or gatherers) based on their row, along with wild ants in the top space. Furthermore, they are placed onto the main board at hex centers as scouts, on terrain vertices as gatherers to harvest resources, onto cards to track specific elements (such as aphids or shoots), and along the nuptial flight track to contest harvesting priority and secure scoring swarm spaces.

That is enough to get started.

Preparación de la Partida

1. Assemble the puzzle-cut main board and place it in the center of the table showing the side matching the player count. For a 3-player game, add the two garden tiles to the designated board spaces.
2. Randomly place one special item tile face-up onto each hex space bearing the matching icon. Set any remaining special item tiles aside next to the board.
3. Place the 6 leaf tiles randomly in the designated spaces on the board, ensuring all icons face the same direction.
4. Sort the enemy tiles next to the board into six face-down stacks by terrain type, shuffling each stack individually.
5. Reveal one enemy tile from the matching terrain stack on each designated hex space of the board, placing the corresponding resource cubes on top of it.
6. Shuffle the three card decks separately according to card back: basic cards, starting cards, and queen’s chamber cards.
7. Create a general supply with the food, leaf, and mushroom resource cubes, chamber tiles of sizes 1, 2, 3, and 4, aggression tokens, mutation tokens, 3x tokens, and -3 victory point tokens.
8. From the basic card deck, reveal 9 cards and arrange them in the board’s card display in three rows of 3 cards each.
9. Randomly select a starting player and give them the first player token.
   Each player takes an anthill board and a summary tile, placing them in front of themselves.
10. Every player draws a random anthill tile and slots it into the matching space on their personal board. Players collectively choose whether to play with the standard side or the asymmetrical side marked with a lightbulb icon; all players must use the same side.
11. Draw a number of random queen tiles equal to the player count and lay them out on the table. Randomly assign a set of 3 incubation tiles to each queen tile. Starting with the player to the right of the starting player and proceeding counterclockwise, each player drafts a queen tile along with its associated set of incubation tiles. Return any unchosen queen and incubation tiles to the box.
12. Each player slots their 3 incubation tiles in random order into the tracks of their board, showing the side with the set symbol face-up.
13. Every player places their chosen queen tile into the designated spot on their anthill board and collects the resources indicated on it from the supply. Next, flip the queen tile over so only its special ability is visible.
14. Each player chooses a color and takes all discs, cubes, and star tokens of that color.
15. From their disc supply, each player places:
16. One disc on the starting space of the nuptial flight track on the main board, stacked in reverse turn order so the first player is on top.
17. Three discs on the top incubation tile, placing one on each specialization space.
18. Three discs on the middle incubation tile, placing one on each specialization space.
19. The remaining discs are kept beside the board as a personal reserve.
20. From their cube supply, each player places:
    1. One cube on each pheromone space of their board.
    2. One cube on the first space of each of the three egg production tracks at the bottom of their anthill.
    3. The two remaining cubes are placed next to the food and leaf production tracks.
21. Each player separates their star tokens into three sets by icon, stacks each set in ascending order with the highest value at the bottom, and places the three piles onto the designated board spaces.
22. Every player takes 5 food cubes from the general supply and places them in their board’s emergency storage slots.
23. Each player places a size-2 chamber tile with its dark, empty chamber side face-up on the indicated space of their nest.
24. Finally, each player draws two queen’s chamber cards and six starting cards. From these eight cards, each player secretly selects four to form their starting hand, returning the four unchosen cards to the box alongside the remaining starting and queen’s chamber cards.

We are ready to begin!

Game Flow

A game of Ants unfolds over an indeterminate number of turns taken in clockwise order, beginning with the starting player.

On their turn, the active player must perform one of the six available main actions. Only ants on the top tile (or those stored/wild) may be spent to perform the first three main actions.

Additionally, at any time during their turn, they may carry out any number of free actions.

Once the main action is resolved, the turn passes to the next player.

