Review: Ostia

Introduction & Overview

In 103 AD, Emperor Trajan built Portus Ostia, which became Rome’s most important port. Arranged in an elegant hexagonal layout, this port received vast quantities of goods from across the entire empire and became the logistical hub that sustained the prosperity of the imperial city of Rome. You assume the role of the owner of a massive fleet of ships, where crowds of merchants and nobles flock to the port of Ostia to charter your vessels. Use the money and resources earned from chartering to expand your enterprise and meet the demand for wheat and other goods, thereby earning the favor of the people. Using your ships to explore other territories is also vital: your adventure tales and the discovery of exotic artifacts will undoubtedly spark the curiosity of both emperors and nobles. The one who achieves the greatest fame will be blessed with victory by the Senate and citizens of glorious Rome!

This is the premise behind Ostia, a design by Totsuca Chuo (Sweet Lands, Aqua Garden). First published in 2022 by uchibacoya in an English and Japanese edition. The illustrations are by Tatsuki Asano and Rocinante Urabe, both responsible for the artwork in games like Aqua Garden and Sapporo 1876.

It is published in Spain by Maldito Games (the game is completely language-independent except for the rulebook). It accommodates 1 to 4 players, with a suggested minimum age of 14, and plays in approximately 100 to 120 minutes. The retail price is €87. For this review, we used a copy of the Spanish edition by Maldito Games, kindly provided by the publisher as a review copy.

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 40×28×7 cm (a large rectangular box similar to Galactic Cruise, though shallower), we find the following components:

• Main Board (cardboard)
• 4 Port of Ostia Boards (cardboard)
• 4 Construction/Shipbuilding Track Boards (cardboard)
• 4 Destination Tiles (cardboard)
• 45 Cards (63.5×88.5 mm):
  • 6 Initial Setup Cards
  • 34 Order Cards
  • 5 Objective Cards
• 4 Starting Trading Port Tiles (cardboard)
• 16 Trading Port Tiles (cardboard)
• 48 Buildings (4 of each of the 12 types) (wooden)
• 28 Construction Discs (7 in each of the 4 colors) (wooden)
• 12 Pontos (3 in each of the 4 colors) (wooden)
• 4 Triumph Markers (1 in each of the 4 colors) (wooden)
• 56 Corbitas (14 in each of the 4 colors) (wooden)
• 20 Discovery Tokens (cardboard)
• 12 Transit Tiles (cardboard)
• 95 Resource Cubes (wooden):
  • 65 Value 1 (small)
  • 30 Value 3 (large)
• 35 Amphorae (wooden)
• First Player Pawn (wooden)
• Solo Board (cardboard)
• 4 Solo Mode Achievement Tiles (cardboard)
• 5 Solo Mode Gift Tokens (cardboard)
• 4 Solo Mode Achievement Cubes (wooden)
• Rulebook
• Solo Mode Rulebook

How to Play

Ostia is a game set in the great commercial port of ancient Rome during the 2nd century AD, where each player takes on the role of an ambitious maritime merchant seeking to expand their fleet and establish trading posts across the Mediterranean and the Orient. The game is played over an indeterminate number of turns alternating among the participants. On their turn, the active player chooses one of the sectors of their personal port board containing ships to produce as many resources of the corresponding type as there are vessels in that space. Next, they take all the ships from that sector and sow them clockwise, placing one in each adjacent sector using a mancala mechanism; the sector where they place their last ship determines the main action to perform. Actions allow players to navigate sea routes to explore and reach distant destinations, build new ships to boost their workforce in port and open new routes on the map, erect trading posts in visited ports to add buildings to their personal board (which grants production upgrades, discounts, or advances on the triumph track), fulfill wheat orders in exchange for amphorae and resources, purchase honor cards and port benefits using gold, or perform administration to chain consecutive actions. As a free action, players can always trade gold for basic resources. The game ends when one of the endgame conditions is triggered (reaching the end of the triumph track, exhausting one’s supply of ships or construction discs, placing three ships on destination tiles, or running out of amphorae in the supply), completing the round so that everyone has taken the same number of turns. Players score points for the value of their ships, buildings, and amphorae multiplied by their position on the triumph track, alongside bonuses granted by honor cards, destinations, port tiles, and set collections of noble and animal icons. The participant with the highest score is crowned the victor.