The available main actions are:

• Dig. Resolved as follows:
  • The player removes between 1 and 4 digger ants (or wild ants) from their board to their personal reserve to establish the strength of the action.
  • They take 1 card from the top row of the card display (corresponding to Dig) and immediately refill the empty space from the deck.
  • They place one or more chamber tiles onto empty square spaces of their nest, such that the total size of the tiles matches the action strength used.
  • Tiles must be placed with their dark side (Empty Chamber) facing up, without overlapping other tiles or extending beyond the nest, and must cover at least one space in Area I or be adjacent to previously placed tiles.
  • The player immediately collects any bonuses printed on the covered spaces of the nest.
  • If they complete all spaces in one of the nest areas (I, II, or III), they immediately claim 1 Star.
• Explore. Resolved as follows:
  • The player removes between 1 and 4 scout ants (or wild ants) from their board to their personal reserve to establish the action strength.
  • They take 1 card from the middle row of the card display (corresponding to Explore) and refill the empty space.
  • They place 1 disc from their reserve onto an empty exploration space (center of a map hex), provided the number of white dots shown on the space is equal to or lower than the action strength (any remaining discs return to the reserve).
  • The bonus of the occupied space is collected immediately.
  • If the hex shows resource and enemy icons on the space (and did not already have components placed during setup):
  • Reveal and place 1 enemy tile from the corresponding terrain stack.
  • Place the indicated resource cubes onto the hex.
  • If gatherer ants are present on the vertices of the newly explored hex, they harvest resources automatically. Harvesting order among players is determined by the Nuptial Flight track (from highest to lowest position; in case of ties on the same space, whoever is lower in the stack harvests first). If this harvest leaves the hex completely devoid of resources, all players with at least one ant on its vertices emit a Pheromone (removing the cube of the corresponding color from their board); the active player may place their cube on the linked Leaf tile to activate its benefit if they are the first to occupy it.
• Gather. Resolved as follows:
  • The player removes between 1 and 4 gatherer ants (or wild ants) from their board to establish the action strength.
  • They take 1 card from the bottom row of the card display (corresponding to Gather) and refill the empty space.
  • They place all removed gatherer ants onto empty foraging spaces (hex vertices). The first placed ant must sit on a red-bordered space, adjacent to one of their own previously placed ants, or on the vertices of a hex where they already have a Scout ant (provided they have no Gatherers already on its vertices). Subsequent ants placed during this action must be adjacent to one another, forming a single continuous, non-branching path.
  • For each ant placed, the player immediately activates the space’s bonus and collects 1 resource cube from each adjacent hex containing them. If a hex is emptied of resources, players with presence on its vertices emit the corresponding Pheromone.
• Play 2 Cards. The player may play up to 2 cards from their hand one at a time:
  • They must meet the indicated requirements (possessing required symbols on played cards or the player board, or discarding Aggression or Mutation tokens). In the case of Chamber cards, having an Empty Chamber tile in the nest of equal or greater size than required is mandatory.
  • Pay the indicated cost in Leaf cubes.
  • Place the active card beside their board. If it is a Chamber card, flip the nest Chamber tile from its dark side to its light side (Filled Chamber).
• Play 1 Card and Defeat 1 Enemy. In any order, the player may:
  • Play 1 card from hand following the standard procedure.
  • Defeat 1 revealed enemy tile on the map, provided they have at least one Scout ant on a hex of the same terrain type. They must fulfill the symbols required by the enemy and place the tile face down into an open Ability slot on their personal board matching the enemy’s difficulty (I, II, or III), unlocking the associated power immediately or permanently.
• Incubation. To take this action, the top Incubation tile must be empty. If any Ants remain on it, the player may store up to 1 ant per specialization in their personal board storage spots and must discard the rest to their general reserve. Then, resolve the following phases in order:
  1. Feat on the top tile. If the requirement on the top Incubation tile is met, flip it over and advance one marker on a chosen Production track.
  2. Incubation Effects and Production. Activate all incubation effects from cards and the board in any order. Among them, produce Food, Leaves, and Eggs according to the levels reached on Production tracks (each Egg produced adds a disc from the reserve to the bottom Incubation tile in the matching column). The player may also discard 1 card from hand to advance 1 space on the Nuptial Flight track.
  3. Larvae Feeding. Pay 1 Food cube for each Larva owned (discs on the middle tile). For every unpaid Food unit, discard one Larva of choice.
  4. Evolution. Slide all Incubation tiles upward, moving the one from the top position to the bottom. Eggs turn into larvae and larvae turn into adult ants ready for future turns.

At any moment on their turn, a player may execute any of the following free actions:

• Boost. When performing a main Dig, Explore, or Gather action, spend 2 Food cubes to increase the action’s strength by +1 (up to a maximum total strength of 4). This cannot be used to take an action without at least one ant of that specialization.
• Conversion. Spend 1 Food cube to move an Ant or Larva disc horizontally to another specialization on the same tile.
• Emergency Storage. Draw Food cubes from Emergency Storage whenever needed. If these run out, Food can still be taken from the general supply by taking -3 victory point tokens for each cube taken.

Game End

The end of the game is triggered the moment the star track is filled (with the amount of star tokens matching the player count). The current round is completed (until the player to the right of the starting player finishes their turn), followed by one full final round. If additional stars are earned during this window, place the tokens beside the last space of the track. Once that final round ends, all players execute one last Incubation action and the game concludes.

When calculating each player’s score, account for:

• For each of the three criteria (Nest, Pheromones, and Feats), the player scores the victory point value visible on the top remaining star token of the stack. If all three tokens of a category were placed, score the value printed on the board (20 victory points).
• Victory points indicated on spaces occupied by the player’s discs in Swarm areas on the Nuptial Flight track.
• Victory points shown in the upper-right corner of all played cards, plus points gained from cards with endgame scoring conditions.
• Victory points printed in the anthill board’s ability area linked to defeated enemy tiles awarding them.
• Victory points provided by special item tiles acquired during the game.
• One or three victory points for each production track where the marker reached the fourth or fifth space, respectively.
• One victory point for each ant of any specialization available on the personal board (including wild ants, ignoring larvae and eggs).
• Subtract points according to the rightmost visible penalty value in emergency storage, along with any additional -3 victory point penalty tokens collected.

The player with the most victory points is declared the winner. In case of a tie, whoever earned the most stars wins. If the tie persists, victory goes to whoever holds the most resource cubes (food, leaves, and mushrooms). Should equality remain, tied players share the win.

Personal Opinion

Rats of Wistar (tocho-review here) was one of the pleasant surprises of 2023. A remarkably elegant and fresh mid-weight title whose charm lay in putting a clever spin on worker placement through that ingenious central wheel mechanism, making action selection feel dynamic and packed with compelling choices. All of this was tied together by finely tuned card play, where every effect and synergy added just enough depth to keep players engaged from start to finish without overloading the experience.

Beyond its clear mechanical strengths, one of the most talked-about aspects upon release was its striking visual design. The joint work of Candida Corsi and Sara Valentino radiates an overwhelming personality, blessing the production with an organic, colorful aesthetic that sidesteps clinical conventions. Thanks to that distinctive linework, unfolding the central board to take in the rooms of the house alongside the outdoors creates an immediate visual allure, amplified by the vast array of vignettes depicted across the cards.

Evidently, Cranio Creations was delighted with the visual finish and decided to double down, once again entrusting the same illustration duo to bring the game before us today to life. While thematically they share nothing beyond the animal kingdom, it is impossible not to sense a certain kinship between both titles, much like what happens between Coimbra (tocho-review here) and Alma Mater (tocho-review here).

Let’s see whether there are common threads between both games, mechanically or thematically, as well as how Ants performs on the table. Before that, I want to thank Maldito Games for providing the review copy that makes this lengthy write-up possible.

In Ants, we take the helm of a colony of these industrious insects locked in a quiet yet ferocious struggle for supremacy over a tiny corner of the garden. From the dim underground galleries to the rugged grass above, our anthill’s survival hinges on expanding nest tunnels, gathering provisions swiftly, shielding the brood, and facing the constant threats lurking outdoors. A perpetual fight for survival and dominance where every collective task matters to secure our queen’s prosperity.

Mechanically, this is a mid-weight eurogame centered on managing a workforce of worker Ants divided into three specializations and structured across a life cycle: digging, exploring, and gathering. On their turn, the active player performs a main action by spending adult Ants to determine its strength, allowing them to place gallery tiles in their nest, venture into garden hexes, or lay down routes to harvest resources. Each of these actions is paired with drafting a card from the central display.