Key Concepts

Let us begin with the Main Board. It displays a map of the Mediterranean Sea and its commercial sea routes connecting the starting port of Ostia with various port cities, divided by a dashed line between the Near Sea and the Far Sea (which is important when building new ships), culminating in four destination spaces on the far right. Along these routes, we find spaces for transit tiles, forks with spaces for discovery tokens, and cities with slots to house port tiles, buildings, and construction discs. On the right edge of the board lies the triumph track, a numbered track from 0 to 12 that determines the end-game victory point value of key game elements.

Each player will have a Port of Ostia Board and a Construction/Shipbuilding Track Board. The port board displays a hexagonal division into six triangular maritime sectors surrounding the dock basin, each associated with a type of produced resource and a main action space (except for the administration sector, which produces nothing), in addition to featuring resource storage areas and upgrade slots to place buildings and reduce costs or increase production. For its part, the track board serves to initially store the player’s ships and construction discs organized into two vertical columns with increasing wood and stone costs, revealing ship or building icons as these components are removed and brought into play.

Two types of ships are used for sailing and trading: Corbitas and Pontos. Corbitas are small wooden ships that move both through the sectors of the port board via a continuous clockwise movement mechanism to produce and take actions, and along the sea routes of the main board to explore and reach ports and destinations. Pontos are large ships that remain exclusively in the sectors of the port board, generating one additional resource unit when producing in the sector where they are located and allowing a corbita to be transferred to the main board upon being launched. It is important to note that each player may only have at most one corbita in the Near Sea zone. Therefore, the number of ships they can build in a single action will be limited by this restriction.

Resources are represented by Resource Cubes, available in small (value one) and large (value three) sizes. These cubes are stored in the brown spaces of each sector of the port board and are used to track permits, wood, wheat, stone, and coins required to pay for sailing costs, shipbuilding, order deliveries, building trading posts, and trade conversions.

At the beginning of the game, the Initial Setup Cards come into play. These cards show a specific distribution of action icons corresponding to the sectors of the port board and are used exclusively during setup to determine in which three sectors each player adds an additional ship to their starting layout.

In the city spaces of the main board, the Trading Port Tiles are placed (divided into yellow starting tiles and orange standard tiles). Each of these tiles shows a particular benefit that triggers when a player builds a trading post in that city, which may consist of an immediate effect, an end-game scoring bonus, or a new resource conversion option available when executing the purchase action.

Along the sea routes between cities lie the hexagonal Transit Tiles. When a player ends the movement of a corbita on one of these tiles, they immediately collect the resources shown on it (wood, wheat, stone, or coins) and add them to the corresponding storehouses on their port board.

At forks and advanced sections of the sea routes, the Discovery Tokens are placed. When a corbita crosses the dotted line associated with one of these spaces, the player immediately claims one of the available tokens, instantly gaining the indicated coins or triumph points, and keeping the token if it features wild or exotic animal icons for final set-collection scoring.

The Buildings are white plastic pieces representing twelve distinct architectural structures that begin the game placed on the city spaces of the main board. When a player builds a trading post in a city, they take the corresponding building and transfer it to an empty upgrade space on their port board, permanently applying production boosts or resource discounts for the actions associated with that sector.

Each player has a set of Construction Discs in their color that initially occupy the right column of their track board. When performing the build action, players pay stone to remove these discs from bottom to top and place them on the circular spaces of cities previously visited by their ships, marking the presence of their trading posts, granting coins to rivals already there, and unlocking buildings.

The Destination Tiles are placed on the four terminal spaces of the sea routes on the far right of the main board. They show two rows of rewards and ship spaces, offering a higher bonus (immediate or end-game scoring) for the first player to reach that destination with one of their ships, and a lesser value for subsequent players who dock there.

Next to the main board, the Objective Cards are arranged (divided into public cards and, optionally, personal cards). These cards establish specific requirements based on elements accumulated or milestones reached by the player, such as reaching a certain triumph level, possessing a number of amphorae, or having ships in the Far Sea, and allow players who meet these requirements to pay coins during the purchase action to acquire them and secure a fixed amount of victory points at the end of the game.

Each participant has a Triumph Marker in their color that starts on space zero of the triumph track on the main board. Throughout the game, this marker advances spaces upon achieving milestones along the sea routes, unlocking certain tiers of ships or discs on the track board, placing buildings, or activating port tiles, determining the scoring multiplier that ships, buildings, and amphorae will yield at the end of the game.

In the common market, we find the Order Cards. Each card shows a wheat cost (and optionally an additional bonus cost) along with the number of amphorae it grants at the top, the resources it provides upon completion in the center, and a series of noble icons (patricians or noble ladies) along the bottom edge that players collect to score set-collection points at the end of the game.

Finally, we have the Amphorae, represented by elongated ceramic-style tokens. These tokens are primarily obtained as rewards for fulfilling order cards via the delivery action (or through certain purchases and tiles), are stored on the track board, and act as one of the three key scoring elements based on the position reached on the triumph track, with their depletion also functioning as one of the game’s end triggers.

That is enough to get started.

Preparación de la Partida

1. Deploy the main board in the center of the table within reach of all players.
2. Place one building per player on each city space of the main board, matching the building type to the illustration in each space.
3. Shuffle the four yellow starting port tiles and place one face up on each of the four yellow port cities.
4. Shuffle the orange port tiles and place one face up on each of the eight remaining port cities. Return the rest to the box.
5. Shuffle the twelve transit tiles and place one face up on each of the hexagonal spaces along the four sea routes.
6. Shuffle the blue destination tiles and place one face up on each of the four destination spaces.
7. Place the four discovery tiles with a triumph icon on the discovery spaces located at the end of each sea route.
8. Form the supply of remaining discovery tiles according to player count (3/4/6 tokens of each mythological animal and 2/4/4 tokens with both for games with 2/3/4 players) and return any extras to the box. Shuffle this supply and place one tile face up on each discovery space enabled for the player count.
9. Shuffle the order cards to form a face-down draw deck and reveal four of them to form the market next to the board.
10. Arrange the five public honor cards face up near the main board.
11. Organize the resource cubes by type and value to form a general supply within reach of everyone.
12. If the corresponding port tile is in play, place the wild and exotic animal tokens next to the resource supply.
13. Form a supply with seven amphora tokens per player next to the board, setting the remainder aside.
14. Each player chooses a color and receives:
    • A Port Board, placed in their play area.
    • An Asset Board, placed to one side of the port board.
    • 7 Construction Discs, placed on the spaces of the asset board, setting one aside.
    • 14 Corbitas. Place 1 in each space of the rondel, 1 in the port of Ostia, and 1 in each corbita ship space on the asset board. The remaining 3 are set aside.
    • 3 Pontos, placed on the spaces of the asset board.
    • A Triumph Marker, placed on space 0 of the triumph track.
15. Each player draws a port configuration card, adds an additional corbita to each of the three segments indicated on that card, and returns it to the box.
16. Each player takes ten small resource cubes from the supply and places two in the storehouse of each of the five segments with a production icon on their port board, leaving the administration segment empty.
17. A starting player is chosen randomly and receives the first player marker.
18. Starting with the player seated to the right of the starting player and proceeding counterclockwise, each player places their seventh construction disc on a free space in one of the four yellow starting port cities, takes a building from that city, and places it on the yellow upgrade space in the upper right corner of their port board.

We are ready to begin!

Game Flow

A game of Ostia unfolds over an indeterminate number of rounds. In each round, players take turns clockwise, starting with the first player.