Alternatively, a turn can be spent putting up to two cards into play—demanding symbol requirements and/or resource costs (leaves)—or combining the play of a single card with defeating an enemy on the map to unlock valuable abilities on the player board. The sixth option is incubation: a tactical breather that triggers resource production, feeds larvae in exchange for food, and cycles life stages forward, turning eggs into larvae and larvae into ready-to-work laborers.

The primary goal is achieving milestones represented by tokens that players transfer onto a progress track, triggering the endgame once a set threshold is reached. These tokens reward three key achievements: finishing nest areas, exhausting pheromone cubes by clearing hexes of resources, and completing feats via cards or incubation tiles. To this core tally, we add our drones’ progress toward swarm spaces on the nuptial flight track, printed points on cards and defeated foes, production track advancement, and the surviving Ants in our tunnels.

With that context established, we can dive into the dynamics and gameplay sensations. The first standout feature is the action selection system powered by a distinctive action point allowance mechanism. Every turn’s potential is dictated by the volume of specialized worker Ants on hand and how many we choose to commit to bolster an action. This dynamic produces an engaging cadence, forcing us to weigh whether to execute modest steps or push all-in with a strength-four burst that empties our board’s top row. It delivers agile, stimulating, and constant decision-making.

Beyond that, the crucial nuance of the system lies in the tension of its life cycle, demanding a delicate tightrope walk between producing larvae and sustaining the colony. Ramping up egg production is tempting to secure future labor, yet every larva reaching the middle tile increases feeding demands—an unforgiving tax during the incubation phase. Running short of grain results in painful discards or turning to emergency storage at the expense of valuable endgame points.

Here we find our first conceptual bridge to Rats of Wistar via modulating action potency, albeit in a far gentler environment geared toward individual optimization. We are spared the cutthroat pressure of blocked action spaces; strength does not depend on where or when we position ourselves relative to opponents, but on our prior ability to accumulate and allocate Ants.

The other major cornerstone of the design is undeniably its card-driven engine. Far from feeling secondary—as it might sometimes seem in Rats of Wistar—the deck acts as the true strategic compass of our colony, shaping nearly every move on the board. Whether digging new chambers, surveying the terrain, or rushing out to forage, our eyes stay glued to that common display to snag the ideal card. This produces an organic progression where cards in hand provide immediate or recurring perks while establishing short- and medium-term priorities.

Its importance runs so deep that it touches every layer of play: from collecting icons needed to fell enemies or satisfy incubation milestones, to preparing tunnels in the nest to house functional rooms. A satisfying sense of momentum builds as passive traits and production triggers intertwine, giving each turn escalating momentum. Without well-chosen and well-played cards, the colony simply wilts, turning hand management into a deeply rewarding combinational puzzle.

In fact, I would argue that Ants sits much closer in feel to games like Ark Nova (tocho-review here) or Terraforming Mars (tocho-review here), because cards are everything. Lacking cards, we cannot increase larva production (the equivalent of credits in Ark Nova or various resources in Terraforming Mars). Nor will we have the symbols required to play further cards or overcome enemies. And without cards, gaining momentum in the race for milestones ahead of our rivals becomes impossible.

As you know, games of this ilk share a common pitfall: the weight of luck. Relying on a shared market that refills cards by rows tied to each action means you might face frustrating stretches where the exact card types or symbols your strategy demands never appear at the right time.

Couple this with the reveal of enemy tokens on the map—whose icon requirements might mesh seamlessly with an opponent while leaving you high and dry—and the resulting helplessness can feel quite frustrating. That irritation can hit harder here because card play superficially appears parallel to the action on the personal and central boards. In practice, however, cards are paramount, and progress stalls without them.

Another element that can bog down sessions is the cognitive load born from stacking passive perks and triggers across your play area. As turns mount, tracking the interplay of unlocked enemy abilities, ongoing card bonuses, and queen powers can become demanding. In striving for swift play to keep downtime in check, overlooking a minor bonus the moment it triggers is all too easy, inviting frequent rewinds that defeat the purpose.

Even though card play consumes much of our attention, this design offers slightly higher interaction than the aforementioned titles thanks to positional friction on the board, especially during harvesting. Whenever exploration seeds resources onto a hex, an intense scramble erupts to claim them, ultimately allowing players to emit pheromones and clear those spots from their player board.