On their turn, the active player proceeds as follows:

1. Select Sector. The player chooses one of the 6 sectors on their port board containing 1 or more ships (Corbitas and/or Pontos).
2. Produce. The player gains a number of resources of the type indicated in the selected sector (circle symbol) equal to the total number of ships present in it, generating 1 additional resource for each Ponto (large ship). Gained resources are placed in the storehouse of that sector. In the Administration sector, no resources are produced; instead, the player may optionally execute any action other than trading before resolving the next step.
3. Deploy. The player takes all ships from the selected sector and distributes them following a mancala-style mechanism, placing one ship in each consecutive sector in a clockwise direction. The sector in which they place their last ship determines the main action they may execute (square symbol). Performing the action is optional.

After this, the turn passes to the next player.

The main actions available are:

• Sailing. The player pays the required permit cost to advance their corbitas along the sea routes on the main board (up to a maximum of 6 steps per action: 0/2/4/6/10/15 permits for 1/2/3/4/5/6 steps).
  • Steps can be freely divided among the player’s corbitas on the board, always advancing to the right along the white routes without moving backward. Only one corbita is permitted per route (except on the first two spaces toward Athens before the route branches).
  • Upon crossing a dashed line with available Discovery tiles, the player immediately takes a discovery token and gains its benefits (gold, triumphs, or animals).
  • If they end movement on a Transit tile, they immediately receive the resources shown in the corresponding sector of their port.
  • If they reach a Destination tile, they place their corbita on the highest available space (gaining the immediate benefit if present), and that ship may no longer move for the rest of the game.
• Shipbuilding. The player pays the wood cost indicated on their resource board to unlock ships (from bottom to top). There is no inherent limit to the number of ships that can be built. However, the corbita limit in the Near Sea zone must be respected, meaning it is impossible to build more than three ships in a single action at most.
  • If they build a Corbita, they place it in the water of any sector on their port board.
  • If they build a Ponto, they place it in any sector of their port and immediately move a corbita from that same sector to the starting Ostia space on the main board (only permitted if they have no corbitas in the Near Sea zone).
  • Building the 5th or 7th ship immediately awards 1 or 2 Triumphs, respectively.
• Delivery. The player spends wheat to fulfill Order cards from the market (up to a maximum of 4 cards per action).
  • For each order, they pay the basic wheat cost to gain 1 Amphora and the resources indicated on the card.
  • Optionally, they may pay the additional cost shown on the card to gain a second Amphora.
  • The completed card is placed next to the resource board to score its noble icons at the end of the game. Once the action ends, the market is replenished back to 4 cards.
• Construction. The player transfers construction discs from their resource board (from bottom to top) to building spaces of port cities that have been reached or passed by one of their corbitas and where they do not yet have a presence, paying the corresponding stone cost per disc.
  • The disc is placed on the city space (if stacked on other players’ discs, each of those rivals receives 1 gold coin).
  • The player takes the corresponding building from that city and places it on a free upgrade space on their port board (unlocking production increases, action discounts, or triumphs).
  • Furthermore, they unlock the port tile’s own benefit (immediate, purchase, or end-game effects).
  • Building the 4th or 6th disc immediately awards 1 or 2 Triumphs, respectively.
• Purchase. The player spends gold coins to activate purchase benefits on port tiles where they have a construction disc and/or acquire available Public Honor cards.
  • In unlocked ports, they may pay the gold cost as many times as desired (respecting the maximum limits indicated on the tile) to gain resources, amphorae, triumphs, or animal tiles.
  • If they meet the requirements of an available Public Honor card on the table, they may pay 4 gold coins to purchase it (each granting 12 victory points at game end).
• Administration. The player selects and executes one of the following four actions: Sailing, Shipbuilding, Delivery, or Construction (Purchase is not permitted).

At any point during the Action step (before, during, or after resolving the main action), the player may pay 3 gold coins to gain 1 resource of their choice (permit, wood, wheat, or stone). This action may be resolved as many times as the player wants and can afford.

Game End

The game ends at the conclusion of the round in which at least one of the following conditions is met (playing until all players have had an equal number of turns):

• A player reaches space 12 on the triumph track.
• A player builds the last ship on their asset board.
• A player places the last construction disc from their asset board.
• A player has 3 or more ships on destination tiles.
• The general supply of amphora tokens is exhausted.

When evaluating a player’s score, the following elements are counted:

• Triumph Track Multiplier. The marker’s position on the triumph track determines the victory point value of each visible building icon (on the asset board and on port tiles with end-game scoring), each visible ship icon (on the asset board and on port tiles with end-game scoring), and each amphora token obtained (along with amphora icons on scoring port tiles).
• Destination Tiles. Victory points awarded by destination tiles reached by the player’s ships (the upper value if first to arrive, or the lower value otherwise).
• Port Tiles. Additional victory points indicated on port tiles where the player has a construction disc and that feature direct end-game effects not counted in the previous step.
• Honor Cards. 12 victory points for each public honor card acquired.
• Icon Sets. 12 victory points for each complete set consisting of 1 wild animal, 1 exotic animal, 1 noble, and 1 noble lady.

The player with the most victory points is declared the winner. In case of a tie, the tied player with the highest total amount of resources claims victory. If the tie persists, players share the win.

Variants

Solo Mode. Functions as a score-attack race across a maximum of 15 turns or until triggering a standard end-game condition. At the start of each turn, the player must advance the Emperor marker one space downward (straight down or diagonally) on the solo board, immediately gaining the resources or benefits from the gift tokens on the reached space. Upon crossing wavy lines (on turns 6 and 11), they evaluate whether they meet the requirements of achievement tiles to place cubes that award 5 additional victory points at the end. Following this preliminary step, the player carries out their turn as normal, without using honor cards and receiving one triumph every time they complete a set of four character and animal icons. The game concludes on turn 15 or upon activating an end-game condition, at which point they add their earned achievements and the value of the row reached by the Emperor to their score to determine their rank according to the scoring chart.

Personal Opinion

The first time I heard about the game we are looking at today, my mind went back to when I was in 10th grade (2º de B.U.P. in the old Spanish system), specifically to Latin class. One day, our teacher had us translate a sentence that has become famous for sparking a rather comical mistranslation due to a false friend, that is, a word in a foreign language that closely resembles a word in your own language in spelling or pronunciation, but holds a completely different meaning.

The phrase in question was something like Caesar hostes de Ostia expulit, which a cheeky translation might render as “Caesar slapped the barbarians out of nowhere” (playing on the Spanish slang hostia). Naturally, that is not what it means; it translates to “Caesar expelled the enemies from Ostia,” referring to Ostia Antica, the harbor city at the mouth of the Tiber River.

Anecdote aside, let us dive into our analysis of Ostia, a design by the flagship author of uchibacoya, the Japanese publisher renowned for its lavish medium-heavy productions in terms of conceptual depth. Before proceeding, however, it is time to thank Maldito Games for providing the review copy that makes this lengthy review possible.

Rome, at its height under the rule of Emperor Trajan, needed to keep an insatiable imperial machine well-supplied as it consumed grain, wine, and exotic materials from every corner of the Mediterranean. Hence, the port of Ostia stood as the true maritime lung of the capital—a bustling hub where merchant fleets set sail toward remote routes with the promise of lining the pockets of the patrician elite. The entire prosperity of the metropolis rested on the logistical prowess of its merchants to establish stable naval bridges between the provinces and the heart of the empire.

In Ostia, players assume the role of seasoned shipowners competing to build the era’s most prestigious commercial empire. The premise puts us at the helm of a modest fleet that must broaden its horizons by founding trading posts in strategic locations, shipping vital wheat to Rome, and bringing back exotic animals and precious goods to curry favor with the Senate and the populace. It is a classic, sober backdrop that serves as the perfect excuse to stage an intense mercantile race for dominance over sea routes.

Mechanically, we find an action selection system that, while not entirely novel, features a very compelling twist. Each player has a personal board with a six-section rondel. Each section is tied to a specific resource type and lets you resolve an action that spends that resource, except for one section which, despite having no associated resource, allows executing four of the other five actions.

Players place ships across these sectors, moving them clockwise around the track. This is where the mancala and its classic sowing mechanism come into play: a player picks up all the pieces from a chosen sector and drops them one by one clockwise into consecutive sectors around the rondel, triggering the action of the final sector where a ship is placed.