Consequently, most players prefer deploying gatherers first so they can explore later and reap resources retroactively, bringing the nuptial flight track into sharp focus to resolve collection priority. Getting cut off from precious leaves because an opponent beat you to the punch delivers genuinely tense moments.

The developmental arc is measured with pinpoint precision, offering a progression curve that starts modestly before turning into a breathless race. In the opening stages, the anthill feels constrained, and squeezing out an action with enough strength demands real sacrifice.

Once incubation hits its stride, though, the colony undergoes an explosive demographic boom. This causes the endgame to rush in as players knock out milestones, often leaving that bittersweet ache of wishing for just two more turns to wrap up carefully laid plans before the final whistle sounds.

On the flip side, the starting asymmetry offered by queen tiles exhibits some unevenness. While some grant versatile perks that slot effortlessly into any game plan, others push you toward narrow synergies heavily reliant on card draws. This trait is classic Italian-school design, akin to what we see in The Voyages of Marco Polo (tocho-review here).

Another drawback is the sheer avalanche of disparate icons across card requirements, enemies, incubation tiles, and nest bonuses. Glancing at the rulebook’s glossary can be daunting: two full pages, each split into two columns. Admittedly, once the flow of the game clicks, most symbols feel self-explanatory, even if a few remain counterintuitive.

With card play serving as such an integral pillar—arguably eclipsing the action selection system itself—the game scales reasonably well, though it shines brightest at two players. Some board chaos is sacrificed and board states become more predictable, but downtime drops significantly and turns flow briskly. At higher counts, the contest to explore and claim vertices heats up, yet the wait between turns can drag, especially when consecutive incubation turns chain together.

Regarding replayability, there are more than enough cards and modular elements to ensure substantial variability. Furthermore, unlike many modern card-driven engines, Ants resolves within a relatively concise timeframe. Once the game hits cruising altitude, milestones fall in rapid succession, occasionally seeing a single player check off two or three in one burst. Because of this, it is a game that can easily hit the table with regularity.

It might seem that I have been overly critical by emphasizing these negatives, but Ants is genuinely entertaining, keeping players dialed into the table with mounting tension from beginning to end. It is brisk, engaging, and well-proportioned in play time. Naturally, putting it alongside Terraforming Mars or Ark Nova might invite unflattering comparisons, but dipping under an hour per player in those heavy hitters is nearly impossible, making this design a compelling alternative.

Turning to production, the components are fairly standard, featuring thick, well-punched cardboard that unpunches cleanly, highlighted by dual-layer player boards. The puzzle-fit main board packs away neatly, though it seems likely to wear down faster than a traditional folding board. Wooden bits follow classic forms. The shortcoming here is cube count: supplies frequently run dry, forcing you to rely on tiny, fiddly multiplier tokens. The rulebook layout feels somewhat dense; while it leaves few rules in doubt, clearer presentation would have helped. Still, it offers plenty of examples to resolve edge cases.

Visually, the game embraces an accessible, dynamic aesthetic rooted in lighthearted modern animation and comic art. Crisp linework defines the characters and environments, elevated by a vivid, luminous color palette. This charming, cartoonish anthropomorphism gives the bugs expressive flair without drifting into dry scientific naturalism. It may not match the singular character of Rats of Wistar, but it remains very pleasing to look at.

And let’s wrap this up. Ants proves to be a stimulating mid-weight eurogame that marries an action-point selection system driven by worker consumption with a rich card-engine and a strict life cycle for resource upkeep. That workforce balance, combined with the scramble for outdoor resources and the race for milestones, creates a dynamic rhythm fueled by mounting tension. Its greatest asset is that breathtaking acceleration where the colony suddenly surges to life, leaving you yearning for one more turn right when every piece falls into place. Working against it, the luck of the draw in the market and enemy reveals can trigger real frustration when cards fail to align, joined by cognitive fatigue from accumulating passive traits and a sprawling iconography. Even so, its strengths easily overshadow these flaws, cementing it as an enjoyable, straightforward, and tightly paced experience. For all these reasons, I give it a…