The twist I mentioned is that before gathering all the ships from the chosen sector, if it is one with an associated resource, the player produces as many resources as there were ships in that sector before proceeding with the sowing mechanism. Consequently, each turn presents a dual decision: on one hand, players must weigh how many resources they can generate across the sectors; on the other, they must calculate which action will be triggered after distributing those ships.

The game thus becomes an ongoing race to optimize resources and trigger the endgame across several conditions. Victory goes to whoever amasses the most victory points at the conclusion of the match. The bulk of the scoring stems from the multiplier achieved on the triumph track, which boosts the value of every constructed ship, erected building, and collected amphora. Added to this are valuable points from destination tiles, bonuses from colonized ports, completed honor cards, and sets of citizens and exotic beasts secured along the voyage.

Let us discuss the actions briefly to give you a sense of the gameplay loop. The starting point is shipbuilding, which is tied to wood. Through this action, players can introduce new ships to their personal board, increasing the piece count in their personal mancala while unlocking larger vessels (which generate double resources) that progressively move ships out onto the main board.

In my view, this is the foundational action of the game, which is why it is the most strictly capped in output. While other actions are limited only by available resources, here you can build at most two ships per action. Increasing the number of pawns in the mancala dramatically boosts both production capacity and tactical flexibility when calculating moves during the sowing mechanism. Whenever this action can be executed to build two ships, players will want to trigger it as early as possible because it builds vital momentum.

Closely related is the sailing action, which lets you move corbitas along the four sea routes on the main board using permits as a resource (the more permits spent, the more movement points available to distribute among your ships on the main board). Not only is sailing essential for reaching lucrative destination tiles before your rivals in a race dynamic, but it is also a mandatory prerequisite for discovering new regions to later establish trading posts in coastal cities. Anyone neglecting their presence on the high seas will find themselves boxed in and unable to diversify their scoring paths.

Players begin with a single ship at the start of the four possible routes. Taking a moment to pause before embarking on that first voyage is crucial, as each route may only be traversed by a single ship per player. You must carefully assess the ports you will access, the bonus tokens up for grabs, and the scoring criteria waiting at the end of the line. A poor opening decision can weigh heavily over the course of the game.

Having reached new outposts along the sea routes, players can then establish trading posts using the construction action, which is tied to stone. With this action, a player can build one or more buildings by paying an escalating stone cost, provided they have available locations where their building disc can be placed. This grants access to the location’s inherent perk while allowing a building to be placed on the personal board, unlocking benefits such as production increases or discounts on specific actions.

Many of these locations enable trade exchanges, activated via the trade action and fueled by money. Several of these trades let you acquire other resources for coins at very favorable rates or even snag triumph points (which are quite hard to come by). In parallel, players can also claim shared objective cards if they have already satisfied the required milestones and pay the coin cost.

The fifth action is perhaps the most disconnected from the broader system. It allows delivering food (the main resource tied to this action) to obtain cards that grant resources, patrician and/or noble lady symbols, and coveted amphorae, which score at the end of the game in a manner similar to buildings and ships. Patricians and noble ladies score by forming set collections with the animals gathered from bonus tokens while sailing.

Lastly, the administration action has no resource tied to it, but it allows executing any of the previous actions except for trade—either upon picking up ships from that sector or upon ending your sowing movement there.

In this manner, players take turns striving to generate as many resources as possible in one sector while simultaneously executing actions as efficiently as possible using those stockpiled goods to reach cruising speed.

Indeed, Ostia fosters a race dynamic across many of its facets. There are rewards for being the first to reach destination ports, bonuses for building first in a location (since subsequent players building there pay you coins), incentives to clear building markers quickly to unlock action upgrades, and advantages to building ships rapidly to get your personal engine up to speed.

Even triggering the end of the game is a race: the round ends once at least one player builds all their buildings, constructs all their ships, brings three ships to route ends, or empties the amphora supply. As a result, tension mounts turn by turn as the endgame draws near, making it tricky to forecast exactly how many turns remain before someone trips a trigger.

That should provide more than enough context to dive into impressions. The first thing to highlight is the core mechanism, which draws inspiration from one of Stefan Feld’s most celebrated designs: Trajan (here is its tocho-review). Totsuca Chuo lifts the signature feature of that Roman-themed classic—the mancala rondel—and spices it up by linking it directly to resource production.

This system accounts for a large portion of the game’s appeal, keeping players engrossed in their player boards calculating moves to pull off an optimal action sequence. There is little benefit, for instance, in choosing a sector with many ships to generate a mountain of resources if the resulting sowing action lands on a space you cannot afford to execute.

Pairing production directly with action resolution is a complete success, lending the design great dynamism without getting bogged down in the disparate mini-games typical of Feld’s titles. While it is true that nearly everything here awards points (buildings, ships, amphorae, route milestones, and sets), the whole ecosystem feels much more cohesive. You cannot simply ignore one facet of the board and expect to easily offset those lost points by doubling down on another.

Another strong point is the game’s relatively brisk playtime. Although the mancala rondel can cause the occasional headache or bout of analysis paralysis, the crystal-clear objectives ensure the game flows considerably smoother than the aforementioned Trajan.

The trade-off is a comparatively flatter experience. What needs to be done is obvious, and only slight setup variations—such as asymmetric starting ship placements and random board layouts—provide the impetus to explore different strategies.

Consequently, if brought to the table too frequently, the game risks feeling repetitive rather quickly. Despite the brain-burning action selection mechanism, the broader loop is quite procedural—more akin to a mid-to-light eurogame like Stone Age (here is its tocho-review). Strip away the mancala, and you are essentially generating resources to spend on conversion recipes.

Player interaction offers little beyond drafting from common markets and the race for milestones. For that reason, the game scales well across all player counts. Two players enjoy tighter control and a snappier pace, whereas four players will experience heightened tension over sudden endgame triggers at the cost of slight downtime. Overall, it works nicely at every count.

Where it might falter slightly is in long-term replayability. Low interaction combined with modest variability yields games that feel quite similar, occasionally encouraging repetitive patterns. This is where the two mini-expansions come into play (sold separately in the Spanish edition, but bundled in what is known as the “Mariner Edition”). These add asymmetric starting setups and a wider array of end-of-route scoring tiles. If you plan to table the game regularly, they are a worthwhile addition.

Turning to component quality, we find the premium production standards typical of the Japanese publisher. The cardboard is thick and well-compressed, and the wooden components boast custom shapes with double-sided printing. The cards feature excellent linen finish and snap (sleeving is unnecessary as cards rarely stay in hand). The rulebook is clearly structured and leaves no ambiguities. The primary drawback is the oversized box relative to its contents. While inserts are included to keep components organized, they do not noticeably speed up setup and actually make teardown slower. It is one of those instances where overproduction fails to add functional value while inflating the price tag unnecessarily (the classic Kickstarter pitfall).

Visually, Ostia embraces a minimalist and clean aesthetic, prioritizing functional clarity over ornate baroque styling. The cover art stands out with a painterly top-down perspective of the iconic hexagonal basin, using a striking contrast between warm terracotta tones and fresh sea greens and blues. Across the components and boards, this approach shifts toward a technical cartography and architectural blueprint look. Rather than striving for dense historical realism, the visual design provides a clean, elegant presence that evokes classical engineering and Mediterranean planning with great charm.

And let’s wrap this up. Ostia delivers an enjoyable eurogame that layers an ingenious pre-sowing resource production phase onto a personal mancala rondel. The constant drive to optimize board positioning blends naturally with the race to reach ports, found trading posts, and push for the endgame. This action selection system excels, demanding careful tactical foresight while keeping the overall pace smooth and brisk. On the flip side, beneath that clever core lies a somewhat procedural and straightforward loop where player interaction rarely extends past race dynamics and supply drafts. Ultimately, it remains an entertaining, well-crafted title that leaves a very satisfying impression. For all these reasons, I give it a…